Business council has Singapore offer
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
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"I serve my members and will support whatever is decided," PBEC president Dalton Tanonaka said yesterday. "But I've been trying to better connect Hawai'i businesses to our organization and hope leaders here see the value of having PBEC remain."
The group will hold its 36th general meeting in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 22-26. On Aug. 24, the group will vote whether to move to the Southeast Asia city-state where officials have offered free rent.
The Singapore offer interests some PBEC members, Tanonaka said, "because in these tough times, nonprofit organizations that are dependent on membership dues have to look at their bottom line."
Hawai'i business leaders would lose business opportunities if PBEC moves, Tanonaka said.
"You would not have the benefit of our membership passing through the Islands for various meetings," he said, "or making business connections through the various luncheons we hold throughout the Islands."
PBEC, founded in 1967, is a private-sector organization for CEOs and has 1,000 members. It has been based in Honolulu since 1992.
In November, PBEC had four Hawai'i members when Tanonaka formed a Hawai'i chapter in an attempt to show local support for the organization. PBEC now has 16 Hawai'i members.
Charles Morrison, president of the East-West Center, plans to make a case in Seoul for keeping PBEC in Honolulu and will also offer discounted rent at the center that would cut the organization's costs in half.
"I'd love to keep it in Hawai'i," Morrison said. "Singapore is offering completely free rent, but we can't do that. We're not allowed to, basically."
PBEC has always been in the United States, and moving it to Asia would send a signal to some "that it's an Asian organization, rather than an Asia-Pacific region organization," Morrison said. "The Latin Americans, I think, would also find it very far away."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
