I am very pleased to see you, in such a difficult time. We are still suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic, especially people who are working in the International tourism industry and the International education industry, including many Japanese nationals.
Our incorporation aims at being the primary body in Queensland to support Japanese nationals and residents in this state. In the last 10 months, as advocates of the Japanese community, JCQ has been working closely with the Japanese Society of Gold Coast Inc., the Japan Chamber of Commerce of Industry Gold Coast Inc. and the Japanese Society of Cairns to discuss with Federal, State and Local MPs and Councillors the difficulties faced by International client based industries. For the first time we coordinated a survey to all Queensland Japanese community to investigate the real opinions and concerns around the tourism industry.
I was honoured to represent the community to send community sentiments to Hon. Scott Morrison MP, Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Dan Tehan MP, Federal Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, and the Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier of Queensland. Also, we had several meetings with the State Minister for Tourism Industry Development, Hon. Stirling Hinchliffe MP, the Deputy Leader of Opposition and Ministers for Tourism and Multiculturalism.
Support wise, we have been providing almost daily Covid-19 information and updates from QLD government sources translated into Japanese in a timely manner for over 400 days.
Even throughout this pandemic, we have many Queenslanders who have goodwill and interest towards Japan. The Gold Coast Language Speech Contest continues to grow in the Japanese sector having the largest number of entries, and we hear that so many of our Australian friends want to go to Japan, once the international borders open. In the meantime, we are delighted to announce that our social clubs, such as Awaodori, Koto and the Brisbane Idol Project are actively engaging with the community and sharing the fun and love of Japanese culture.
In our third year, we continue to strive to maintain a solid foundation, networking with others and trying to establish our goals and vision. With your active engagement, I believe JCQ will continue growing and reaching new heights.
This time we have a minor change to our committee team. I appreciate the founding secretary of our organization, David, for his huge contributions that has brought us this far.
Thank you to all members, both private and corporate, for your warm support and we look forward to working with you all this year stronger than ever.
President
Naomichi HIRANO