The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is optimistic about Taiwan’s export performance for a second half of this year after the year-on-year increase in outbound sales last month for the 11th consecutive month.
The Bureau of Foreign Trade on Friday said that Taiwan is riding waves of solid global demand and enjoying a strong performance in exports at a time when the world’s economy is on the path of recovery.
Exports increased 12.7 percent year-on-year to US$27.77 billion last month, the highest in almost three years, according to Ministry of Finance trade data.
In the first eight months of this year, exports totaled US$202.59 billion, up 12.5 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
The bureau said that it has helped by organizing 66 overseas trade promotion events for more than 23,000 local firms so far this year, which helped exporters strike more than 1,600 deals worth more than US$5.2 billion.
The bureau said it will continue with its promotional efforts and take advantage of an increase in global demand.
Despite the MOEA’s optimism, Liu Meng-chun (劉孟俊), an economist at Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (中華經濟研究院), said that it is worth staying alert over external factors such as trade disputes between China and the US, the Brexit talks, and geopolitical unease related to North Korea and the Middle East, as such factors could affect the global economy.
In related news, the MOEA held a Taiwan Day event in Malaysia on Friday for Taiwanese e-commerce operators that want to explore opportunities in that nation.
Department of Commerce deputy head Chen Mi-shun (陳秘順) said 21 Taiwanese vendors displayed their products and held meetings with potential clients.
ASEAN, and Malaysia in particular, is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the world, Chen said.
The government wants to help local e-commerce businesses explore opportunities by promoting the profile of their brands and helping them find partners, Chen said.
Malaysia has a population of over 30 million and its economic growth is driven mainly by domestic demand.
Personal consumption accounts for 55.2 percent of the nation’s GDP, according to commerce department data.
Malaysia’s e-commerce market value is forecast to reach US$7.22 billion by 2025.
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