International Business Congress

International Business Congress (IBC) e.V. i.l.
Berlin, Germany

The International Business Congress (IBC) is an international non-governmental non-profit organization founded in December 1997 on the initiative of the European business circles to promote the development of economic cooperation between the countries of Eastern and Western Europe. The original name of the organization was the European Business Congress (EBC). Due to the constant growth of the organization, it was decided to change its name to the International Business Congress (in 2015).

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25 Years of International Business Congress

During its twenty-five-year history, the IBC has been consistently developing effective mechanisms to secure interaction between representatives of business communities around the world. At present, eight Working Committees of the Congress work successfully on a permanent basis. They bring together a total of more than 100 companies and organizations. The International Business Congress has proven its resilience in difficult economic conditions and continues its activities, providing a platform for business meetings and open discussions. We would like to recall all the milestones of the IBC history.

2021: New Opportunities in the Work of the IBC

Despite the further spread of the pandemic, the International Business Congress continued its work in 2021. For the first time in the history of the Congress, the 24th Annual General Meeting was held in a hybrid format. The IBC members and guests had the opportunity to participate in the events of the forum in person in studios in St. Petersburg and Singapore, as well as online in real time.

More than 500 IBC members and invited guests participated in the in-person and on-line formats at the meetings of the IBC Working Committees, the Plenary Session and the International Conference on "Challenges and Opportunities of Growing Energy Markets in Asia" held from September 14 to September 17.

In his welcoming address to the participants of the 24th IBC Annual General Meeting, Dr. A. Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom and the IBC President, noted that despite the ongoing pandemic, the Congress had once again attracted a large and professional audience from 25 countries.

The vivid discussions during the Working Committees’ meetings focused on current trends in the global economy in the pandemic era, digitalization issues, and climate goals of the IBC member-companies.

The General Meeting elected Dr. B. Frei, Member of the Executive Committee and Executive Vice President, Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric Industries SAS as successor of Mr. L. Mukhamedov, Schneider Electric Industries SAS. Ms. Frei became a new Chaorlady of the “Information and Communication” Working Committee.

After the Plenary Session the AGM participants took part in the International Conference on "Challenges and Opportunities of Energy Markets in Asia". The conference was moderated by Dr. A. Medvedev, Advisor to the General Director of Gazprom Export LLC in the studio in St. Petersburg and Mr. S. V. Eddrenkine, General Manager, Gazprom Marketing and Trading Singapore Pte. Ltd. In the studio in Singapore.

The presentations at the conference were made by Dr. A. Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee, Gazprom; Prof. K-D. Maubach, Chief Executive Officer, Uniper SE; Mr. G. Kunihiro, President, Diamond Gas International Pte. Ltd.; Dr. B. Frei, Member of the Executive Committee, Executive Vice President, Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric Industries SAS; Mr. Lee Pak Sing, Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Singapore and Mr. Dato Mohammad Medan bin Abdullah, Group Chief Executive Officer, Bintulu Port Holdings Berhad.

The year 2021 was wrapped up by the joint meeting of the IBC Working Committees: “Information and Communications” and “Industry, Innovation and Prospective Development” and the meeting of the "Ecology and Healthcare” Working Committee held in a hybrid format in December in Dubai, UAE.

2020 – IBC in the new reality

The year 2020 was a breaking point in the development of the global community. The measures to combat the spread of the corona virus and the restrictions it has caused have forced us all to rethink the importance of face-to-face meetings and the need for open dialogue in all areas of activities.

In accordance with the decision of the IBC President and the Board of Executive Directors, the 23rd Annual General Meeting of the Congress was held remotely. The remote format of the Annual General Meeting provided a written voting by members of Congress on all procedural matters.

In the second half of the year, the two IBC Working Committees organized their first meetings via videoconference. On July 8, 2020, the first ever online meeting in the history of the Congress was held by the "Information and Communications" Working Committee on "O&G Digitalization within New Reality: Conceptions, Drivers, Barriers and Points of Economic Growth" supported by SAP CIS. The event was moderated by Ms. Alexandra Suvorova, economic news anchor of Russia 24 TV channel. The online meeting of the “Human Resources” Committee held on September 25, 2020 was attended by 72 people from 32 companies. The participants discussed the "Effective staff performance during the remote work period. International Experience" addressing the current developments and challenges faced by all IBC member -companies. The further realization of the IBC project: "Youth Day: Energy Challenge" in online format was also presented during the meeting.

The meeting of the "Energy” Working Committee held on December 2, 2020, focused on the "Decarbonization of Natural Gas and Hydrogen Economy in Germany and Europe?". The online session was attended by 60 guests from more than 10 countries. The meeting participants addressed the current development of hydrogen as energy source.

Even though the work of the IBC did not stop despite the imposed restrictions due to the further spread of the coronavirus, the IBC members expressed their willingness to come back to face-to-face meeting next year.

2019: 22nd Annual General Meeting of the IBC in Bonn, Germany

Twenty-two years after the founding conference in 1997, the city of Bonn welcomed the IBC again in spring 2019. The representatives of the 88 member-companies of the Congress attended the 22nd Annual General Meeting. At the opening ceremony, Mr. Sigmar Gabriel, guest of honor and a former German Foreign Minister and former Vice Chancellor, welcomed guests and participants of the forum. The largest event of the Congress have been sponsored by Linde Group, Uniper CE and Wintreshal Dea GmbH.

Mr. Ch. Bruch, Member of the Board of Linde Group; Mr. M. Mehren, Chairman of the Board of Wintershall Dea GmbH; Mr. K. Martin, Member of the Board of Uniper SE; Mr. H. Fennema, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of N.V Nederlandse Gasunie.; Mr. Jiao Fangzheng, CNPC Vice President; and Mr. T. Kehler, managing director of Zukunft Erdgas have been invited as speakers at the international conference “Natural Gas – Paving the Way to Ecological Economy”.

In 2019, there was an active change in the governing positions in the Congress. Due to the resignation of Dr. Klaus Schaefer, Uniper CE, from the position of Vice President of the IBC, the General Meeting elected Dr. Rainer Seele, OMV Aktiengesellschaft as his successor. The decision of the IBC Presidium to create a new position of the Chairman of the IBC Board and to elect Dr. Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom Export LLC, to hold this position was also approved. Mr. Udo Voelker announced his resignation from the position of the Coordinator of the Board of the IBC. Mr. Andreas Boeldt, Head of the OMV AG Representative Office in Russia, was elected as his successor. Dr. Andrey Kruglov handed over the post of the Chairman of the "Law, Banking and Finance" Working Committee to Dr. Famil Sadygov, Gazprom. Mr. Leonid Mukhamedov, Schneider Electric Industries SAS became the new Chairman of the “Information and Communication” Working Committee. It was also announced that the name of the IBC Working Committee "Human Resources, Education and Science" was changed to "Human Resources".

History of the International Business Congress

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