Commerce meeting starts in Kaohsiung

The annual general meeting of the Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Asia opened in the southern Taiwan port city of Kaohsiung yesterday with the participation of over 350 delegates from 10 countries around the world, including Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia and others.

The motto of this year's council meeting -- the 11th of its kind -- is "deep plowing in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung, while making inroads into Southeast Asia," said Wayne Chi (齊偉能), secretary-general of the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce, one of the organizations co-sponsoring the meeting, which will run until tomorrow.

According to Chi, Kaohsiung was selected by the organization's chairman Hsieh Shih-ying (謝世英) as the venue of this year's meeting as he felt southern Taiwan cities like Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung need more international activities to help boost their development and gain support from business communities from abroad.

Meanwhile, Chi said, the council will call for the meeting delegates to help champion the "go-south" campaign to encourage more Taiwan businesses to diversify their business operations to Southeast Asian countries to avoid over-reliance on China.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) telegraphed his good wishes to the opening of the meeting and wished the annual gathering great success, Chi added.