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Government hopes to boost share of world yacht sales

The government is working on policies to promote the yacht-building industry, aiming to bring Taiwan into the world's top four yacht-making countries, an official said yesterday.

The government expects the output value of yacht building to reach NT$19.5 billion (US$596.3 million) by 2015 and hopes to see at least one firm rank among the world's top four by then, the official from the Council for Economic Planning and Development said.

Citing a January report in industry publication ShowBoats International, the official said the world's mega yacht market would continue growing. He said that many of Taiwan's 31 yacht makers have already shifted from building traditional yachts to super yachts to cash in on growing business opportunities.

According to the official, the output value of Taiwan's yacht industry last year was NT$7.48 billion, up 4.8 percent from the previous year's NT$7.14 billion. That number was 16.5 percent of the shipping industry's output value.

The official said the worldwide yacht market was worth about US$40 billion per year, with the US enjoying 49 percent of the market. Taiwan ranked seventh in the world and first in Asia last year in terms of yacht building orders.

Plans under consideration include improving infrastructure for industry clusters, training yacht design personnel, building laboratories to test ship functions and holding international yacht exhibitions.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications hopes to amend regulations, integrate inspection bureaus and simplify inspection processes to help the industry, the official said.
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