A new President of the Asia Marketing Federation – Rohan Somawansa

Senior Marketer and Corporate Manager, Mr. Rohan Somawansa was unanimously elected as the President of the prestigious Asia Marketing Federation ( AMF) for the period of 2018 – 2020 at the federation’s AGM in Guangzhou, China last week.

Mr. Rohan Somawansa presently holds the position of Head of Marketing and Cor porat e Communication ( CMO), and the Director of Samson Trading Company ( Pvt) Ltd and Globe Knitting (Pvt) Ltd under the highly diversified DSI Samson group, which also happens to be the largest footwear manufacturer and retailer in Sri Lanka. The following are excerpts from an interview with the new President of the AMF.

According to Mr. Somawansa, the AMF is the governing body of marketing in Asia. The AMF’s mission is to effectively promote the interests of marketing in Asia in general and strengthen the Asian marketing fraternity. With the belief that “marketing for a better Asia is the synthesis of marketing trends in the member countries”, the AMF currently consists of 18 countries, adding the Maldives and Macao this year, and plays a highly active role in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

“I would like to thank all the members of the AMF for their trust in me and also my host marketing institute, the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing ( SLIM) for their confidence in me”, he added.

When asked what previous positions he had held in the AMF Mr. Somawansa replied, “I was appointed as the 2nd Vice President in 2011 and also took on the role of Co-Chairman of the Asia Excellent Marketing Awards, which is the first awards program organized by a professional body in Asia. In 2016/2017 I served as Chairman of the awards program. In 2016 I was honored to be elevated to the position of 1st Vice President. I carried out my responsibilities as 1st Vice President until I was elected President this year. I was also a member of the AMF Education Committee as well.”

On his vision for the AMF and the AMF’s vision for Asia the new President explained, “Asia represents 60% of the world market, while the South-East Asian countries and South Asian countries together represent nearly 35%. As a whole, the small number of devel- oped economies and developing markets, as well as the large number of less developed Asian countries with diverse politics, economies, cultures, legal frame work and technological penetration, are the challenges faced by the ‘Marketing for a better Asia’ concept. I intend to focus on a few strategic fillers as follows to bridge this gap,

1.Connecting SMEs via chambers and national marketing institutes to find business opportunities. SMEs currently contribute to more than 50% of GDP of most Asian economies.

2.Better support to boost national brands to the status of regional brands as Asia is far behind in comparison with the US and Europe.

3. Adding new members, specially from the SARCC region. SARCC represent a big market when compared to ASEAN, hence its contribution to Asia is most important.

4. Introduce more educational products to uplift business and marketing knowledge, especially for LDCs and some developing markets. We have good Asian educational products and case studies.

5. Appreciate and recognize the best marketing practices in Asia through awards programs and recognize Asian women, youth and digital practitioners in management, this will help those organizations to plan their development in and beyond Asia.”

“As an important trade block for whole world, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has a common goal for marketing. During its 50th anniversary celebration last year in Jakarta, the AMF announced its plan to focus on SME development, as the sector is as an important contributor to the ASEAN e c o n o m y. Unfortunately, we still do not have a common plan in the SAARC region. My aim is to develop the same practices as the ASEAN in the SAARC region and further extend it to intra trade blocks in order to gain benefits for SME and National brands. However, in the case of prospective brand development there are Asian brands such as Singapore Airlines that have now become global brands, while brands such as TATA are still in the transition stage”, stated Mr. Somawansa when asked how he perceived the strength of Marketing in the ASEAN and SARCC trade block.

Questioned about the current status of brand development in the rest of Asia, the President of the AMF responded by saying that Japan and Korea have already developed great global brands. China is currently enthusiastically developing brands via a vigorous development process, adopting new management practices and creating such a culture within their education system. He also pointed out that Huawei is a Chinese global brand that is currently growing in popularity.

“My role will definitely help me to create a better platform for business development in my country, especially when it comes to tourism and the SME development program with SLIM as well as other stake holder institutes in Asia”, said Mr. Somawansa on the significance of his appointment to Sri Lanka.

Discussing other important changes that took place at the AGM of the AMF, Mr. Somawansa announced that the current President of SLIM and CEO of Lanka Hospital Diagnostics (PVT) Ltd, Mr. Pradeep Edward and the eminent Past President of SLIM and Director of Chisel Holdings (PVT) L t d , M r. Ru w a n Liyanagamage were appointed as Secretary Generals of the AMF at the same meeting. The distinguished Professor Kim Boojong from Korea and Mr. Jack Yao Xing, the Deputy Director General of CCIPT, the organization responsible for the promotion of Chinese goods and services to the world and vice versa, were elected as 1st and 2nd Vice Presidents of AMF respectively.