EU-Taiwan Green Summit: Moving towards a circular economy
Ms Wang Mei-Hua (王美花), Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ms Madeleine Majorenko, Head of the European Economic and Trade office (EETO), and Mr Lin Chin-Rong (林欽榮), Deputy Major of Taipei City Government delivered opening remarks at the summit.
Ms Majorenko stated that the EU is actively working to put the circular economy into action, and is keen to engage in international cooperation with partners like Taiwan in order to increase resource efficiency in global value chains. Taiwan is committed to a zero-waste policy and has developed advanced industrial waste monitoring and management systems. The EU is of course aware that the circular economy needs more research and innovation and that in particular small and medium enterprises, the backbone of our economies, need access to capital to foster the shift. In the EU, this transition is supported financially by the EU funding programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020, with 650 million euros and 5.5 billion euros from structural funds. She encouraged Taiwanese companies to participate in Horizon 2020.
The morning session began with a keynote speech from Mr Vincent Tseng, representative of PHILIPS Taiwan, on business model innovation for the circular economy. In the first session of the EU and Taiwan policies on circular economy and green trade, Mr Gwenole Cozigou, Director for Industrial Transformation and Advanced Value Chains, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs from the European Commission, explained the EU's new circular economy package. Dr Karin Peters, Chief Advisor of Section for Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Danish Environmental Protection Agency, shared her country's circular approach on nutrient management in agricultural production. Two other Taiwanese experts who shared their insights in this session were: Dr Harvey J. Houng, Senior Advisor from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and Mr Charles Huang, Chairperson of the Taiwan Circular Economy Network.
In the afternoon session, European and Taiwanese experts talked about innovative recycling and waste management, and eco-innovation and green creative projects, and shared business and industrial experiences in the circular economy and green technology.
Experts from Europe included: Mr Francois Jenny, Managing Director of Incineration of SUEZ Recycling & Waste Recovery Asia, Mr Leo Tseng, Business Development & Sales Manager, Umicore Marketing Services Taiwan; Mr Nicolas Buttin, Co-Founder of Wiithaa & Circulab; Dr Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto; Mr Jim Tai, General Manager of REMONDIS Taiwan. Experts from Taiwan included: Ms Lin Ju-Wen (林茹雯), Manager of Da Fon Environmental Technology, Mr Gordon Yu (余金龍), Chairman & CEO of eTouch Innovation, Dr Ma Hwong-Wen (馬鴻文), Professor at the Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University; Dr Li Chiu-Ping (李秋萍), Deputy Director of Gren Technology research Institute, CPC Corporation Taiwan; Dr Cheng Jiin-Rong (鄭錦榮), Director of Chemistry and Environment Laboratory, Taiwan Power Research Institute.
The mains sessions were followed by three fruitful and lively panel discussions in which the speakers participated. Mr Hsiao Chen-Jung, Deputy Director General of the Industrial Development Bureau under the MOEA also participated in the discussions with panelists. The panel discussions were moderated by Dr Richard Fan (Kuo-Shuh), Professor of National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, Dr Wen Lih-Chyi, Deputy Director of the Green Trade Project Office, MOEA and Mr Andreas Gursch, Sales Director Taiwan, Schüco International (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
