The Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia and Kangwon National University (KNU), Chuncheon, South Korea officially signed a memorandum of understanding in 2014. Since then both the institutions have executed many successful collaborations together. The collaborations have been in the form of student exchange programmes, academic visits, and professorial lectures. These collaborations brought the institutions closer and the bond between them has strengthened year by year. As a gesture of appreciation for the warm hospitality that KNU has always provided and to take the relationship between both the institutions to higher horizons, FBM suggested a conference and gave KNU the honour to inaugurate the first Asian Business and Economics International Conference (ABEIC).
KNU hosted ABEIC 2019 in collaboration with FBM and the Association of Korean Economic Studies (AKES). The conference was held at Global Business Building, Kangwon National University (KNU), Chuncheon, South Korea from 25 – 27 April 2019. ABEIC 2019 highlighted the implications of the digitization for revenues, profits, and opportunities as it creates a dramatic upside potential. The theme of the conference was *‘Asian Business and Economic Collaboration in the 4th Industrial Revolution Era’*. A total of 108 academicians from country such as Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Morocco, Germany, Malaysia, UAE, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Nigeria participated in this conference.
The conference received positive feedback from the participants and most of them are looking forward to join ABEIC in the future. The conference will be an annual event between the partnering universities under ASEAN International Mobility for Students (AIMS). In November 2019, during AIMS general meeting, the next university to host ABEIC will be determined.