A Taiwanese mission representing the country’s high-tech sector concluded a trade promotion road show to Nicaragua last week, winning the hearts and souls of Nicaraguan officials, academics and businesspeople.
The delegation, traveling with the aim of finding new markets for Taiwan’s technology products in Latin America, completed a 40-hour whirlwind road show in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, where a Taiwan-Nicaragua business cooperation conference took place. The delegation shared Taiwan’s digital development experience and displayed IT products.
The delegation consisted of executives of the Taipei-based Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA), the New Taipei City Computer Association, the Institute for Information Industry and representatives of 15 technology companies.
Within three hours, 10 Taiwanese IT companies completed 60 rounds of business talks with Nicaraguan buyers, receiving nearly US$200,000 in orders. The talks also led to over US$1 million in business opportunities for Taiwanese suppliers over the next year.
Taiwanese Ambassador to Nicaragua Ingrid Hsing (邢瀛輝) addressed the opening of the conference.
Hsing said: “Thanks to a Taiwan-Nicaragua free-trade accord, Taiwan had become Nicaragua’s top export market in Asia,” while more than 30 Taiwanese enterprises have invested in Nicaragua, creating about 7,000 job opportunities.
CIECA chairman Wang Chung-yu (王鍾渝), who led the delegation, said Taiwan’s high-tech industry, which is one of the world’s key players in the sector, is more than qualified to help with Nicaragua’s computerization, which will in turn narrow the gap between rich and poor, helping to accelerate Nicaragua’s economic development.
Nicaraguan Industry and Commerce Minister Orlando Solorzano said Taiwan was one of Nicaragua’s best business partners in the world.
He called for Taiwanese solar panel, motorcycle assembly and other industrial manufacturing companies to take advantage of Nicaragua’s inexpensive labor costs, free-trade privileges and geological convenience to boost their exports from Nicaragua to other Latin American markets.
Jose Adan Aguerri, chairman of Nicaragua’s Superior Council of Private Enterprises, urged the Nicaraguan government to emulate the “Taiwan experience” of nurturing science and technology manpower to help the country lift its people out of poverty.
The road show attracted 150 visitors, including Nicaraguan trade and investment officials, business leaders and academics from 15 Nicaraguan universities and colleges.
The “Taiwan digital whirlwind” was covered by 20 print and electronic media outlets in the Central American country.
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