Business trip in Taipei, Taiwan

The European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), in collaboration with the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI), the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), and other public authorities in Taiwan, organised the EU-Taiwan Cluster Matchmaking Event 2018, taking place from the 4th to the 6th of June 2018 in Taipei (Taiwan). The overall objective of the event was to provide EU clusters access to the Taiwanese market through close cooperation with local-based organisations.

The mission took place in the context of the European Innovation Week (4-7 June 2018) and COMPUTEX TAIPEI trade show (5-8 June 2018). Fred HUANG, Advisor of Chinese National Federation of Industries opened the event.

152 SMEs were present ( among them Ab Initio Research Services Ltd.) from 10 COSME countries and focused on different areas: circular economy, ICT, renewable energy (special focus on offshore wind), smart cities & smart mobility, and smart manufacturing.

The delegates participated in different activities, which included:

• Taiwan – EU matchmaking, where a high number of participants held C2C, C2B and B2B meetings;
• Interesting thematic seminars on circular economy, smart manufacturing, smart mobility and wind power. This gave the European delegation the opportunity to know more about the business opportunities in Taiwan for these fields;
• Visit to COMPUTEX TAIPEI
• Additional Visits to outstanding Taiwanese companies.

“European Innovation Week” is held every other year in Taiwan, with a “Taiwan Innovation Week” taking place in Brussels every year in between. This year the delegation from Europe consisted of over 100 trade and business representatives from 16 different European companies, and across 18 industries, the largest delegation in the history of the event, according to Liberty Times.

From ABINIRES (Ab Initio Research Services Ltd.) Zoltán ANTAL was delegated. He took part of different B2B meetings, with:

• Tight Threafa / President at ThreaFa Tight Biotech Ltd (Subsidiary of GeneHope Biotech Ltd), Taipei, Taiwan,
• Mark Yu / CEO at U-GYM Technology Corp., Taipei, Taiwan,
• Giulia Chen / Project Manager at Taitra, Taipei, Taiwan.

Taiwan and Europe have a stable and expanding trade relationship with total trade volume between both countries totaling over 50 billion Euros (US$58.5 billion) last year, which represents an increase of 10 percent over 2016, reports Liberty Times.

Taiwan’s Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) said that both Europe and Taiwan occupy key positions in some of the most important global industries, like; ICT, medicine and biotech, renewable energy and machine manufacturing.

Shih says that a Bilateral Investment Agreement should be drafted in order to guarantee more future cooperation and build on the successful trade relationship that Europe and Taiwan have already established.