The number of international visitors from emerging markets to the annual Computex tech fair this year grew more than 25 percent as governments in countries such as Indonesia and Thailand aim to upgrade their economies and industries, one of the show’s organizers, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), said on Saturday.
The number of international visitors to Computex this year grew 6 percent to 38,300 from 36,000 last year, TAITRA said.
About 60 percent came from Asia, while about 25 percent came from Europe and North America, it said.
Photo: David Chang, EPA
By country, visitors from Indonesia increased the most, at 46.4 percent, followed by United Arab Emirates’ 36.5 percent and Thailand’s 25.3 percent, according to TAITRA’s report.
Including 92,000 local visitors, the five-day business-to-business trade show attracted about 130,000 visitors this year, which reflects a 7.14 percent drop from 140,000 visitors last year, TAITRA said.
“Emerging markets, particularly those in Southeast Asia, sent a lot more buyers to the Computex this year because their governments seek to boost international trade while upgrading local information and communication technology [ICT] industries at the same time,” TAITRA exhibition department manager Thomas Huang (黃漢唐) told reporters on the sidelines of a press conference.
Huang said Indonesia’s and Thailand’s governments invited many Taiwanese tech firms to demonstrate new products at their countries in recent years because electronics manufacturing industries account for a major proportion of their economies and therefore they realize the need to learn and upgrade their industries through procurements.
The United Arab Emirates government is also aggressively sending representatives to Taiwan to ask for ways to develop ICT industries as large-scale as that in Taiwan, Huang said.
Every year, Taiwan’s ICT industries received up to US$100 billion in orders from clients in other foreign countries, and a quarter of the amount comes from the Computex alone.
“The Computex plays an important role to tech firms in Asia,” Huang said.
“As PC industries are transforming from being the traditional desktops and laptops-centered to mobile devices-led, there is a need for all tech firms to join the show to see the changes in their industries and adopt new strategies in response to these changes,” he added.
Next year’s Computex will take place from June 3 to June 7, TAITRA said.
TAITRA and the Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會), another organizer of the fair, have gradually changed the Computex’s theme to “mobile” and may follow the Europe-based GSM Association’s model in running the annual Mobile World Congress, where new smartphones and tablets are launched every year, Huang said.
“Computex should talk more about ‘computing’ in the future in response to rise of smartphones and tablets,” Huang said.
“It’s not easy to have all smartphone vendors and telecoms carriers come join the Computex at the same time at early stage, but we will move in this direction,” he added.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last