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Summary Report

The 12th APEC Women Leaders' Network Meeting
25 – 27 June 2007
Port Douglas
Australia

 

Official Opening
Following a special performance from the QANTAS Australian Girls Choir, on 25 June 2007 before more than 400 delegates, the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia, His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC, officially opened the 12th APEC Women Leaders’ Network (WLN) meeting in Port Douglas, Australia.   
The 12th meeting of the Network incorporated a range of conference activities, including plenary and panel sessions, forums and workshops focusing on the meeting’s key themes of:

Lead-in Events
There were two lead-in events to the WLN meeting. On 22-23 June the Asian Pacific Women’s Information Network Centre (AWPINC) continued its series of APEC forums for women in the digital economy. Under the theme of Building a Sustainable e-Future, participants heard from a wide range of speakers who outlined the benefits that digital technology could offer for women entrepreneurs.    

The second lead-in meeting was a highly successful Women in Export Trade Event held on 24 June, chaired by Jenny Mathews, WA State Director of Austrade and a member of the Australian WLN Reference Group. Australian trade experts, successful local and international exporters discussed topics including:

The day culminated with a mini trade show presented by Australian exporters and featuring a tasting of local produce.   

Day One
The 12th APEC WLN meeting opened with a Welcome Speech by the Australian Host of the meeting, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, Minister for Education, Science and Training and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women’s Issues. This was followed by a report on the 2006 11th Women Leaders’ Network meeting given by the Vice President of the Vietnam Women’s Union, HE Nguyen Thi Oanh, the host of APEC WLN 2006.

The opening session of the 12th WLN meeting was brought to a close with a joint presentation entitled WLN: Then and Now given by Andrina Lever, co-founder of WLN and President of Lever Enterprises, and Heather Ridout, Chair of WLN 2007 and Chair of the Australian WLN Reference Group, who spoke respectively on the history of the Network and its aspirations for the future.  

The first formal session of the meeting incorporated a plenary and panel session entitled Challenges for Women Leaders. The keynote speech was delivered by the Hon Julie Bishop. Following that, the Hon Marjory LeBreton, Leader of the Government in the Senate of Canada; the Hon Lianne Dalziel, Minister for Small Business, Minister of Women’s Affairs, New Zealand; the Hon Mei Yueh Ho, Minister of the Executive Yuan, Chinese Taipei and the Hon Magdalene Toroansi, Minister for Women, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea discussed challenges women leaders face today.

Over lunch, WLN delegates met with Chris de Cure, Head of the 2007 APEC Taskforce and Geoff Brennan, Executive Director of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) to discuss ways through which WLN and ABAC might be more closely aligned within the APEC context.

In the first of the WLN Luncheon Dialogues, Dr Kelvin Kong shared with delegates some of the issues Indigenous Australians face in assuming leadership positions within the community.

The afternoon session featured two concurrent streams: a series of workshops on Information and Communications Technology issues and a  forum focusing on the topic Strengthening the capacity of business to meet the challenges of climate change.

The lead speaker in the climate change forum was Dr Ziggy Switkowski, Chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Following Dr Switkowski’s presentation a panel, chaired by the Hon Justice Dr Annabelle Bennett, a member of the Australian WLN Reference Group, and including two other Reference Group members, Sam Mostyn, Group Executive, Culture and Reputation, Insurance Australia Group and Alison Terry, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, GM Holden Ltd., discussed the importance of including women’s voices in the collaboration across APEC to address the multi-disciplinary challenges needed to deal with climate change.

Other speakers in the forum were Judy Stewart, Chief Executive, Great Barrier Reef Research Foundation and Ann Phua, Hemispheres Foundation, Singapore.

The ICT workshops focused on the themes of ICT and Women’s Entrepreneurship and How Technology Assists Business and were chaired by Dr Patrice Braun, Deputy Director, Centre for Regional Innovation and Competitiveness, University of Ballarat, and a member of the WLN Reference Group.

The first day of the 12th APEC WLN meeting concluded with an informal barbeque dinner and bush dance led by a local band, Bush Remedy.

Day Two
The second day opened with a plenary and panel session at the Glade Pavilion entitled Global Challenges, Focusing on Sustainable Development and How Economies are Dealing with Issues. The session began with a keynote address from Amanda Ellis, Head of Gender Entrepreneurship Markets, World Bank Group. Panellists in the session featured Vicki Gordon, the Senior Vice President of InterContinental Hotels Group; Sun Hee Lee, Director AusAID, Australia; and Myrna T Yao, Chairperson of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, Philippines.

The morning’s second plenary and panel session, entitled Strengthening Capacity to Develop Skills to Meet Economic Challenges, began with a keynote speech from Catherine Livingstone, Director of Telstra and Macquarie Bank. Speakers in the panel discussion were Ahn Yoon Jung, President of the Korean Women Entrepreneurs organisation; Dr Nona S. Ricafort, Commissioner of Higher Education from the Philippines; Marlene Kanga, from the National Committee for Women in Engineering, Engineers Australia; and Andrina Lever, President of Lever Enterprises.

The second in the WLN Luncheon Dialogue series was given by Dr Manny Noakes, from the CSIRO, on health and wellbeing.

After lunch, the meeting again divided into two concurrent streams featuring workshops and a forum on ICT issues, chaired by Dr Patrice Braun, entitled E-Capacity Building for SMEs. Tracy Fellows, Chief Executive of Microsoft Australia was the keynote speaker in the forum. Other panellists were Barbara Bauer, formerly Vice President of Sun Micro Systems, USA; Chi-Fen Wang, Director of Technology Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Chinese Taipei; Anne McKevitt, Head of Ami-Group Enterprises, Australia; and Dr Kio Chung Kim, Executive Director, APEC Women’s e-Biz Centre, Sookmyung University, Korea.  

In the workshop stream, the themes for the three concurrently run sessions were: 

In the second afternoon session the workshop themes covered:

Day two of the WLN meeting finished with a Gala Dinner in the Glade Pavilion. Delegates enjoyed a dinner featuring contemporary Australian cuisine with entertainment provided by the Orchid Quartet and a special performance from Christine Anu. During the evening, Heads of Delegation from the APEC economies were presented with a memento of their visit.

Day Three
The final day of the WLN meeting, began with a plenary session - Business challenges to build sustainable futures. Jillian Broadbent, a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia, gave a keynote presentation that was followed by a panel discussion. Speakers were Irina Gorbulina, President of the Russian Academy of Business; Dr Chonchanok Viravan, President of BPW International, Thailand; and Lau Ka Shi, Member of the Women’s Commission, Hong Kong, China.  

The last plenary session of the meeting began with the presentation of reports from the five members of Australia’s WLN Reference Group. These covered the five key themes of the meeting and the reports highlighted issues arising from panel and workshop discussions that went to form the meeting’s outcomes.

In conclusion, the Chair of WLN 2007, Heather Ridout, presented the Statement and Recommendations of the 12th APEC Women Leaders’ Network meeting for ratification.

The 12th meeting of the APEC Women Leaders’ Network formally ended with a Handover Ceremony to Peru, the hosts for the 13th meeting. The WLN banner was presented by the Australian Chair of WLN, Heather Ridout, to Mayela Freyre Valladolid, representing the Peruvian host of WLN 2008, the Minister for Women and Social Development.

Heather Ridout


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Meeting Arrangements

 

The Chair of the 12th APEC Women Leaders’ Network meeting was Heather Ridout, Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group. In planning the meeting, she led a Reference Group of eminent Australian women.
They are:

Meeting arrangements and logistics for the meeting were provided by staff from the Australian Government Office for Women and other staff members from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Additional support was provided by volunteers from James Cook University.

Summaries of Presentations Made at the 12th APEC Women Leaders’ Network Meeting