Chairman Douglas Hsu’s Yearend Dinner Address

　The current environment is full of challenges and the Ukraine Russia War in 2022 disrupted the global stability.  Geopolitical risks also exist in regions including Southeast Asia, both sides of the Taiwan Strait, South and North Korea.  Furthermore, inflation, rising interest rate, and Covid pandemic in China have brought challenges to the economic development; on the other hand, climate change, technological innovations are the two major long-term trend, and global issues such as restructure of supply chains, China-U.S. competition are all worthy of attention.  All the above are the new turbulences that the Far Eastern Group must meet head-on.

　Looking into 2023, 86% of global CEOs anticipate recession to hit, among which 70% predict it will impact company earnings by up to 10%.  Facing with a looming recession, many enterprises have already taken precautionary steps.  You should all have a sense of urgency and be mindful, timely assess the organization structure, production process, and product marketing to make any necessary adjustment to avoid falling into crisis.

　“Innovation” is management priority for great companies.  As markets become more dynamic, businesses need to forecast future scenarios, think out-of-the-box, and innovate constantly.  The other focus is “sustainability,” set purpose and vision that encompasses all stakeholders.

　Meanwhile, you should also actively seize opportunities, and promote the company from good to great.   In addition to rethink vision and goals for the next three to five years, you should also have comprehensive planning of talents cultivation.  With three educational institutions under the Far Eastern Group, enterprises may strengthen industrial/academic collaboration, and elevate HR capability.  Managerially we should also concentrate on discipline as the key to greatness by having disciplined staff, with disciplined thinking, and disciplined actions.

　The vital future direction for the Far Eastern Group is to build “digital” and “sustainable” competitiveness.  In terms of “digitization,” U. S. retail industry adopts technologies to collect consumers’ footprints in detail, such as their time spent in store, with or without spending, spending patterns to accurately understand consumer profile.  Group affiliates have many successful cases in digitization: Far EasTone Telecommunication has been dedicated to promoting digital services in recent years, the new economy revenues have been growing steadily.  U-Ming Marine Transport has elevated fleet efficiency via digital management.  Far Eastern International Bank has been developing Fintech and searching for new growth momentum.  In terms of “sustainable,” the Far Eastern Group has expanded into green energy and accelerated its low-carbon transformation.  Far Eastern New Century continues to focus on research and development.  Green products lead in the world.  Asia Cement uses waste as replaced fuel to create win-win outcome between enterprise and the society.

　Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, said: “What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you…you have to lean into that and figure out what to do.”  As such, Far Eastern will rely on your wisdom and efforts, define who you are, find where you are heading, and march farther ahead.  The year of 2023 will be filled with challenges, please be prepared and win in the turbulent world.

＃