David Yap

David Yap joined TAFE NSW Riverina Institute in February 1999 as Director Commercial Development.David and his team of training consultants are working hard to serve the business, farming and general community of the Riverina by accessing Commonwealth funding for staff training and traineeship placements.

David Yap has been a hands-on director of various companies involved in business management training; enterprise growth consulting; exports promotion; horticultural development; furniture manufacturing; seafoods processing; and direct selling.

Prior to migration to Australia from Malaysia, in 1987, David established the international operations division of a public listed company.In its second year, the division achieved MR $ 32.5 million in export sales of processed food and timber products, general merchandise and made-to-order garments, sourced from South East Asian countries for export to Europe, USA, Japan.

As advisor to the Selangor Federation of Chinese Trade Associations, including 19 manufacturing associations, David was pioneer director of companies he initiated to enable several trade associations (Highland Farmers; Motor Cycle Dealers; Provision Suppliers; Taxi Cooperative ) to pool their resources and networks to derive competitive advantage from bulk purchasing and distribution projects.

In Australia for the past 12 years David has specialised in exports and off-shore joint ventures facilitation, business matching and investments focusing on the food and food processing industry.As managing director of an Australian government Accredited Business Migration Agency David presented dozens of investment opportunities to his clients.

David was also general manager of a profitable $50 million property investment group active in residential and light industrial subdivisions, shopping centre ownership and management in Melbourne.

He called on food importers, wholesalers and retailers in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong and managing a network of overseas agents when he was general manager of a highly successful seafoods processing company in Victoria.

As Senior International Trade Executive, David managed the Vietnam Representative Office and the China Desk of the Australian Business Chamber in Sydney.It involved leading trade delegations to Vietnam and exports marketing of Australian products to China and Vietnam.

David holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from the University of Malaya.He was recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship at Syracuse University, New York.

David represented Malaysia at the International Symposium of Small Business, Ottawa 1981 and has been guest of the New Zealand Exporters Institute, the Asia Foundation to visit the entrepreneurship development organisations in the USA.David has been to hundreds of factories in Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Taiwan.Thailand, Italy, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia and China.He has done business with 24 countries.

David believes the Riverina has much to offer the national and international markets.He is enjoying life in regional Australia and keen to be of service to local businesses by promoting life long learning opportunities to grow market share and competitive advantage.