DHL, the world's leading express and logistics company, has today kicked off the DHL AsiaCup 2007, an extraordinary three-day team-building exercise involving 450 employees from Asia Pacific in the sport of football and cheerleading. The tournament, which will stretch over three adrenalin-pumping days, is leading up to the much anticipated Asian Cup 2007 which Malaysia is co-hosting in July.

With the participation of over 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region, the DHL AsiaCup 2007 is one of the largest corporate sporting events in M\alaysia. A total of 19 teams from DHL offices in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Oceania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam are participating in the DHL AsiaCup final. Hundreds of DHL staff also turned up to support their teams in the DHL AsiaCup 2007, which is being held at the Royal Selangor Club from 22  24 June.

Sam Leong, Country Manager of Malaysia and Brunei, DHL Express said, "It is an honour to host the inaugural DHL AsiaCup 2007 here in Malaysia, as it is timely given our nation's Golden Jubilee celebration of 50 years of independence. DHL has always believed that the most important investment a company can make is in its people, and the DHL Asia Cup is a prime example of how we are committed to developing and rewarding our valuable employees in the Asia Pacific region."

The DHL AsiaCup final round of the group championship was preceded by qualifying rounds on country and regional level. The biggest regional play-off games, which was held for the teams from South East Asia in April, had already offered spectators a glimpse of the sporting talents of DHL employees across the region.

Scott Price, CEO, DHL Express Asia Pacific said, "We are extremely pleased with the spirit of sportsmanship and camaraderie demonstrated at DHL's AsiaCup 2007. We wanted this to be a platform for team building among DHL staff from across the region, to reinforce the sense of employee unity across the Asia Pacific region in all levels of the DHL family  and we think we have achieved that."

"It is DHL's aspiration to be an Employer of Choice, and for us this means that we invest in our people and give them opportunities to bond across business units, geographies and hierarchies," said Boyd Williams, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, DHL Express  Asia Pacific. "We are very proud to see how much effort our employees have put into the preparation and execution of this event. This is a good example of how DHL staff are motivated to go all the way to achieve what they are aiming for  both on the football pitch and at their jobs."

Organized by DHL Asia Pacific, the inaugural DHL AsiaCup 2007 was held following the success of the 2006 World Sports Event by DHLs parent company Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN), which was hailed as one of the worlds largest team-building events with a participation of 2,500 staff from 24 countries. The DPWN World Sports Event was organized parallel to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.