Report on “Taiwan Evening” – Joining the Dots, a Global Strategy with Regional Opportunities
24.02.2017

---

The “Taiwan Evening” – Joining the Dots, a Global Strategy with Regional Opportunities took place on Monday, February 20th,  2017 at the Mercure Riga Centre Hotel, Elizabetes 101, http://mercureriga.lvlocation-and-access.

The Taiwan Evening’s objective was to explore possibilities for CanCham members seeking business opportunities with Taiwan. The motivation for this lies in the fact that the Taipei Mission continuously demonstrates an interest in the Baltic region with their energetic activity in Latvia and with our neighbours. This is well recognized and appreciated. 

Ambassador R.C.Wu, the Representative of the Taipei Mission in Latvia, was recently the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Representative in Canada (2015-2016) and Director General, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto (2014-2015). We recognize that Taiwanese businesses are looking for international business opportunities and Ambassador Wu provided his view of potential cooperation between Latvia and Taiwan in a presentation that can be seen in http://cancham.lv/cancham-members/presentations.

He discussed issues such as the Taipei Mission’s objectives in the Baltics providing those present with a description of Taiwan and its history, geography and economy, and explaining the interests of the Taiwanese business community covering such topics as investment projects and trade in general. He stressed that investment normally comes with increased trade, and from this aspect, there is a need for Latvia to improve our trade performance, particularly on exports to Taiwan. Mr Wu also covered areas that he felt Latvia can realistically export to Taiwan based on his experience and provided interesting comparisons between Taiwan, Canada and Latvia. 

Overall, this was a very informative and interesting presentation, and we thank Ambassador Wu for his efforts to work with us to help the CanCham develop its approach to business opportunities.

From CanCham’s side, Ed Kalvins, the Chairman of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Latvia, covered what CanCham members can offer Taiwanese business people, what we are looking for from Taiwanese businesses and suggested a model for cooperation which emphasizes the development of strategic partnerships and using CanCham member contacts with Canada. There is the possibility that the CanCham could play a facilitating role in business ventures with Canada, particularly now that CETA (the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) is so close to ratification.

It is our hope that this is the beginning of a fruitful relationship for business development between the CanCham and Taiwan.

Presentations can be found at http://cancham.lv/cancham-members/presentations.

Please follow http://cancham.lv/news and www.facebook.com/canchamlatvia/ for updates.