International construction and project consultation services are an important part of the global economy and trade.
The sector can contribute a lot of business and employment opportunities for Taiwanese construction companies and engineers.
However, it is very difficult for Taiwanese contractors and engineers to expand their activities to other countries.
The reason is that Taiwan is not a member of the UN, the World Bank and related global organizations.
Business opportunities from UN construction projects come mostly from loans provided by the World Bank and the International Development Association (IDA).
Both organizations have strict procurement guidelines that exclude non-member countries from bidding for their projects. The same applies to hiring and appointing consultants, with only consulting companies that are registered or established in member countries allowed to bid for their projects.
Are the World Bank and the IDA that important?
While the international construction market has its ups and downs, statistics show that last year, the World Bank lent a total of US$23.6 billion to "medium-developed countries" for expenditure on large-scale development projects. The IDA lends an average of US$10 billion per year to "least developed countries."
It's worth noting that capital lent out by the World Bank and IDA usually make up 25 percent to 35 percent of the entire investment project.
In other words, the two organizations create business opportunities worth between US$96 billion and US$135 billion each year. This is 10 to 14 times the average total amount of investment in construction in Taiwan per year.
But isn't competition for these projects difficult given that only several hundred projects are launched per year?
We have to consider that although the World Bank and IDA only invest in several hundred projects each year, hundreds and thousands of opportunities for bidding for participation in related projects can be derived from it.
The World Bank's Web site shows that there are currently 171 countries calling for bids on projects using the World Bank platform.
Projects open for bidding include 16,761 new construction, renovation and maintenance projects and 15,173 for architectural design and project consultation service.
Given Taiwan's technical expertise in construction as well as its strength in architectural design and special project consultation service, Taiwanese businesses stand a good chance of winning some of the bids -- if only they could participate.
When Taiwan joined the WTO in 2001, it was obliged to open up the domestic market to foreign construction and project consultation companies.
But when Taiwan's construction and project consultation businesses want to take their business to other countries through the WTO, they are confronted with rules that exclude them from the UN and its related organizations.
This constitutes an extremely asymmetrical development. It poses a serious threat not only to the the existence and development of Taiwanese construction companies, but also hinders the professional development of hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese engineers.
To break this bottleneck, Taiwan must join the UN. Only then can its construction industry be fully developed and contribute to continued economic progress.
Huang Yu-lin is an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at National Chiao Tung University.
Translated by Anna Stiggelbout
The US Department of Defense recently released this year’s “Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.” This annual report provides a comprehensive overview of China’s military capabilities, strategic objectives and evolving global ambitions. Taiwan features prominently in this year’s report, as capturing the nation remains central to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) vision of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” a goal he has set for 2049. The report underscores Taiwan’s critical role in China’s long-term strategy, highlighting its significance as a geopolitical flashpoint and a key target in China’s quest to assert dominance
The National Development Council (NDC) on Wednesday last week launched a six-month “digital nomad visitor visa” program, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported on Monday. The new visa is for foreign nationals from Taiwan’s list of visa-exempt countries who meet financial eligibility criteria and provide proof of work contracts, but it is not clear how it differs from other visitor visas for nationals of those countries, CNA wrote. The NDC last year said that it hoped to attract 100,000 “digital nomads,” according to the report. Interest in working remotely from abroad has significantly increased in recent years following improvements in
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
RSS