Secretariat, Taipei City Government

On April 14 at 2:00 p.m., a video conference was conducted by representatives of Taipei City, Brisbane (Australia), and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Brisbane, Australia. Taipei City was represented by Tom Chou, the Commissioner of Mayor’s Office for External Affairs, who led a team of six. Brisbane was represented by Nicole Andronicus, Director of International Relations and Multicultural Affairs, Lord Mayor’s Office; and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Brisbane, Australia was represented by Director General Edward Tao. During the conference, the participants exchanged views on various topics, including the development of a smart city, education, post-pandemic economic development, and sports events.

Australia has been remarkably successful in managing the COVID-19 pandemic; the number of confirmed cases has not exceeded 30,000, and the pandemic has shown signs of slowing in the past three months. This gives the country a respite to determine methods for reviving the tourism industry and their overall economy. Director Andronicus praised Taipei City’s success in using mobile applications to register attendees for large-scale public events and suggested that Brisbane should emulate this practice because such applications have proven their worth in effectively preventing cluster infections and monitoring individuals under quarantine. She was greatly impressed that large-scale public events such as the Taipei Marathon and the New Year’s Eve Countdown Party were still being held despite the threat of the pandemic.

Brisbane is currently vying to host the 2032 Olympic games. Commissioner Chou told Director Andronicus that Taipei would be happy to share with Brisbane the experience in hosting large international sports competitions, as the city has been nominated to host the 2025 World Masters Game and successfully hosted the 2017 Universiade.

Additionally, Brisbane is scheduled to host the 2021 Asia Pacific Cities Summit (APCS) this September. The APCS has been held for 26 years, and as a crucial forum for city development and corporate investment in the Asia-Pacific region, it attracts many city and business leaders each year. Director Andronicus invited Mayor Ko to attend the conference.

Commissioner Chou thanked Director Andronicus and Brisbane City for the invitation and promised that he would pass the invitation to Mayor Ko. However, he also expressed his regret that, because of the ongoing pandemic, Mayor Ko would probably not visit Brisbane in person and would likely attend the event remotely instead. Regarding economic development in the post-pandemic era, Commissioner Chou suggested that Taipei City would share at the 2021 APCS a white paper on Taipei’s policies for post-pandemic industrial digital transformation, which was published in February 2021 after integrating the opinions of nine major industrial sectors.

Director General Tao, who only took office less than one week ago, expressed his appreciation in attending the video conference and invited representatives of Taipei City to visit Brisbane after the pandemic, both to enhance economic and cultural ties and to enjoy the beautiful cityscape of Brisbane.