2022 RGE Town Hall: A New Golden Era Begins

RGE held its annual Town Hall at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore on 11 February 2022. Attended in-person by senior leaders in Singapore under safe distancing measures, the 2022 RGE Town Hall was also broadcast live to more than 500 senior leaders from over 20 locations around the world.

In his opening address, RGE Chairman Sukanto Tanoto charted the course for RGE’s growth and expansion in sustainable development.

Mr Tanoto emphasized the principles that should continue to underpin RGE’s growth – 5Cs operating philosophy and TOPICC core values. The group’s growth and contributions must be aligned with the philosophy of creating value for the Community, Country, Climate, Customer and Company. In addition to encouraging the group to live the TOPICC core values of Complementary Team, Ownership, People, Integrity, Customer, and Continuous Improvement, Mr Tanoto highlighted that we must safeguard against complacency, embrace learning and always focus on improving.

As RGE is a global group run by professionals from all corners of the world, Mr Tanoto said it was paramount that leaders and staff continuously learn from working across international offices and with different cultures. These experiences are important to working as a complementary team and for the team to achieve targets together.

RGE Chairman Sukanto Tanoto’s address was followed by a panel discussion featuring RGE President Tey Wei Lin, RGE China President Mi Wei Dong, RGE Indonesia Deputy President Kelvin Tio, APRIL Group President Praveen Singhavi, Pacific Energy President Ratnesh Bedi, and RGE Managing Director Anderson Tanoto. Mr Mi and Mr Tio joined in ‘live’ via Zoom.

The panel covered 2021 achievements across the fibre, palm oil and energy groups. Amidst challenges posed by price volatility and uneven recovery from the global pandemic, the leaders believe RGE businesses are well positioned to usher in a “New Golden Era” as it strengthens its presence at the heart of the bio-economy.

RGE’s pivot towards green financing was marked by the securing of US$1.65b in sustainability-linked loans in 2021. These loans help the group to sharpen its environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus as its internal KPIs are re-articulated into measurable targets, among which include the incentive of interest reductions for the meeting of such targets.

Fibre operations in Indonesia and Brazil have significantly ramped up green efforts aimed at reducing emissions and achieving zero-emissions targets. Among a host of initiatives, APRIL Group will be installing 20MW of solar panels – the largest solar panel installation by a private company in Indonesia.

With the largest recovery boiler in the world and the first biomass gasifier in the pulp and paper industry in operation in South America, Bracell is now the world’s largest and greenest producer of dissolving pulp. Its new plant in São Paulo was built with two lines that operate in a flexible manner, reflecting the future-mindedness and agility that has underpinned RGE’s continued success.

To support China and the region’s growing focus on climate-positive solutions, RGE China’s fibre operations is in the process of expanding its operations in paper board, tissue, lyocell and non-wovens production.

RGE’s palm oil operations will be marked by a series of expansions to support the global sustainable palm oil market. The expansion would place palm oil producer Apical Group among the world’s top players in oleochemical and functional fats.

• Read more about Apical 2030 and Asian Agri 2030 commitments.

Recently rebranded Pacific Energy has made progress in its support of China’s net-zero emissions ambition and phasing out of coal, as well as the COP26 commitment of 40 nations to eliminate the use of coal in 2030-2040. When completed, Woodfibre LNG will be powered by renewable hydroelectricity, making it the cleanest LNG facility in the world.

RGE Managing Director Anderson Tanoto concluded the RGE Town Hall with three key points. Firstly, RGE has truly entered a ‘golden era’ in which more than 90% of our expansion projects are fully in motion through our Chairman’s vision and stewardship by RGE’s second generation leaders. Second, RGE’s corporate offices are undergoing a transformation to better serve expanding business groups’ undergoing aggressive expansion, so it remains critical that RGE’s corporate functions continue to hire the best talents with the right skill sets to support this growth. Finally, it is important to recognize RGE’s distinguished history over a half-century. The group will celebrate RGE55 this year through a series of events and activities to honour the past and also look toward the future.

“There’s never been more exciting time to be part of RGE,’ Mr Anderson Tanoto concluded, “The golden era of RGE is here. The baton has been passed to the second generation, who will lead the aggressive growth strategies across Indonesia, China, Brazil and Canada. Let’s work together as a united team to move forward with enthusiasm, hard work, and continued focused on our core values.”