1. EBRD chief thanks Taiwan on 1st visit
TAIPEI - The president of the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) expressed his
gratitude to Taiwan for its constant support since the bank's
establishment in 1991 and said he looked forward to a closer
partnership.
“We want to do much more with investors from Taiwan, and it's
very important for me to lift this great relationship for 22 years
to a new level,” said Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the bank's president,
at a seminar titled “Building Central Asia with EBRD.”
Taiwan has been one of the most important donors to the bank,
and the longstanding partnership could grow even stronger when
more Taiwanese investors offer their expertise in energy
efficiency, knowledge economies and transportation,
Chakrabarti said.
The first people Chakrabarti met at the bank's office in London
after assuming his position last July were members of a
Taiwanese delegation, which is why he promised to visit Taiwan
as soon as possible, he said.
On his three-day visit, his first to the country, Chakrabarti is
scheduled to visit the traffic control center of Taipei's Mass
Rapid Transit system and meet with President Ma Ying-jeou,
Foreign Minister David Lin and Central Bank Deputy Governor
Yang Chin-lung.
The EBRD chief has also been invited to introduce Taiwanese
companies to opportunities available through the EBRD, said
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the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, Taiwan's
main trade promotion body.
The EBRD was founded help countries in Central and Eastern
Europe become market economies, and Taiwanese companies
have increased their activities in those regions in recent years,
the council said.
They have helped establish an electronic ticketing system for the
Ukrainian capital of Kiev and held seminars on mass
transportation for officials from Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and
Romania, according to the council.
Askar Namazbayev, a principal banker at the EBRD's office in
Astana, Kazakhstan, welcomed Taiwanese investors to take part
in transportation infrastructure projects in Central Asia.
The EBRD's portfolio in the transportation sector, he said,
exceeds 1 billion euros invested in 20 projects, with Kazakhstan
the largest country of operations.
Taiwan's investors are welcome to participate in Kazakhstan's
first pilot road project, whose tender launch is scheduled for the
second half of 2013, and parts of a 2,800-kilometer Western
China-Western Europe international transportation corridor that
have yet to be completed, the banker said.
“We really look forward to cooperating with Taiwan,”
Namazbayev said.
2. President Starbucks to increase stores in Taiwan to 300
Taipei, March 6 (CNA) President Starbucks Coffee Corp., a
joint venture in charge of the Taiwan operations of the
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Seattle-based coffee giant, plans to increase the number of its
coffe stores in Taiwan to 300 this year, President Starbucks
President John Hsu said Wednesday.
So far, 285 coffee outlets have been opened around the country
since President Starbucks was established in 1998 under
cooperation links between Uni-President Enterprise Corp., a
leading food enterprise in Taiwan, and the Amercian chain, Hsu
said.
Thanks to pre-tax profit gains of over 10 percent last year, the
company decided to further expand its franchise development
this year, he said.
It will continue to open coffee outlets in smaller cities with
populations of 100,000 or less, such as Dajia in Taichung and
Yuanlin in Changhua, he went on.
According to Hsu, over 57 percent of Taiwanese people
consume one cup of coffee each day. The number of "loyal
clients" -- those who shop at Starbucks at least four times a
week -- accounts for 20 percent of all clients, he said, citing
company statistics.
Thanks to the rising coffee-drinking culture in Taiwan, all
Starbucks stores, including the new ones, have been able to
achieve their annual operational targets every year, Hsu said,
noting that in the past three years, President Starbucks has
recorded sales growth of more than 10 percent each year.
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3. Taiwanese, Turkish groups ink machine tool business
deal
Taipei, March 6 (CNA) Taiwan's main trade promotion body
signed a memorandum of understanding with a Turkish machine
tool industry association Wednesday that is expected to
strengthen bilateral economic relations.
The agreement between the Taiwan External Trade
Development Council (TAITRA) and the Machine Tools
Industrialists and Businessmen's Association of Turkey (TIAD)
will create even closer ties in the exhibition sector and machine
tools industry, TAITRA officials said.
"It's an honor to see Taiwan machine tool products of high
quality being sold on the Turkish market and around the world,"
Peter Huang, executive vice president of TAITRA, said at the
signing ceremony.
"By signing this MOU, I know that the ties between our
machine tool and machinery industries will be strengthened, and
I think it will provide good opportunities," he said.
Taiwan's machine tool exports to Turkey totaled US$204 million
in 2012, an increase of 2.1 percent from the previous year,
according to TAITRA. That put Turkey among the top five
export markets for Taiwan's machine tool industry.
Moreover, Taiwan is now Turkey's biggest supplier of machine
tools, ahead of Germany, Italy, South Korea and Japan,
according to the Turkish machine tool association.
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Erdal Gamsiz, president of the Turkish machine tools
association, told CNA that Taiwan's machine tools exports to
Turkey will likely grow by about 3 percent this year because of
robust demand in his country.
Turkey's demand for machine tools remains strong despite
Europe's weak economy because it still supplies a wide range of
products to other markets, such as the United States and Africa,
Gamsiz noted.
He said Taiwanese companies can offer "acceptable quality" and
"reasonable prices," which is important to Turkish
manufacturers.
The agreement was signed during the 2013 Taipei International
Machine Tool Show (TIMTOS), which has attracted a record
1,009 exhibitors from 17 countries.
The six-day exhibition, which is co-hosted by TAITRA and the
Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry and ends on March
10, is the largest of its kind in Taiwan and the second-largest in
Asia.
TAITRA estimated that the show will create US$2 billion in
new trade opportunities.
4. Taipei international machine tool show kicks off
Taipei, March 5 (CNA) The 2013 Taipei International Machine
Tool Show (TIMTOS) opened in Taipei Tuesday with a record
number of 1,009 local and foreign exhibitors from 17 countries
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participating.
The six-day exhibition, co-hosted by the Taiwan External Trade
Development Council (TAITRA) and the Taiwan Association of
Machinery Industry, is the largest of its kind in Taiwan and the
second-largest in Asia.
TAITRA Chairman Wang Chih-kang said that over 20 percent of
the exhibitors at the biennial show is foreign, with around 5,500
foreign and 40,000 local buyers.
He estimated that the show will create trade opportunities worth
US$2 billion.
Hsu Hsiu-tsang, chairman of the Taiwan Association of
Machinery Industry, expressed "cautious optimism" toward
Taiwan's machine tool industry at the opening ceremony.
Taiwan has become the world's third-largest machine tool
exporter, behind only Germany and Japan, he said.
Although Taiwan's total machinery exports dropped 1.8 percent
to US$20.09 billion in 2012, machine tool exports managed to
increase 5.9 percent to US$4.23 billion during the same period,
he added.
Hsu further forecast that the country's machine tool exports for
2013 are likely to grow 5 percent to 10 percent.
President Ma Ying-jeou, who gave an address at the opening of
the exhibition, said the government will continue to work
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toward upgrading research and development, expanding markets
and improving the economic environment for the machine tool
industry.
He expressed hope that the machine tool industry, which
currently has an output value of NT$953.8 billion (US$32.16
billion), will soon turn into a NT$1 trillion industry.
The show is taking place at Taipei World Trade Center
Exhibition Halls 1, 2 and 3, and at the Nangang Exhibition Hall.
5. Taiwan to hold global procurement meetings
Taipei, March 4 (CNA) Taiwan has invited 600 international
buyers from 60 economies to attend procurement meetings in
Taipei on March 28 in a bid to strengthen the country's exports,
Taiwan's main trade promotion body said Monday.
One-on-one procurement meetings with domestic businesses
will be arranged for the 600 potential foreign buyers, and they
are expected to generate US$4.6 billion in business
opportunities, about US$100 million more than last year, the
Taiwan External Trade Development Council said.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the council
will hold the meetings at the Taipei World Trade Center
Nangang Exhibition Hall.
The foreign buyers the council has invited are mainly in the
information and communications technology, machinery, solar
energy, light-emitting diode (LED) and automobile parts and
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components sectors.
Some 200 Chinese companies and 200 other enterprises in the
Asia Pacific region have registered to attend the meetings.
6. Taiwan unveils new competitive strain of soybean
Taipei, March 4 (CNA) The Kaohsiung District Agricultural
Research and Extension Station in southern Taiwan recently
unveiled a new strain of soybean that it hopes can be sold to
local and foreign markets by the end of 2013, a researcher said
Monday.
"Kaohsiung 12," nicknamed "Emerald," which is the new strain
to have been developed this year, but which has not been
genetically modified, has higher yield and bigger beans, said
Chou Kuo-lung, an associate researcher at the station.
The new strain can yield at least 25 percent more than the
current mainstream "Kaohsiung 9," he told CNA, adding that its
greater production could further enhance its competitiveness on
the international stage.
Vegetable soybeans, or green soybeans (immature ones in their
green pods), are popular exports to Japan. Taiwan produced
some 70,000 tons of green soybeans in 2012, with nearly half
exported to the neighboring country, Chou said.
The export output of green soybeans touched a record of
US$71.6 million last year, up 80 percent from about US$40
million five years ago, according to government statistics.
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7. U.S. firm to step up cooperation with Taiwan on cancer
drugs
Taipei, March 1 (CNA) A top executive of the U.S.-based
biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corp. said Friday the
company will strengthen cooperation with Taiwan on
developing new drugs to fight lung and liver cancer.
However, the multinational drug company does not have plans
for transferring their know-how to Taiwan nor setting up a
research and development center here, said Mark Alles,
executive vice president of the company.
Earlier in the day, Alles, who is in Taiwan under the invitation of
the Ministry of Economic Affairs, visited the National Clinical
Trial and Research Center at National Taiwan University
Hospital (NTUH) and attended the ministry's forum on
biomedicine.
Celgene Corp. was set up in the United States in 1986 and was
selected as a Fortune Global 500 company in 2012. It is a
manufacturer of various drugs for cancer and inflammatory
disorders.
In 2011, the company signed a memorandum of understanding
with the ministry for long-term cooperation and has been
working with the NTUH on trials of liver cancer therapies.
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