The annual Computex Taipei show is expected to attract more than 35,000 prospective buyers from Taiwan and abroad this year and generate US$20 billion in transactions, the event’s organizers said at a press conference yesterday.
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said that the new Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall would house part of the fair, allowing for the biggest Computex Taipei show ever.
THINKING BIG
“While most ICT [information and communications technology] exhibitions worldwide have begun to reduce their exhibition space, Computex Taipei will see an increase of 53 percent in floor space this year,” TAITRA executive vice president Walter Yeh (葉明水) said.
With the increase in space, the number of exhibitors will increase by slightly more than 28 percent to 1,710 this year from a year ago, while the number of booths will surge by around 53 percent to 4,482 booths, TAITRA’s data showed.
Furthermore, local firms including Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), along with foreign companies such as Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) will showcase their latest products, which Yeh said would help attract visitors.
The number of prospective buyers visiting Computex Taipei this year is expected to increase by around 2,000. In addition to US$20 billion in business transactions at the exhibit, the fair is expected to generate follow-up business worth between US$50 billion and US$60 billion, Yeh said.
“Computex Taipei is the most important procurement platform in the world,” Yeh said.
EXPO THEMES
Another of the event’s organizers, the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會), said Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), ICT crossovers, new generation laptops and “green” technology would be the show’s main themes this year.
“The promotion of WiMAX technology will become TCA’s main focus in the next three to five years, which will give Taiwan’s information technology industry another new face and growth,” TCA deputy secretary general Chang Li (張笠) said.
Computex Taipei 2008 starts on June 3 and continues until June 7 at the Taiwan World Trade Center Xinyi and Nangang exhibition halls.
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market value closed above US$1 trillion for the first time in Taipei last week, with a raised sales forecast driven by robust artificial intelligence (AI) demand. TSMC saw its Taiwanese shares climb to a record high on Friday, a near 50 percent rise from an April low. That has made it the first Asian stock worth more than US$1 trillion, since PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣) briefly reached the milestone in 2007. As investors turned calm after their aggressive buying on Friday, amid optimism over the chipmaker’s business outlook, TSMC lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$1,150
RSS