Taiwanese firms set to shine at CeBIT

Despite a fall in the number of participants, Taiwan is poised to steal the limelight at this year's CeBIT, when the world's largest IT trade fair opens its doors to worldwide visitors on Thursday in Hannover, northern Germany.

Taiwan again boasts the largest foreign participation this year, a collection of 602 companies, which will occupy 18,320m2 of floor space, according to preliminary tallies posted on the CeBIT official Web site last week.

Taiwanese firms account for 18.2 percent of the 3,311 foreign exhibitors.

But the number of participants has declined in the past two years. Taiwan had 711 vendors at the expo last year, while there were 775 firms a year earlier.

The shrinking number of Taiwanese firms is in line with CeBIT's decline as this year's expo will be 10 percent smaller than last year's in terms of space, with exhibitors down to 6,059 from last year's 6,246.

China continues to be the second-largest foreign participant, with 471 exhibitors, and South Korea the third with 215 companies, according to the CeBIT figures.

Last year, there were 412 Chinese companies and 229 South Korean firms joining the fair.

BenQ Corp (明基), the biggest Taiwanese exhibitor with 2,200m2 of floor space at CeBIT last year, decided to stay away this year, along with Tatung Co (大同).

"Our sales team had evaluated that the show didn't really offer us the impact we wanted," Iris Chi (漆瑞芸), a Tatung PR official, told the Taipei Times yesterday.

But the company does not rule out the possibility of rejoining CeBIT next year, she added.

Other local IT heavyweights -- such as Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Micro-Star International Co (微星科技), Foxconn International Holdings (富士康) and Acer Inc -- decided not to miss out on CeBIT and will flaunt their latest technology.

Meanwhile, 37 other smaller Taiwanese companies opted to join a special pavilion dedicated to Taiwan.

Spanning 808m2, the Taiwan-themed pavilion is organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), a semi-official trade promotion body.

TAITRA said it expected to see more than 20,000 buyers visiting the booths, which showcase the IT power of local companies.

In addition, the council will also hold a "Taiwan Night," an evening gathering where representatives of the companies can mingle with potential buyers, as well as a "Taiwan ICT Industrial Forum" to discuss the latest technology trends.