Taiwan has its fair share of challenges competing on the international stage. Its proximity to China, by some margin Asia’s busiest and largest exhibition marketplace - without the international traffic afforded to its neighbour Hong Kong - certainly dents its ability to attract international fare. China protects business in Hong Kong, but Taiwan is not Chinese. There’s also the small matter of national identity. Taiwan’s independence isn’t recognised by the United Nations. As a result many of Taiwan’s international partnerships are formed on a de facto basis, limiting their usefulness.
However, relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is warming. Development such as the Economic Competitive Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed with China three years ago, the mooted Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), do and will enable Taiwan to more effectively take part in regional economic integration.
To the business community of course, Taiwan has built a reputation on manufacturing, and in increasingly relevant industries. The country is a world leader in industries such as bicycle manufacturing, optoelectronics and semiconductors, and today more than a third of its industrial structure is based on IT and electronics. No wonder then it is counted among the ‘Four Asian Tigers’ with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.
Development in the capital
Exhibition business in Taiwan is concentrated in its capital Taipei, located in the north. Almost 80 per cent of the country’s shows take place here, with 10 per cent in the southern port city Kaohsiung, and the rest in Taichung followed by second tier cities. And today it appears the exhibition infrastructure in Taipei is mimicking London, UK, or Hong Kong, where central but congested and wall-bound venues are competing with larger and more modern venues on the outskirts of the city.
The Taipei World Trade Centre (TWTC), built in 1986, is a 23,000sqm seven-storey venue in the city’s Xinyi Project District; referred to locally as Taipei’s Manhattan; home to the soaring Taipei 101 skyscraper.
Eight kilometres from the TWTC is Nangang, which opened in 2008 and is now being developed as the primary exhibition space in the city. The venue is in its second phase of expansion, building a new hall in addition to the 45,000sqm currently on offer.
In the south, the Kaohsiung Expo Centre is planned to open for business in spring 2014 with a major yacht show. The city has been earmarked for events in the steel, heavy construction and ship-building industries and the KEC is hoped to facilitate development in these areas through a series of launch events.
According to Michael Tu, the MD of the Taipai office of German multiservice provider and publisher Uniplan, Kaohsiung is likely to take a lot of business in the green sector, in some instances becoming a guinea pig for progressive clean energy ventures that will be recognised in exhibitions of a similar nature. “The government would like to introduce more green concepts to Kaohsiung,” he says. “There is a big debate in Taiwan at the moment about the creation of a fourth nuclear reactor. It would cost 300bn Taiwanese dollars, but this could be invested in technology to improve insulation and efficiency instead, and reduce the need for a fourth reactor.
Exhibition support structure
What’s certain is that the exhibition industry in Taiwan has the support that enables it to be a genuine international contender, and the exhibition sector reflects this.
In 2012, 122 exhibitions that TAITRA refers to a “large”, both international and domestic, were organised in the country, generating just shy of 70,000 exhibition stands on 941,000sqm (gross) and 365,000sqm (net). Thirty-three of these exhibitions were organised by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), a freestanding exhibition organiser and venue created to facilitate overseas trade for the government, accounting for more than half of Taipei’s exhibition space, or 594,000sqm (gross). The council even organises events overseas, including two in Myanmar, where it claims to be the biggest exhibition organiser currently active.
The council is assisted in its role by several other bodies that, while at first appearing to perform the same role, each do their bit to help international organisers get their businesses into the country.
The Taiwan Exhibition and Conference Association (TECA) is described by chairman Tiger Lin as a chamber of commerce, established both to bring business into Taiwan, and take Taiwanese business out to the rest of the world.
Lin claims the association is there to help emphasise to the government and overseas clients alike how business should be done. “We play the important role of explaining to the government the rules and regulations that are important in achieving its goals,” says Lin. “We aim to reduce the chance of local organisers scaring off the big guys like UBM.”
His words are underscored by TECA’s executive director of overseas, Judy Wang. “[An overseas organiser] should approach us because we have more influence and connection in the private sector.”
However, whichever way you look at it, the association does compete with TAITRA, as does the similarly titled Taiwan Conference and Exhibition Association (TCEA), established to promote Taiwan’s MICE industry overseas. It represents airlines, PCOs, DMCs and city governments. One of its key areas of focus is the business it gets from China.
Add to this Meet Taiwan, a body established by the Bureau of Foreign Trade four years ago to progress Taiwan’s MICE programme through promotion, research and related promotional services, and it becomes clear there are many bodies capable of servicing international organisers. Nonetheless, this fertile exhibition support structure has yielded some truly global events. Computex Taipei [see right] and Taipei Cycle are global leaders in their respective industries, tempting international exhibitors with their proximity to local factories and other supply chain elements.
But the challenge remains how Taiwan creates a genuine value proposition over the other Asian Tigers, and of course the Chinese mainland, which casts its shadow far. To succeed, Taiwan must convince international organisers to become players through a clear, unified message. If it establishes how best to promote its new venues and support structure, it may set another trend in motion.
This was first published in Issue 3/2013 of EW. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
