TAITRA wins rights for Nangang hall

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) announced yesterday that it won the right to operate an exhibition hall in Taipei City's Nangang District for 10 years, which would help expand the scale of Computex Taipei, Asia's largest computer expo.

Construction for the Nangang exhibition hall, with a capacity up to 2,800 booths, is expected to be complete by April next year and the hall will begin operations in 2008.

"With the current sites and the hall, we have more than 5,000 booths and no need to turn down any exhibitors due to limited space, as in the past," TAITRA Secretary-General Chao Yung-chuan (趙永全) said at the opening ceremony of the 26th Computex Taipei yesterday.

TAITRA and the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 電腦公會) are the organizers of the information technology sourcing fair, which will run through Saturday at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Halls I, II, III and Taipei International Convention Center.

This year's show is the largest ever, with 1,312 exhibitors showcasing their wares at 2,907 booths, according to the organizers. The five-day exhibition will draw an estimated 150,000 visitors, including more than 30,000 overseas buyers that may place orders of more than US$1 billion, the organizers said.

With the new exhibition hall ready for use in 2008, Taipei will have a chance to challenge the largest computer expo in the world, which is currently CeBIT in Hannover, Germany, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said at the ceremony.

In his opening remarks, Frank Huang (黃崇仁), chairman of the TCA, said that the rise of Asian powers -- particularly the emergence of China and India as major IT manufacturing hubs -- as well as Computex Taipei's "3C" (competitive, complete and collective) advantages make the trade show increasingly important.

Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc have continued to push their dual-core microprocessors, which are more powerful and energy-efficient, and were a highlight of last year's show.

Despite the absence of "killer" applications or products this year, local IT leaders such as Acer Inc, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and BenQ Corp (明基) unveiled their latest products, such as liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TVs with larger size and higher definition whose sales could benefit from World Cup fever, as well as new cellphones and notebook computers featuring more power or fancy designs.

One product fresh for local consumers is the Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC), which was unveiled at CeBIT and has already hit markets in Japan, Europe and the US.

UMPCs, small tablet PCs with an on-screen keyboard, were introduced this year by Microsoft and were formerly code-named "Origami." They are popular among users due to their portability.

One major maker of UMPCs is Samsung Electronic Corp, which started to sell them last month.

Taiwanese companies who have developed and showcased their products at the show include Asustek and Amtek System Co (奐億科技).

Amtek priced its UMPCs, powered by a VIA Technologies Inc (威盛科技) chipset, at US$899 each in Japan, one VIA official said.

The show runs from 9:30am to 6pm. The last day of the event will be open to the general public, with admission of NT$200 per person.