The 2022 Public Relations and Communications Committee (PRCC) annual meeting has been held on 1^st, June virtually. 46 representatives from 37 AICM member companies participated in the meeting.  Nicolas Poirot, AICM Chairman, President & CEO, Air Liquide Greater China and Andy Walti, AICM board member, Vice President, Head of Region China & APAC, Clariant, attended the meeting and provided their guidance as sponsor boards. AICM executive director Beryl Ma also joined in the meeting.

PRCC Chair Ms. Susan Jiang from SABIC moderated the meeting. She thanked the AICM board and PRCC members for their continuous support of the committee. She welcomed all the participants in such a special way on this special day when Shanghai ceased lockdown and looked forward to the working guidance from two PRCC sponsor boards.

Nicolas expressed his affirmation of PRCC's work and his feelings as PRCC sponsor board. He expounded on the core value and important role of the organization from four aspects in connection to the abbreviation of AICM:

•  As an organization and communication platform, it enables different positions and voices to communicate efficiently and fairly, so that members are more united;

•  With a multinational perspective and vision, we are not only in China for China, but also outside of China for China, and in China for outside of China. With international communication, we can deliver a good view to the people outside of China to help them understand the chemical industry here;

•  The chemical industry can also make difference and help in climate change and energy crisis by its transforming nature.

•  The chemical industry’s manufacturing attributes are for the national economy and people’s livelihood, especially providing strong support for production and supply during the epidemic.

He also emphasized that when the travel and communication of people are limited during the epidemic, public communication is more important and should play its due role with high quality.

Andy announced the new AICM board members, Mr. Fuliang Xia, President of Evonik in China and head of Smart Materials Asia, who will replace Nicolas in supporting PRCC work. He understood that the past two or three months have not been easy for everyone due to the severe COVID in Beijing and Shanghai. Under such circumstances, all member companies have insisted on upholding social responsibilities and ensuring production and supply. There were many good deeds that can be promoted and a lot of great stories to tell. He also shared the recent CEO conference call held by AICM, aiming to strengthen internal and external communication and deal with the current difficult and complex situation. In the next step, he will support PRCC together with Mr. Xia to improve the member engagement.

In the presentation session, Angel Jin, vice-chair of PRCC from Air Liquide, reviewed and summarized the work of the committee in 2021, and previewed the work plan for 2022. In 2021, PRCC has made a series of achievements in the "Open-to-Public" Day Campaign, media engagement, social media operation and member engagement. In 2022, PRCC will make persistent efforts to focus on the three key tasks of branding the "Open-to-Public" Day, enhancing the influence and interaction with stakeholders, and strengthening communication with the media to deliver AICM key values, increasing visibility, optimizing media and communications support to member companies

In the panel discussion, Ms. Susan Jiang as the moderator asked the two directors about a series of topics collected earlier from members, including:

•  What is your global perspective on the current challenges and opportunities of the chemical industry? What is the role of corporate communications, or the communications of the chemical industry as a whole?

•  Given the growing impact of China's "zero-COVID" strategy especially on the global supply chain, from your perspective, will multinational companies adjust their China strategy going forward? Is China still an attractive place to invest?

•  How can corporate communications help the business team to grow business, and help the company to build its reputation overall?

•  How can a Chinese entity of an MNC bring China and the rest of the world closer?

•  The effective way of communicating with authorities to mitigate the risk and to identify opportunities;

•  How to stay focused to continually motivate ourselves and pursue career ambition.

The two directors discussed the topics from multiple perspectives such as enterprises and individuals, and carried out a comprehensive sharing, which received positive responses from the participants.

The successful holding of this PRCC online annual meeting has established confidence in the resumption of public communication work in a special period and strengthened everyone's determination to continue to shape the image and brand influence of the chemical industry.