The government broke ground for a new exhibition hall in Nangang District (南港), Taipei, yesterday to address the increasing demand for floor space for international exhibitions.
The NT$7.26 billion (US$243 million) Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 2 is set to be built on a 3.36-hectare lot opposite Hall 1 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The nine-floor building is set to accommodate 2,362 exhibition booths and conference space for 2,400 people when it begins operations in 2016, ministry officials said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) said the development of the exhibition industry would help Taiwanese enterprises learn new technologies, find new trade partners or seek targets for acquisitions at a wide array of international trade fairs to be held at the venue.
“It’s not [about] what you know. It’s [about] who you know,” Chen said.
The premier said that the new hall would bring the total floor area of Taipei’s exhibition halls to 100,000m2, but this would still lag behind other countries with more mature exhibition industries.
Germany’s four biggest exhibition halls have at least 300,000m2 of space each, Chen said, and Germany ranks only third among the world’s largest exhibition-hall providers, behind the US and China.
Separately, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新) said that the government would help domestic manufacturers capitalize on growing commercial opportunities in emerging markets by assisting them in branding and other marketing needs.
Liang said emerging markets, especially those in Asia, are gradually supplanting Europe and the US as the consumer markets with the greatest potential, because of their strong domestic demand.
Based on estimates by international marketing companies, the middle class in these emerging markets could spend up to US$20 trillion over the next decade, which is twice the size of the US consumer market, Liang said.
He pledged that the government would assist domestic manufacturers in strengthening their design, innovation, research and development and international branding capabilities to get an edge in these markets.
“We will initially target markets in mainland China, Indonesia and Vietnam,” he said at this year’s Taiwan International Brand Forum, sponsored by the Bureau of Foreign Trade.
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