Podcast: Chris Humphrey of EU-ASEAN Business Council

By June Ramli ASEAN The Next EU? Welcome to another episode of 30 minutes with DailyStraits.com. In this episode, we break away from our usual entrepreneurial chit-chat and speak to Chris Humphrey (pictured above), the Executive Director, EU-ASEAN Business Council. Chris began his varied professional career as a UK Civil Servant where, amongst other things, he was a Private Secretary to a Minister and an Air Services Trade Negotiator covering the Asia Pacific Region. After leaving the government sector, Chris moved to the private sector working initially in the government and external relations teams at two British airlines, before moving to Shanghai, China with Virgin Atlantic where he headed up the airline’s China operation and oversaw the rapid expansion of their business in China. Chris has now been in Singapore for over a decade and has been running the EU-ASEAN Business Council since its formal inception in 2014, where he has overseen a 325 per cent increase in its membership and helped make the Business Council the foremost business body for European industry in ASEAN. In this episode Chris discusses: What does the EU-ASEAN Business Council  do? Why was the council formed? What are some of the challenges that councils have faced in doing business in Asean countries to date, especially with the pandemic still in full swing? Without further ado, let’s listen to the interview here: