Dr Lee visits Taiwan

Dr Kang-Hyun Lee, President of IAVE, visited Taiwan on November 26-28, 2008 to promote the 12th IAVE Asia-Pacific Regional Volunteer Conference, which will take place in Kaohsiung in November 2009, and meet with government, NPO and corporate leaders. The visit confirmed the strong connection between IAVE and Taiwan.

The highlight of the trip was a meeting with Taiwan’s vice president Vincent Siew, who accepted an invitation to be the honorary chairperson of the organizing committee of the 12th IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Volunteer Conference, and promised to be in Kaohsiung in November for the event. In other official engagements, Dr. Lee called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the National Youth Commission, and other government organizations.

While in Taipei, Dr. Lee gave an “International Masterclass Forum” on the topic of “The Rise of Economic Social Power: Role Models in Corporate Volunteering” on November 26. The forum was an opportunity for stakeholders from the corporate and volunteering sectors to share their experiences.

Participants included Sophie Tsai, general manager of the corporate branding and communications division at Sony Taiwan; Chi Hui-Jung, CEO of the Garden of Hope Foundation; and Phyllis Weng, department head of the social resources department at the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families.

In his speech, Dr. Kang Hyun Lee announced the beginning of the third stage in corporate volunteering, which goes beyond charity work and moves into the realm of cooperation between companies and civil society organizations. Corporate volunteering encourages employees to become active citizens, which has social benefits and also profits the volunteer and the corporation. Dr. Lee also introduced IAVE’s Global Corporate Volunteer Council, which was established in November 2006 with the goal to promote corporate volunteering and encourage employees to participate in community development on a global scale. Looking forward to the 12th IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Volunteer Conference in Kaohsiung, Dr. Lee expressed his wish to see the establishment of a Taiwan Corporate Volunteer Council.

The lively question and answer session at the end confirmed the level of interest in the core theme of the 12th IAVE Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, "Corporate Volunteering and its Impact on Asia Pacific Society".

IAVE Taiwan arranged for Dr. Lee to visit several Taiwanese companies, big and small, including: Global Mobile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, and the San-Chi Hair Salon Chain Store, to get a better understanding of their volunteering experiences and the outcomes of their corporate social responsibility programs.