Event catch-up:11 November 2010

There has been a lot going on over the past month since the Malaysian Trade Minister's visit to Brisbane.  This is a short summary of events.

16th October 2010: Butterfly Ball

The annual Butterfly Ball was held at the Hilton with Sami Lukas as the MC and a special performance by Katie Noonan.  The Butterfly Ball raises money for the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital BRAIN project (Brain Reseach Advances in Newborns) and it was a very moving night.  We had four members of AMBCQ attend, and some of our supporters are heavily involved in the Butterfly Ball, including our AMBCQ patron Dr Peter Yeoh OAM and his wife Alice.  To find out more about the BRAIN project click here: http://www.rbwhbutterflyball.com/brain_project.html

19^th October 2010: Meeting at DFAT Headquarters with DFAT and Malaysian negotiation team re MAFTA

Kiong was invited by AMBC National to participate in this round of negotiations which were taking place in Canberra.  There were several dozen senior Australian DFAT, Malaysian MITI and industry representatives in attendance.  While in Canberra, he also caught up with several diplomats and other contacts. 

26th October 2010: Premier's Deepavali Celebrations

Shaeed, Aashmita, Lai Peng and Kim



Shaeed, Aashmita, Gomerty, Mandy, Jerome, Lai Peng, Shona with Ilkka and Lilian with Ilmi



AMBCQ was invited to participate in the Premier's Deepavali Celebrations for the Indian community, which was held on the Speaker's Green at Parliament.  We were invited to put forward some names, and about 20 of our members and supporters attended the function.  It was quite a big turnout, of several hundred in attendance and it was a nice evening to catch up with many contacts in other organisations.  The function was also attended by the Indian High Commissioner. 

27th October 2010: Inaugural Australia-Japan Annual Dialogue with Hon Alexander Downer and His Excellency Mr Shigekazu Sato, Japanese Ambassador to Australia

We were very lucky to be invited along to this function by Elfi Massey-Valazza and John Massey of the Australian Council for Europe.  Although it was nominally regarding Japan-Australia relations, the two speakers did touch on many regional and international issues, especially regarding the rise of China and the perception that China-Australian relations have been elevated to the detriment of many other relations.  It was also very interesting to see the trade figures for Asia put into perspective. 

30th October to 2nd November 2010: Trip to Malaysia

Kiong had a short trip to Malaysia, which was supported by AirAsia.  He caught up with many important contacts while in Malaysia, including MIDA and MATrade officials, MABC, journalists, and AirAsia.

4^th November 2010: AMBCNSW Information evening in Sydney. 

AMBCNSW organised a special hook-up with the Australian High Commission in KL.  The event was in a way intended to relaunch AMBCNSW which has been low key for sometime.  There was a good turnout of about 20 people, and Kiong gave a presentation, as did Consul Khairuddin from MIDA.  We also agreed later on to organise some joint AMBCQ/AMBC NSW events in Sydney, starting with perhaps either a Christmas function or Chinese New Year, or both.  Khairuddin has agreed to the use his office for any AMBC functions to support the branch.

6th November 2010: Deepavali Celebrations with the Tamil Association of Qld


Rose, Debra, Lai Peng, Amelia, John-Paul, Kiong and Dr Nava




There were about 800 people in the crowd!  They had to turn away a couple of hundred.

 As we do each year, we joined our friends in the Tamil Assoc for their annual Deepavali celebrations.  Over 800 people were at the event this year (apparently they had to turn away another 200 who wanted to attend).  AMBCQ had two tables at the event and we hosted Cr Julian Simmonds, the newly elected Brisbane City Councillor for Walter Taylor Ward.