The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) announced yesterday that it aims to set up five more overseas branches this year in an effort to reach out to more countries.
While all the details are still being worked out, the new offices will most probably be located in Libya, Kenya, Lebanon and India, said Walter Yeh (葉明水), TAITRA's executive vice president.
"This year, we will establish offices where the foreign and economic ministries have no presence. This represents our efforts for overseas strategic deployment and we want to extend comprehensive services to Taiwanese businesspeople there," he told reporters on the sidelines of a press conference yesterday.
According to Yeh, each office will require an initial investment of around NT$25 million (US$773,000), and the council will station two officials at each office and hire another three local staff for support operations.
TAITRA set up nine new offices last year in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Romania, Ukraine, South Africa, Chile, Spain and the US.
This brought the number of the government-backed trade promotion agency's offices to 44, which is still far fewer than the Japan External Trade Organization's 77 worldwide branches, and the Korea-Trade and Investment Promotion Agency's 105 offices.
Meanwhile, the council is also poised to widen exchanges with exhibitors across the Taiwan Strait.
"We are putting on 10 trade shows for companies in China this year for exhibition participation and procurement possibilities. We have received applications for five of the shows so far," Yeh said.
These shows include the Taipei International Automobile Electronics Show, the Taipei International Gift and Stationery Show as well as the Taipei International Digital Electronics Show.
The council only allowed Chinese vendors to participate in the Taipei International Electronics Autumn Show last year.
In June last year, the council closed down four booths at Computex Taipei 2005 that were being operated by two Chinese companies, which had gained access to the show using the names of two local companies.
"We don't have plans to open up Computex to Chinese firms this year because of limitations on booths," Yeh said.
In related news, TAITRA chairman Hsu Chih-jen (許志仁) said that the Taipei International Convention Center, which is managed by TAITRA, reported 15-year record-high revenue last year of over NT$270 million.
The figure will rise this year due to improvements in facilities which will better accommodate international conventions, he added.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
RSS