Third MICE Forum: Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu: Actively promote the MICE industry

The Kaohsiung City Government held the "Third Kaohsiung MICE Forum" at the Kaohsiung International Convention Center on the 17th to discuss the outlook for the MICE industry and how to cooperate with the central government to create new opportunities. Mayor Chen Chu stated that Kaohsiung is actively promoting the MICE industry, with estimated economic benefits of about 16 billion yuan and excellent prospects. She also expressed the hope that after the new government takes office in the future, it will give more support and resources to the development of the MICE industry in southern Taiwan, promoting Kaohsiung's urban transformation and upgrading.

Mayor Chen Chu said, "The MICE industry is one of Kaohsiung's key industries in the future." Last year, the number of MICE events at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center and the Kaohsiung International Convention Center rose from 404 in 2013 to 1,573. In addition, the city government also launched the Kaohsiung MICE Alliance last year to integrate industry, government, and academia, and invited Tainan, Pingtung, and Penghu to join in jointly marketing southern Taiwan. As of last year, the output value of Kaohsiung's MICE industry was estimated at nearly 4 billion yuan.

Mayor Chen Chu pointed out that in addition to actively seeking to bring existing MICE events to Kaohsiung, efforts are also being made to create new exhibitions. This September, the "Global Harbor Cities Forum" will be held, inviting 30 international harbor cities from five continents to attend and jointly discuss the development and transformation of harbor cities. She also hopes that more MICE events related to Kaohsiung's industries can move to Kaohsiung, promote industrial development, and make Kaohsiung the preferred location for hosting MICE events in the Asia-Pacific.

The Kaohsiung City Economic Development Bureau stated that in order to strengthen the functions of the Kaohsiung MICE Alliance, it will in the future refer to the operations of foreign organizations, formulate incentive policies for potential conferences and new exhibitions, and invest in the cultivation of MICE professionals, hoping to expand the scale of Kaohsiung's MICE industry and make it more professional and internationalized.