On February 16, the Sports Administration held the “2023 APEC Sports Policy Network Dialogue” in Tokyo together with HYPE GVA TW. Seven APEC member economies, 10 representatives from industry, government and academia, and 9 sports innovation teams from Canada, Switzerland, India and Taiwan were invited to the demo day in Tokyo to discuss the sustainable development of sports events and youth participation in sports while, at the same time, presenting various sports innovation cases.

   The APEC Sports Policy Network (ASPN) was established in 2016 after being proposed by the Sports Administration and holds 1-2 meetings annually. In the morning, representatives from Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore addressed the theme Young & Green, discussing and sharing experiences of youth participation in sports and sustainability in sports events. Additionally, participants were able to exchange on the subject of how to merge the concept of sustainability into more sports events and increase youth participation in sports in each economy. Manager Yip Ren Ka from Singapore gave a keynote speech on “The future of e-sports in Asia”, bringing new sparks from the meeting of sports and e-games. The afternoon keynote speech was given by Mr. Hidenori Suzuki, CEO for ticketing and customer management for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, who talked about the successful experience of handling large-scale sports events.

   To date, HYPE GVA TW has nurtured 96 sports innovation teams from Taiwan and overseas. Approaching its fifth year, HYPE GVA TW established by the Sports Administration, Center of Industry Accelerator and Patent Strategy (IAPS) and HYPE Sports Innovation (HYPE), brought the demo day of the 9^th training cycle. The teams’ diverse products ranged from intelligent hockey balls, table tennis bats, sensor clothes to sports venue automated management system, MR virtual sport interactive ping-pong table. Through online and offline scoring by judges from the fields of investment, sports industry, business high level management and media, the HYPE Award was first given to Space Capsul and Dartle; following on, Space Capsule and GoSky AI were awarded the Sports Administration Award, and last but not least, 3T Magic and Bolt Sports received the IAPS Award.

   In the HYPE GVA TW Alumni Panel discussion meeting this time, Mr.Volker Heistermann, Manager of Mosaic Venture Lab of the US, led Taiwan’s excellent graduating teams : Ness Wellness mental, physical and spiritual platform, AQUIVIO, Uniigym sports platform APP, and mbranfiltra in discussion, sharing the teams’ international competitive advantages and future development cooperation opportunities.

   This meeting was successfully held with the support of various APEC economies and sports innovation teams and also involved meetings with the Japan Sports Tourism Alliance (JSTA) and the Kawasaki Deep Tech accelerator. It is hoped that, in the future, can continue to interact with each economy on the ASPN platform, and showcase Taiwan’s sports innovation capability, increasing the opportunity for international linkage.