Page 2812 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018
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We left Singapore and moved to Hong Kong. Canberra has seen significant growth in both tourism and aviation over the last few years, and we have seen significant growth in hotel investment. Whilst in Hong Kong, I met with the chief executive officer of the Ovolo group. Members might be aware that the Ovolo group recently purchased the leasehold of Hotel Hotel, just over in New Acton, from the Molonglo Group. This purchase followed a meeting I had with the group about a year ago to encourage their investment in Canberra hotels. The Ovolo brand enhances Canberra’s reputation as a globally connected city and also enables access to the international marketplace through the company’s extensive distribution network. I was very pleased with the meeting and the success of the Ovolo group’s investments in Canberra to date and look forward to further investments in our tourism sector from that hotel group.
Canberra’s potential as a global aviation hub is growing, and we are looking to promote opportunities for new airlines to connect with Canberra. A connection with Hong Kong and other major cities in China will open Canberra to a range of new tourism trade and investment opportunities.
In Hong Kong I met with Mr John Zheng, the general manager of airline planning and commercial development, and his team at Hong Kong Airlines. This was the first meeting between the ACT government and Hong Kong Airlines and provided an opportunity to give an overview of Canberra’s tourism market and its growing visitor economy and key economic drivers and to outline why our city presents an opportunity for future expansion for Hong Kong Airlines into the Australian market.
Moving to South Korea, my visit started with a meeting with the Australian ambassador, His Excellency Mr James Choi, who highlighted the vast range of opportunities for the ACT, particularly focused on renewable energy. Members may not be aware, but the South Korean government’s current policy is to raise the use of renewable energy in their nation from two per cent to 20 per cent by 2030. Given the ACT’s proven record of policy development in renewable energy, we are ideally placed to assist with and capitalise on this opportunity.
Whilst in South Korea I also met with Samsung, Hanwha and Hyundai. Discussions with Samsung quickly moved beyond the infrastructure of delivering renewable energy to greater use of the information generated. Samsung’s work with other technologies like blockchain and advances in health was also discussed. We look forward to the development of a long-term relationship with Samsung in these and other areas.
Hanwha is another South Korean company with significant interests in renewable energy. Discussion with this group focused on the next generation of renewable energy generation and storage systems as well as the continuity of supply of electricity.
The meeting I held with Hyundai was at their Seoul Motorstudio, where we had the opportunity to ride in a hydrogen-powered Hyundai motor vehicle. Discussions focused on the company’s delivery of hydrogen-powered cars, buses and trucks, and the intersection of this activity, as well as the ACT government’s objective of
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