The world's largest manufacturer of plant-extract medicines, Germany-based Willmar Schwabe Group, is considering setting up a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan to look into traditional herbal remedies, officials from the company and the government said yesterday.
"We are interested in doing research in Taiwan, as traditional plant medicine is strong here," said Heinz Stumpf, head of Schwabe's R&D department.
"The knowledge and tradition is here, and there are scientists who can cooperate with us," he said.
Founded in 1866 in Leipzig, Schwabe now employs 3,000 people worldwide and reported revenues of 420 million euros last year, 15.3 million of which was channeled into R&D. The company is best known for its gingko-biloba products.
As the standard of scientific research in Taiwan is high, Stumpf praised the nation as the company's first choice.
Indeed, Schwabe's Taiwanese partners urged the government to do its utmost to fight off competition from neighboring countries.
"Many countries in the region, such as Singapore and Korea, are asking Schwabe to set up an R&D center in their countries," said Su Zhi-hong (
Stumpf and Schwabe's president Klaus-Peter Schwabe arrived in Taipei on Tuesday at the invitation of the government which is keen to attract more research centers to the country in key industries.
"We are very happy to be welcoming the world's largest plant medicine group to Taiwan," said Song Liu (
The ministry's five-year science and technology program for Chinese herbal medicine has US$5 billion to spend on establishing the nation as a center of excellence for biotechnology, Liu added.
The government has plenty of sweeteners to lure Schwabe.
"Taiwan has attractive incentives for companies like Schwabe wishing to set up research centers here," Liu said.
"The most attractive aspect of locating a research center here is that costs are a third of those in Europe and the US," he said.
The new center will have a lucrative market to tap. This year, the global market for plant and herbal medicine was US$23 billion, according to research firm PhytoPhram Consulting. That figure is expected to grow to US$35 billion by 2006.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS