About Us

In 2012, Taiwan's trade with the world reached US$571.8 billion. Of this figure, exports decreased by 2.3% to US$301.1 billion due to the challenges of European debt, financial strains on governments and the international market downturn, but the total volume of trade and exports was our country’s second highest ever. Taiwan’s exports to emerging markets grew by 5% while exports to Mainland China decreased 4.3%. Yet, according to the Mainland China’s statistics, Taiwan’s market share in Mainland China grew by 0.1% under the keen competition of Japan and Korea. This demonstrated the positive effect of our expanded marketing efforts in the region. Taiwan’s exports to the United States and Europe decreased by 9.3% and 7.8%, respectively, but exports to six ASEAN countries and Japan posted a record growth.

With guidance from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and efforts from all our staff, TAITRA helped Taiwan’s enterprises generate over US$57.22 billion in business opportunities. Here, we share with you our achievements over the past year:

In the emerging markets, TAITRA’s efforts went toward helping Taiwan’s enterprises further expand into Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South America, the ASEAN countries (Vietnam and Indonesia, in particular), and India. The major trade promoting projects of 2012 included “Procurement Plan for Attracting Buyers of Emerging Markets”, outbound delegations, and video-conferencing trade conventions. TAITRA also initiated the Trade Pioneers Project, with 25 senior market specialists dispatched to 29 cities that did not yet have TAITRA branch offices set up and were less frequented by Taiwanese exporters. TAITRA’s specialists helped provide business match-making services with new clients for Taiwanese enterprises. In March, TAITRA organized the “Sourcing Taiwan” convention. Over ten thousand business meetings were conducted between 2,000 Taiwanese suppliers and 566 international buyers.

Exports to emerging markets grew by two percentage points and represented 27.9% of Taiwan’s 2012 export value. The figures indicated the mounting importance of emerging markets to Taiwan’s export.

In the Mainland China market, TAITRA organized nine “Taiwan Trade Fairs”, participated in three cross-border expositions, and invited eleven procurement groups to visit Taiwan. The events helped Taiwan’s enterprises capture the enormous opportunities presented by Mainland China’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan and assisted small and medium enterprises to build brands and to enter the marketing channels.

TAITRA held the first “Taiwan Trade Fair” in Nanjing in September 2009. The event was a huge hit and twenty-two fairs have been held since. In 2012, TAITRA organized nine fairs across Shanghai, Nanning, Chengdu, Tianjin, Dalian, Nanjing, Qingdao, Beijing, and Chongqing. The themes of the fairs were individually designed to meet the needs of each local market. The fairs were held in high numbers, contained plenty of highlights, generated large numbers of leads, penetrated high-level markets, produced widespread marketing effects, and had in-depth participation from partnership bodies.

Some 4,510 Taiwanese enterprises participated in the fairs and spanned across 11,550 booths. The total number of visitors to these fairs reached 2.3 million, and the total amount of business generated was worth US$3.5 billion.
The developed markets remained strong purchasing powers despite the challenges of GDP slowdowns and financial strains on governments. In terms of aggregate demand, the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom ranked among the major economics and were vital export markets for Taiwan’s enterprises. In 2012, TAITRA led Taiwan’s enterprise delegations to participate in over twenty-nine international exhibitions including CeBIT in Hanover, CES in Las Vegas, and IPF in Japan. These major international exhibitions continued to be important platforms for Taiwan’s enterprises to expand their global reach.

To strengthen Taiwan’s expanding sales to Japan and help Taiwan’s suppliers counter the effects of marginalization brought on by the major economies’ free-trade agreements, TAITRA organized large-scale procurement meetings in Taipei – “Trade with Japan” in May, “Trade with the U.S” in August, and “Trade with the EU” in October. Over one thousand business meetings were conducted between 844 Taiwanese suppliers and 151 international buyers, generating more than US$532 million in business opportunities.
Taiwan became the 41st WTO GPA signatory in July 2009. To help Taiwanese enterprises enhance their competitiveness in global government tenders, TAITRA hired experienced consulting companies to advise eight companies in obtaining GSA Schedule contracts. In October of 2012, 60 foreign tender winners from 28 countries joined the “Sourcing Taiwan for Government Procurement” meeting held in Taipei. TAITRA also set up economic and trade delegations to Brazil, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and other countries to explore business opportunities. In the process, tender groups were formed for a Guam solar power plant project and others around the world. Overall, TAITRA helped generate over US$800 million worth of GPA business opportunities in 2012.
The “Branding Taiwan Plan” is an ongoing project implemented by TAITRA to assist Taiwanese enterprises that wish to develop their brands globally. The 2012 Taiwan brand value survey showed the total value of the top-10 brands grew from US$3.564 billion in 2003 to US$10.84 billion in 2012, a growth rate of 204% that tripled 2003’s total value. Over the years, the surveys showed Taiwanese brands have greatly diversified. In 2012, the food and beverage industry in particular performed remarkably well. Brands such as Master Kong, Want-Want, 85℃, Uni-President, and Wowprime all made the top-20 list.

In 2012, TAITRA organized thirty-one international trade shows that attracted a total of 11,066 exhibitors (up 8.9% from 2011) and 73,897 overseas buyers (up 2.5% from 2011). In addition, Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) was the venue of choice for 941 events. TICC also collaborated with local non-governmental organizations to bring a record number of eleven international congresses to Taiwan, to be held between 2014 and 2018.
To facilitate the internationalization of Taiwan’s booming service industries, TAITRA organized overseas promotional events and invited global buyers to procure from Taiwan in the fields of medical tourism, culture and creativity, construction and environmental protection, franchising, software, consultant management, and Taiwanese cuisine.

Following years of unrelenting efforts, TAITRA inaugurated its Shanghai and Beijing branch offices in December 2012 to help manufacturers explore the Mainland China market. TAITRA also set up branch offices in Saint-Petersburg and Kuwait to further spur Taiwanese enterprises to do business with Russian and Persian Gulf states.
The Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC), operated by TAITRA, won a record number of eight “Best Practice” certificates from the World Trade Center Association,Inc. (WTCA). The WTCA is a New York-based international trade association with 330 “World Trade Center” members around the globe. It was an amazing feat achieved by TWTC, as it was the highest number of certificates WTCA had ever awarded to a member since the “Best Practice” certification program began in 1994.

Looking into 2013, TAITRA will remain committed to promoting Taiwan’s external trade. Faced with an ever-changing world economy and tougher global competition, TAITRA will keep on complementing the government’s economic policies and help Taiwan’s enterprises reach all corners of the world. For 2013, TAITRA will promote a series of focused activities with full force:
‧ In the Mainland China market, TAITRA will hold 8 Taiwan Trade Fairs and participate in four cross-border international expositions. Of which, Taiwan Trade Fairs in Zhejiang, Hebei , Anhui and Shaanxi Province and the First China-South Asia Exposition are organized for the first time.
‧ In the emerging markets, TAITRA will strengthen to expand trade opportunities in Muslim market.
‧ In the developed markets, TAITRA will organize large-scale procurement meetings in Taipei and keep exploring GPA business opportunities.
‧ To promote the exports of intermediate goods, the “Sourcing Taiwan” convention and "Taiwan industry clusters weeks will be held again.
‧ To implement "the Taiwan MICE Pilot Plan" to promote Taiwan as an important MICE destination and improve the quality of Taiwan’s MICE service, as well as international competitiveness.
‧ TAITRA plans to increase branch offices in India (Kolkata), Myanmar (Yangon), the Philippines (Manila) and China (Dalian, Qingdao, Chengdu, Guangzhou).