Austrian Commercial Office Director Mr. Christian Fuchssteiner and the marketing officer Mr. Louis Chen visited Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-che at Tainan City Hall. Chen Kai-ling, Director-General of Tainan City Government Economic Development Bureau, and Su En-en, Director-General of Department of Information and International Relations, were also present at the meeting. The participants talked about business partnerships, smart city and green energy technology exchanges.
Mayor Huang warmly welcomed Mr. Fuchssteiner and thanked him for his dedication and services in the past seven years. The Director has been actively promoting interactions between Taiwan and Austria to let both sides gain a better understanding of each other. Huang remarked that Tainan is both old and cultural and new and high-tech as the historical city is also home to many high-tech industries. For example, TSMC has been actively building fabs and investing in Tainan. The Mayor also showed support for Mr. Fuchssteiner’s suggestion of jointly holding a bilateral business partnership forum in 2021 to create more channels for enterprise partnerships between both sides.
This is Mr. Fuchssteiner's second visit to Tainan City Hall. Mayor Huang invited the Director to visit the city more often and joked that Fuchssteiner should take care not to gain weight like he has since Tainan is a city of generous people and delicious food. Amid the joyful laughter in the room, Mr. Fuchssteiner responded that he is more than happy to visit to Tainan again.
Mr. Fuchssteiner expressed that he has noticed the growing significance of Tainan in the past few years and additional visits to Tainan would be inevitable in the future. He also visited two Austrian companies which have locations here in Tainan. The companies mentioned that after they settled down, officials from the local government reached out and inquired if they needed any assistance. Mr. Fuchssteiner expressed his gratitude to Mayor Huang and the government team for their support. In addition to the businesses and trade forum he suggested, he looks forward to having more interactions with Tainan henceforth.
Economic Development Bureau Director-General Chen Kai-ling also took the opportunity to introduce Tainan's industries and development visions to the visitors. He pointed out that since Tainan’s industry structure includes traditional to high-tech industries, he expects to see more match-making opportunities to connect Taiwanese and Austrian businesses.
Austria has two official agencies in Taiwan: the Austrian Commercial Office and Austrian Office Taipei. Operated by ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA, the Austrian Commercial Office is a trade organization that represents Austrian Federal Economic Chamber in Taiwan. Every year they host around 1,200 events to provide global economic and trade business opportunities, showcase Austrian companies, and provide related information to companies worldwide that wish to enter the Austrian market.