Dear Members, Associates and Friends of the Malaysian Gas Association,

Ladies & Gentlemen,

As we usher in the new year, I am excited with developments achieved in the Malaysian gas industry. The gas industry reforms remains on track. The grace period for the Third Party Access ends in January 2018 and the regulated gas price is projected to achieve market price by 2019. Malaysia is well underway advancing towards a sustainable gas industry.

Looking back to 2017, MGA is proud to gain further recognition of our role as the voice of the gas industry when we were appointed into both the steering and technical committees for the national Gas Price Rationalisation Communication Plan, led by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU). MGA will be playing an active role in communicating the benefits of the gas industry reforms to key stakeholders, providing perspective as an industry representative.

2017 has been quite a busy and eventful year for MGA. Our priorities for 2017 has been the following;
1. Gas Advocacy
2. Enhancing Value Proposition for Members

We stepped up our Gas Advocacy with more engagements with policy makers, series of interviews and articles in the newspapers, face to face engagements at our booths in major exhibitions and media launch of the report on “Natural Gas: Flipping the Switch’. We ended the year with a “Gas Advocacy Series” campaign on social media.

In addition to gas advocacy, MGA members benefited from the multiple networking platforms established by MGA. We continued our annual networking events, namely the Industry Golf and Industry Gala Dinner, and have increased members activities with more industry talks, a technical visit to RAPID in Pengerang and a CSR intiative in the form of a Blood Donation Drive. We also kept members regularly informed through the newly introduced Quarterly bulletins. This in addition to the regular updates via e-mails and posts on our webpage and social media.

On the international front, as part of the Executive Committee, MGA plays a key role in charting the direction of the International Gas Union (IGU). IGU have similarly stepped up Gas Advocacy on the global arena, engaging global bodies such as United Nation, G20, World Bank and International Energy Agency (IEA). 2017 also saw the election of the first Women President of IGU. Ms. Li Yalan will be the first woman to lead IGU when China assumes the Presidency of IGU for the Triennium 2021-2014. Her appointment gives encouragement for more active participation by women in the energy sector, especially in leadership positions.

Likewise, MGA recognised the importance of women in the energy sector when we organised the inaugural Forum in Women in Energy; an event supported by women networks in member companies.

In 2017, MGA continued our outreach to students in schools and higher learning institutions. We are delighted to share that several schools and universities found our outreach so beneficial that they have invited us to collaborate.

2017 is also the year of collaborations for MGA. In addition to universities, MGA collaborated with other organisations, such as MOGSC, 30% Club and PEMANDU, and with MGA’s own member companies to organised major events.

We are extremely grateful for the support and contribution from our members throughout 2017. We are particularly appreciative of the efforts put in by the following working committees;
• Advocacy
• Regulatory and Government Affairs
• Learning and Development
• Communications and Multimedia
• Membership and Social
the taskforce on Promotion of Cogeneration and the respective organising committees for our major events. Your commitment and contributions ensured the success of our activities. On average, we have organised 2 events or major activities per month, more than what we have achieved in the previous years.

Going into 2018, we expect our priorities to remain. We will be stepping up our Gas Advocacy even further with more advocacy related activities, more communication and more engagements with the media.

The country needs to increase utilisation and demand for gas in order to make the market more attractive to third party gas suppliers. MGA has proposed to collaborate with Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) to jointly promote cogeneration and will be collaborating with PEMANDU Associates to organise an “Increasing Gas Demand” workshop.

2018 will also see IGU organising the World Gas Conference (WGC2018) in Washington DC, USA. We urged members to participate in this prestigious triannual congregation of global gas industry players. WGC2018 will be expecting 500 speakers and 12,000 participants.

Before I sign-off, I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate and thank the MGA Secretariat for their keen dedication and oustanding efforts.

On behalf of the Council of MGA, I close by again thanking all our members, including all the volunteers from members organisations, for your keen support and participation in all our activities. We look forward to similar support in the coming year.
I wish everyone a happy and successful 2018.

Thank you.

Best Wishes,

Hazli Sham Kassim
President
Malaysian Gas Association