Last week I was welcomed by Kaohsiung, a city of lower prices, warmer climate, friendly people and slower pace of life. These traits were brought into sharper focus thanks to a dinner chat with the kind people of the American Chamber of Commerce of Southern Taiwan.
Readers may recall that Chinese firm Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co (上海復星醫藥集團) demanded that the Taiwanese government hand over the health data of anyone vaccinated with its vaccines. A chamber member told me that a Chinese executive in Johnson & Johnson inserted the same demand in its contract. Of course the Taiwanese government had to refuse.
Yes, there was an effort, coordinated from Beijing, in part using Chinese executives in western firms, to stop Taiwan from acquiring vaccines. This episode illuminates who those executives answer to. It should be obvious that Beijing not only can coordinate their actions, but that any information about the firm such an executive has access to, Beijing already has.
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung City Government
FUTURE PLANS
Brian Aiello, President of Southern Taiwan AmCham, spoke to me at length about AmCham’s programs and plans, as well as the problems Kaohsiung faces. The Taipei Chamber, he observes, is more focused on the national level. The southern chamber, by contrast, is resolutely local.
Kaohsiung, he said, has a lower level of internationalization than Taipei or Taichung.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
“In Taiwan,” he said, “there are many traditions that still hold strong. This is sometimes inhibiting.”
Businesses in southern Taiwan often create products and then focus narrowly on one market, when there might be a number of other applications for them.
Another problem Kaohsiung faces is that it is viewed as a poor destination for young talent. He said that AmCham is attempting to attack this problem via internship programs.
One concern is that, compared to other major cities, Kaohsiung has a lower level of English. The city has a Bilingual Commission that has periodic meetings, which AmCham participates in. They advise the government on decisions such as what to name things in English. It also has an education center that it uses for events and speeches.
The chamber is also trying to get “landmark industries” to move into the city. Such industries might include environmental firms that work on solar-related projects that have high export potential. One of its long-term goals is to get people to return to Taiwan, to get them to consider coming back to good jobs with decent pay and a comfortable lifestyle.
The city, he pointed out, already has a solid base of firms with world-class technologies. In the health field alone, he gave several examples. One local company has developed a disinfectant spray that kills 99 percent of germs, including COVID-19, yet is not toxic to humans and has no strong smell. Anyone who has ever endured the stench left by someone spraying down his seat in closed train carriage with alcohol spray would surely welcome that.
A local company has also developed a 10-minute, highly accurate test for COVID-19. Another interesting technology Aiello instanced was a hydrogen-based therapy already licensed in Japan where doctors are using it to attack cancer and other diseases.
Clearly the basis for growth is present. AmCham is working on speeding up the approval process and generating more government support for new products and technologies.
One advantage the city has is land, he said. After the heavy industries left 20 or 30 years ago, the government sat on large tracts of land, letting it rest. Unfortunately, the city has struggled to attract new businesses ever since.
WHITE PAPER
Aiello has written most of the organization’s recent White Papers.
“We don’t include every problem in our White papers, and we don’t point fingers,” he said.
Instead, he described, AmCham’s white papers focus on problems for which they can propose solutions.
In 2011 Aiello was a member of Taiwan’s APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) delegation to the meeting in Montana that year. During the meeting a White House official drew him aside and asked for a couple of copies of the White Paper. They would be, he was assured, read by then-president Barack Obama.
Another issue Southern Taiwan AmCham is working on is supply chain security. A number of firms are thinking of following the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) model of building factories in countries that are important markets. AmCham helps them research US state and local incentives for relocating factories to the US.
“We try to create situations where you have mutual benefit,” he said. “We try to get involved with all levels: What is the government perspective? What is the local business perspective? What is the perspective of the local population?”
Several years ago the chamber opened its doors to local firms, which has helped it to understand local perspectives and situations much better.
Aiello also added that the changing international climate is shaping their activities. The US has become more pro-active in its support for Taiwan, he observed. Given Japan’s recent and very public turn to Taiwan, if they can include Japan in what they are doing, they consider that a win-win. Not only is that good for Taiwan’s security, it also helps the economies of all three countries.
Southern Taiwan AmCham covers the counties of Penghu, Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung and Taitung, and the municipalities of Tainan and Kaohsiung. The organization has plans to set up offices in each, to deal directly with local governments and local businesses.
Though the energetic and engaging Aiello has already reached an age at which most people would be retiring, he plans to continue his involvement with the world around him.
“I really want to make a difference,” he says. “My position at AmCham has always been as an unpaid volunteer. The way I see it, it is my way of creating a secure and robust continuing relationship between Taiwan, my home for about a third of my life, and the US, which I will always support.”
Notes from Central Taiwan is a column written by long-term resident Michael Turton, who provides incisive commentary informed by three decades of living in and writing about his adoptive country. The views expressed here are his own.
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
On Monday morning, in quick succession, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) released statements announcing “that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) have invited KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to lead a delegation on a visit to the mainland” as the KMT’s press release worded it. The KMT’s press release added “Chairwoman Cheng expressed her gratitude for the invitation and has gladly accepted it.” Beijing’s official Xinhua news release described Song Tao (宋濤), head of the Taiwan Work Office of the CCP Central Committee, as
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs. The
The US war on Iran has illuminated the deep interdependence of Asia on flows of oil and related items as raw materials that become the basis of modern human civilization. Australians and New Zealanders had a wake up call. The crisis also emphasizes how the Philippines is a swatch of islands linked by jet fuel. These revelations have deep implications for an invasion of Taiwan. Much of the commentary on the Taiwan scenario has looked at the disruptions to world trade, which will be in the trillions. However, the Iran war offers additional specific lessons for a Taiwan scenario. An insightful
RSS