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.
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what
NEW BEGINNING: The merger would be named TS Financial Holding Co and would become Taiwan’s fourth-largest financial holding company by total assets The merger of Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) and Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) is set to be finalized on July 24, Taishin Financial Chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) said yesterday. Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting in Taipei, Wu said that the merged entity would be named TS Financial Holding Co (台新新光金控) and would become the fourth-largest financial holding company in Taiwan by total assets. The two companies first announced the merger in August last year, and after receiving approval from shareholders a month later, the Fair Trade Commission in January, and the Financial Supervisory Commission in March, the merger
RSS