Byzantine Cultural Autonomy Foundation set up
Chinese businesswoman Sara Kuo, whose US-based company serves to broker deals between Asian manufacturers of information technology and communications products, and buyers in Latin American states, has been instrumental in the setting up of a new...
Chinese businesswoman Sara Kuo, whose US-based company serves to broker deals between Asian manufacturers of information technology and communications products, and buyers in Latin American states, has been instrumental in the setting up of a new cultural foundation in Malta.
The Byzantine Cultural Autonomy Foundation, as it has been named, aims to raise funds for cultural projects based in Malta, and to support art-related events.
The first such event will be a dramatic exhibition of works in oils by the Los Angeles-based Li Zijian, a noted artist who grew up in China during the excesses of Mao's Cultural Revolution. The exhibition opens on February 21 at Gallery G in Lija.
Ms Kuo set up her first business - a Spanish translation service - on leaving university, where she read for a degree in the language.
As one of the few Chinese able to speak fluent Spanish, she was inevitably asked by the authorities to act as an interpreter for visiting businessmen and politicians from Latin American states.
The network she built up enabled her to start a trading company, which began by exporting car components to Latin America.
In the late 1990s, Ms Kuo set up Motosara Inc. in the United States and Taiwan, with branch offices in several Latin American states, to develop the market for telephone handsets and accessories, having realised that the future lay in mobile telephony.
Her company also develops business in South America for the Chinese communications and computer products manufacturers Ritek Group, CMC Group, Acer, Microtek, Daxian Communications and Chang Hung, and for the Korean operations Hyundai and Hanwha.
As her business stabilised, Ms Kuo turned her attention to other matters. Her work in the field of culture and the arts led to her being named a Dame of Grace by Prince Henri Constantine de Vigo Aleramico Paleologo, in the Order of the Star of Asia.
Prince Henri, in November 2002, had led a delegation of members of his order to Malta, where they called on then President Guido de Marco. Ms Kuo was among them, and it was that visit which piqued her interest in the islands.
She now works for the conferment and investiture of outstanding individuals to the Imperial Byzantine Order of the Star of Asia.
The Byzantine Cultural Autonomy Foundation is being administered in Malta by Henry Bonnici.