Why the Australia-Taiwan Business Council goes from strength to strength.
The Australia-Taiwan Business Council (ATBC), founded more than thirty years ago by the late Sir Charles Court AK KCMG OBE, in late May held three outstandingly successful events:
An Australia-Taiwan Women Entrepreneur Network (ATWEN) Forum in Sydney, attended by outstanding women business leaders from Taiwan, Australia and China.
A Gala Dinner for 50 people at the prestigious Australian Club Sydney, celebrating the successful launch of ATWEN. The Hon Andrew Roberts MP, NSW Minister Industry, Resources and Energy, was guest of honour and Kent Maddock, a leading Sydney tenor and former member of the Australia Opera and the Ten Tenors, entertained the guests.
The ATBC Annual General Meeting and AGM Lunch at Macquarie Group headquarters. Guest speakers included Ambassador David Lee, Representative at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Canberra, Mr Bruce Gosper, CEO of the Australian Trade Commission and Dr Mark Harrison, one of Australia’s leading Taiwan scholars, based at the University of Tasmania.
Ms Ching-Mei Tuan, CEO of the ATBC, is busy now planning the 29th Joint Conference with its Taiwan counterpart, the ROCABC — CIECA, 3–5 September 2015, Darwin, Northern Territory. The response from the Australian and Taiwan business communities and public sectors to the decision to hold the conference at Darwin has been overwhelmingly positive.
For two decades Taiwan has had substantial commercial interests in northern Australia, uncomplicated by international political and strategic ambitions. Taiwan, intersected by the Tropic of Cancer and the Northern Territory, intersected by the Tropic of Capricorn, are natural partners. Opportunities abound, in infrastructure, investment and financial services, energy and minerals, agriculture and tourism and education.
Why is the ATBC prospering?
It’s because many of the members care deeply about Taiwan, Australia’s sixth largest export market and, like Australia, one of the western Pacific’s few islands of democracy, stability and prosperity.
The board of the ATBC is representative of some of Australia’s leading public and private companies. Rich in experience and full of vigour, it builds on thirty years of success in fostering business and other relations between Australia, Taiwan and China.
Business is important of course, but ATBC members also appreciate the high degree of civility in Taiwan, the land that more than any other preserves and fosters the best of the culture and traditions of the Chinese-speaking peoples.