Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has met with Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. The meeting took place during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference that’s happening right now in Vietnam.
Sandberg says Asia Pacific is home to 60% of the world’s population and that more people use tech (inc Facebook) than anywhere else.
Australia is well known for its early adopters of technology and its great to see that recognised on a global scale.
After discussions, Sandberg and Turnbull posted a join announcement (on Facebook), that Facebook’s Community Boost program is coming to Australia. This aims to train 3,000 small regional businesses on digital literacy, building communities and how to be successful in a global marketplace. The training will also touch on security and how to stay safe online.
Sandberg says around 200 million people are connected to at least 1 small business in Australia on Facebook, demonstrating the potential market opportunity. 80% of small businesses in APAC that are using Facebook are selling outside their city, state or country.
For some weird reason the program start in Mackay, QLD. You can watch a brief interview with Turnbull interviewing Sandberg below.
Sandberg went on to say,
It’s an honor to be here with government officials and NGO leaders from across the region to talk about how we can all work together and help make sure people benefit from being connected.
