Taiwan’s engagement with Southeast Asia is making progress under the New Southbound Policy8/19/2018
 While Taiwan analysts have been eager to offer analyses of President Tsai Ing-wen’s New Southbound Policy (NSP), announced in May 2016, the data has been insufficient given the policy’s relatively short timeline. This report draws on newly available data as well as recent interviews during a trip to Taiwan to provide an updated assessment of the accomplishments of the Tsai administration’s NSP as well as the challenges and potential opportunities it still faces.
Whether one looks at trade and investment, educational exchange, tourism, or the immigrant labor force, the crux of NSP engagement has been with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Across multiple metrics, Taiwan’s investment in and exchange with ASEAN are orders of magnitude greater than with other NSP countries of South Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. For this reason, this paper focuses specifically on the NSP’s achievements and constraints within ASEAN.  Taipei, Aug. 3 (CNA) The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) on Friday said it will lead a group of Taiwanese exhibitors to a smart machinery exhibition in the Philippines, hoping to tap into the country's growing manufacturing potential.
Together with the Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders' Association (TMBA) and Taiwan Bearing & Transmission Association (TBTA), TAITRA will bring some 40 exhibitors to Smart Tech Manufacturing Philippines 2018 in Metro Manila from Aug. 22 to 25. The Philippine economy has performed well in recent years, with gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaging over 6 percent a year since 2012, the highest among ASEAN countries, TAITRA Industry Management Department Chiu Hui-li (邱揮立) said.  HSINCHU, Taiwan, Aug. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The replacement of fuel cars with electric vehicles has become an irreversible trend. eTreego, a startup that is poised to enter the huge South East Asia market and founded by Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), announced its car and scooter charging pile— built with advanced charging control modules— at Automechanic Philippines, the leading auto aftermarket parts trade event, held from August 16th to August 18th in Manila, the Philippines. In compliance with four different specifications from Europe, the United States and Japan, eTreego’s charging pile features a temperature range of -40℃ to 70℃ and is a total charging solution that has taken the trade show by storm with vendors and buyers making enthusiastic inquiries.
 The Philippines is keen to collaborate with Brunei in developing the halal trade industries of both nations which may include adopting the sultanate’s best practices in halal certification while offering its own expertise in halal economic zone management, said its vice minister of trade and industry.
Abdulgani Macatoman, who is in the country for a joint committee meeting between Brunei and the Philippines said he was following through on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed by both nations last year to further collaborations in the industry. “Besides from getting technical cooperation in the halal trade with Brunei, we are also looking to learn other best practices Brunei had adopted, particularly in its halal certification system,” he told the media on the sidelines of the ongoing Brunei Halal Showcase.  The conference on “Fostering Innovative Growth Partnership with New Southbound Countries”, held on 25th June 2018, was an important outcome of the second phase of research project, “A Planning Study on S&T Activities in ASEAN and South Asian Countries and Prospect of Collaboration with Taiwan”, funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).
The conference served to build a platform for representatives from government, universities, research institutes and new southbound countries, in order to facilitate S&T dialogue and cooperation among a few of the new southbound countries and Taiwan, and to promote MOST’s strategy of New Southbound Policy, especially regarding academic exchange, international university-industry cooperation, Overseas Science and Technology Innovation Center (STIC). Therefore, the organizer, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), invited three representatives from new southbound countries, including Mr. Miftah Farid (Director of Trade Dept., Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei), Madam Saudah Mat Isa (Director of Trade, Malaysian Friendship And Trade Centre, Taipei), and Mr. Michael Alfred V. Ignacio (Manila Economic and Cultural Office), to participate in the conference as discussion panelists.  TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has continued to dominate the worldwide semiconductor foundry market in terms of sales, says IC Insights report.
TSMC remains in the first place for a fifth straight year with US$32.2 billion in sales last year, followed by its U.S. rival Global Foundries, and by Taiwan's UMC, while TSMC's sales were five times higher than the second-ranked Global Foundries.  In response to the Mainland-US trade war, President Tsai Ing-wen yesterday launched the “Dialogue on Trade Strategies”, and with regard to the setting up of a supply chain in relation to the New Southward Policy, the government would install new mechanisms for evaluation and initiation, and would also set up an industrial investment company and an agricultural investment company, as well as expand the scale of operations for the Overseas Investment and Development Corporation (OIDC) for the public construction sector.
The Philippines is considered by several businessmen as a good testing ground to launch and nurture startups not only because of its low cost of living, and growing young and tech-savvy population that speaks English, but also because there is plenty of room for improvement like bridging the gaps in business services, tech, and financial inclusion of the unbanked, to name a few.
And for the past several years the country has seen the birth and consistent development of its local startup ecosystem now composed of a number of incubators and accelerators mostly focused on technopreneurship or tech-enabled ideas and businesses in various industries. They range from ecommerce, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), healthtech, edutech, and even fintech. Leaders of incubator-accelerators Launchgarage, IdeaSpace, and QBO Innovation share the same vision that the opportunity for fintech businesses to thrive in the Philippines is strong because of a confluence of a number of unique and positive factors. Launchgarage CEO Jay Fajardo noted there is “a large diaspora fueling the remittance ecosystem, the growing adoption of e-commerce, and the opportunities made possible for leap-frogging tech and use cases to serve the large number of the unbanked.” Meanwhile, IdeaSpace and QBO president Butch Meily said he is pretty upbeat about the fintech sector, citing opportunities to improve financial inclusion of the unbanked and under-served by banks through early-stage and mature fintech startups like Ayannah for its digital remittances, payments and business solutions, as well as Lenddo for its online-based credit scoring or assessment.  TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Philippines’ representative office in Taiwan has launched an app to improve connections with and between Filipino citizens on the island, the Central News Agency reported Thursday.
The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), as it is officially known, has turned a version of its website into an app called MECO Ph available in Google Play and Apple Store, representative Angelito Banayo told CNA. Last May, the office also launched a program dubbed MECOnnect in order to link up Filipino workers in Taiwan, which would be helpful in the event of a disaster. The workers receive a hotline number for the MECO office, which also allows staff to contact them and visit them at their home or workplace if necessary.  Other commercial services exported by the country are worth $23.5 billion, the 13th largest in the world
The Philippines is one of the top exporters and importers of merchandise goods and commercial services in the world, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in its annual World Trade Statistical Review, which was released 30 July. The country was among the top 30 merchandise traders last year, recording $63 billion, its highest for the past 10 years. However, imports on merchandise goods grew by $13 billion to a 10-year high at $98 billion during the same year, recording a net import of $35 billion of merchandise trades in 2017. Commercial services exports of the Philippines were up $36 billion in 2017 from $31 billion in 2016 which is good for 20th place. Imports of services rose slightly by $2 billion to $26 billion to rank at 24th, excluding European Union member-states. The country’s intermediate food exports were recorded at $38.75 billion in 2016, slightly lower than $40 billion in 2015. Imports of similar products were higher at $50.23 million for 2016. |
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February 2019
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