A year ago, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce Board chair Kirk Nakamoto and I met with Peter Ho, APEC 2011 Hawai‘i Host Committee chair, to discuss outcomes, participation, and, most of all, what role neighbor islands would
A year ago, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce Board chair Kirk Nakamoto and I met with Peter Ho, APEC 2011 Hawai‘i Host Committee chair, to discuss outcomes, participation, and, most of all, what role neighbor islands would have in the most historic and significant conference ever to occur in Hawai‘i’s modern history.
It was three years ago that newly elected President Barack Obama selected Hawai‘i as the state for the annual summit to be hosted by the United States as a member of the 21 member nations that comprise the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Since that time, many, many meetings and practice sessions, especially, during the last 18 months have taken place in preparation for policy and decision makers at all levels that will culminate with the Leaders’ Meeting from during the weekend.
One of the most important and long term outcomes as a result of APEC is the unique opportunity for the State of Hawai‘i to demonstrate the islands’ capacity to conduct business and host meetings of this size beyond the traditional picture of Hawai‘i as a vacation destination. Other ‘take aways’ is building contacts through meetings such as the Asia-Pacific Business Symposium, Small-Medium Enterprise Symposium, numerous receptions and other APEC-related events. While the HHC provided some support and had an active role in assisting and partnering with the US State Department as the US APEC lead agency, the state was able to also have some activities which provided businesses an opportunity to showcase their business and provide members of Hawai‘i’s business, community and government significant opportunities to participate and engage with attendees from throughout the APEC nations. .
Waikiki and the nearby Hawai‘i Convention Center serves as the apex of the APEC summit where the County of Kaua‘i, Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau, Kaua‘i Economic Development Board and Chamber joined as partners to showcase some of the industries and business opportunities available to our global neighbors who span the Pacific Ocean from North and South America to Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
The first two days at the HCC and first floor where each of the counties have exhibit booths, the Business Innovation Showcase and various science/technology businesses were located to showcase some of the islands’ businesses which have a focus on technology and are in alignment with the theme of clean energy, ocean, earth and sky sciences, and health and life sciences.
On Monday which was the opening day, Mayor Carvalho met with several members of the media and other government and elected officials to actively promote Kaua‘i as both a visitor destination as well as a place of doing business, including touting some of our diverse industries including tourism, technology, agriculture and creative media – film.
Mayor Carvalho has very comfortably also served as Kaua‘i’s ambassador in taking leadership in helping to promote Kaua‘i and throughout the year and welcomed several delegations to Kaua‘i from APEC member nations such as China, Japan and the Philippines. On opening day, a member of the Chinese delegation who visited Kaua‘i in August renewed a relationship with Mayor and Director George Costa of the Economic Development Office to report on Hawai‘i as both a place to visit and do business. After two days of the expo, I’ll be joining the Mayor and other Kaua‘i business and government attendees at two days of business symposia that will include topics such as Economic Development Through Energy Independence, Trade Facilitation, Market Access, and Financial Risk Mitigation to Smart Grid Technologies: Reshaping Economies and Communities of the Future including a luncheon and keynote — “What is China’s 12th Five Year Plan?”.
Adjacent to the Hawai‘i room is the Media and Press Room where the nearly 2,000 members of the worldwide press corps are headquartered The vast size of the room was divided into a stage with seating for over 500 members of the media and have a press conference, private rooms for meetings and, stations for the nearly 2,000 members to write stories and news releases. The media have access to this 24 hour press room, especially, since many of the nations like Japan are 19 hours ahead of Hawai‘i Time. The location of the Hawai‘i Exhibit Space which is conveniently located next to the press room provides easy access for the media on their ‘down time’ to visit and learn more about Hawai‘i and write stories that will promote Hawai‘i as both a leisure and business destination.
At the APEC Business Advisory Council Meetings Reception which was the first official event which Mayor Carvalho and Director Costa attended at the Westin Moana Surfrider Hotel, Mayor Carvalho learned that attendees from member nations such as Peru and Malaysia were familiar with Maui and Waikiki but, did not know about Kaua‘i as another Hawaiian island.
Per Mayor Carvalho, “It was a definite opportunity to network, shake hands, share aloha, and talk about Kaua‘i! I was surprised to learn that while the attendees from Peru and Malaysia were familiar with Maui and Waikiki, I realized that it was even more important for all of us from Kaua‘i to talk about Kaua‘i and make sure that everyone who stopped by the exhibit booth with the beautiful display, picture boards and floral displays to pass out all of the media collateral (film and visitor guides, Kaua‘i Grown, etc.) and Kaua‘i samples such as Kaua‘i Cookies, Aunty Lilikoi and Kaua‘i Coffee.”
I’ll be joining the Mayor and members of our Kaua‘i delegation at various events throughout the week and the Mayor will be using each and every opportunity to promote and or introduce Kaua‘i to our neighbors from through the APEC region. The next articles will focus on meetings and networking opportunities. Mayor Carvalho will also be live on Hawai‘i News Now with Howard Discus Friday at 6:30 a.m. on KGMB 9 or KFVE5.
Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau adds, “We look forward to this opportunity to showcase Kaua‘i and develop new relationships for the future”.
For Kaua‘i, indeed, developing relationships and building upon these connections is the short to long term take away for Kaua‘i. Whether the language is English, Bhasa Indonesian, Mandarin, Vietnamese, everyone here this week is speaking one universal language – creating policies, building and strengthening relationships that will help economies throughout this geo-economic and political sphere contribute to a better and more sustainable world where significant economic development is taking place especially, at a time of stagnant and at times, a strained and stratified economic cycle.
• Randy Francisco is president of the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce.
