Taiwan new tech driving economy

Executives of leading Taiwanese electronics companies shared their views on the latest products and trends in the consumer electronics industry at Gitex Technology Week.

Representatives of the global ICT industry from ASUSTek Computer Inc., MICRO-STAR International Co., Ltd and THERMALTAKE Technology Co. Ltd were present at the event to announce their latest products and promotional strategies.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), founded in 1970 to help promote foreign trade, is the leading non-profit trade promotion organization in Taiwan. Supported by sponsors from various industries such as the government, industry associations and several commercial organizations, TAITRA lends a helping hand to Taiwan businesses and manufacturers in maintaining and strengthening their positions in global markets.

Through this conference, TAITRA aims to create a greater awareness of the Taiwan's key products and trends in the Middle East consumer electronics industry. TAITRA also introduces Taiwan Excellence Award Winners of 2008 as the representatives of Top Taiwan based brands. TAITRA also aims to enhance the overall image of Taiwan's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry in the regional and local market.

"There is an amazing amount of innovation in the PCs and mobile devices coming from Taiwan. Because you are such an important global leader in innovation, we have based two of our key strategic industry collaborative ventures here: the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference and the Windows Media Engineering Center," praised by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft when Vista first launched in Taiwan.

Also, Dr. F. C. Kohli, Father of India's Software Industry, said, "Taiwan is the only country that is devoted to where they are going to be ten years down the line, or twenty years down the line."

Products from Taiwan used to suffer in the international market, as their quality was looked down upon once. In order to resolve this issue, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) introduced the Taiwan Excellence Awards Selection in 1992. The selection concerns four areas: R&D, Design, Quality and Marketing. Keeping the four criteria in mind, a panel of experts selects over 300 products from different Taiwanese companies. Each product must score well in all four categories, hence setting the bar high for participants. As a result, the Taiwan Excellence Gold Awards hold the highest honor any Taiwan product can receive, thus setting products designed by Taiwan at a much higher level than in the past.

"Taiwanese designers have accepted that they have to be better than others to be competitive and on the long run successful in global market. They are indeed very quick to define new market solution and very adaptable regarding market need," adds Ralph Wiegmann, iF Design Managing Director.

TAITRA's trade promotion and information network consists of 600 trained specialists and spans globally with 48 overseas branch offices worldwide and four local branches in Taipei headquarters.