Taipei, 29 November –The European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT) has announced that Giuseppe Izzo, General Manager of STMicroelectronics will serve as Chairman of the ECCT's board of directors in 2014 for the second consecutive year. Izzo was elected by the new board of directors at their first meeting following the chamber's Annual General Meeting (AGM) today. The 2014 boards of 15 directors and 5 supervisors were voted into office at today's AGM by ECCT members.

In its annual report to members at today's AGM, the ECCT reported that 2013 was a very successful year for the chamber. The chamber regularly engaged with the Executive Yuan throughout the year, helping to further promote members' business interests. Membership rose to over 800 individual members and the quality and participation at events remained very high. The chamber successfully completed the transition to a nationwide association and began expanding its outreach to local governments across Taiwan. This included face to face meetings and other activities with the mayors and city governments of Taichung, Tainan, Taoyuan County and Kaohsiung.

High profile activities during the year included the 25th anniversary and inauguration of the chamber as a nationwide association, the Europe Day dinner and the Low Carbon Initiative's conference with the Tainan City Government. There were also a number of other Premium Events which attracted high profile guest speakers. In terms of advocacy, the chamber saw a much higher level of progress compared to previous years. Of the issues raised in the 2013 Position Papers, over 25% of issues were either successfully resolved or saw progress towards resolution compared to less than 14% last year.