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.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last