On Thursday, October 16, 2008, Chris Runckel, President of Runckel & Associates (www.business-in-asia.com) and Chairman of the U.S. – Vietnam Chamber of Commerce (UVCC) met with Dr. Larry Newman, Dean of the College of Business Administration, Dr. Paul Benchener, Director of the Executive MBA program, Dr. Lauren B. Eder, the Executive MBA Cohort at Rider University, alumni, business persons, students and guests to discuss doing business in Asia. 

The crowd of nearly 150 welcomed Mr. Runckel as the first speaker in a series organized by Lauren B. Eder, Ph.D., Director, Center for International Business and Chair, Department of Computer Information Systems, Rider University (www.rider.edu/cis, www.rider.edu/cib)
 
Runckel who is a well known and often quoted commentator and experienced business expert on Asia discussed how he came to be involved in business in Asia following a 28-year career of government service including work for the White House starting for President Ford and continuing with support to Presidential trips and particularly in a focus with Asia.  He also noted how he and his company had come to be involved with EMBA and University groups interested in traveling to Asia and welcomed the opportunity to work with Rider University on their 2009 EMBA trip to China and Vietnam.


 Mr. Runckel then turned to discussing how Vietnam continued to be a prime choice for international businesses interested in locating a factory or a production facility in Asia, topping in recent months traditional choices like China and Thailand.  He also provided concrete examples of projects that despite better incentives and lower labor costs in Vietnam still justified choosing other locations such as China for its growing domestic market or Thailand for its stronger infrastructure and intellectual property protection for individual projects.

Runckel also noted sourcing opportunities available in all three markets and discussed sales opportunities for U.S. producers in the growing middle class societies of Asia.  Finally Runckel spoke about what he sees as the potential for growing effects in Asia from the current U.S. and European financial crisis.  Runckel noted that many countries in the region had recently hoped that they could avoid being damaged by economic turmoil in the U.S. and Europe but that this hope was misplaced and that cuts in exports and reductions in FDI inflows will necessarily affect all Asian nations to some extent.

Later Mr. Runckel met individually with Rider’s EMBA cohort over dinner and further answered questions and expanded on his earlier comments.  This visit as the start of this new speaker program was considered a success by Rider University and a challenging opportunity by Mr. Runckel who later in the week spoke again in Washington, DC at a scheduled meeting of the US Vietnam Chamber of Commerce.