Taipei has its attractions as a site for international events, but it needs a fresh mindset to win business in the ultra-competitive Asia market. Arriving at Taoyuan Airport, travelers normally pass through immigration, customs, and the baggage claim smoothly. But upon entering the arrivals area of Taipei’s primary international airport, the experience gets bumpier for…
Changes in regulatory approaches are expected to cut deeply into the home sharing platform’s Taiwan business. Home sharing is a great way to experience Taiwan. During my two trips last year to Kinmen, the Taiwan-governed archipelago off the coast of China’s Fujian Province, I stayed in the same bed and breakfast, Shangheryuan. In between sightseeing…
Attitudes and facilities have improved, but much more still needs to be done. Taiwan is a crowded place. The population per square kilometer is nearly 20 times that of the United States, and the cities are crammed with parked vehicles and snack vendors. Although accessibility for wheelchair users has improved in recent years, for the…
The U.S.-China trade war and demand for sit-stand desks are helping drive growth for Taiwanese manufacturers. Taiwan’s furniture industry experienced a big boost in the 1990s through orders from IKEA –then suffered as the Swedish giant turned to suppliers in China, Vietnam, and other lower-cost countries. Taiwanese makers of wooden furniture generally responded by…
Although market demand is flat, additional new hotels continue to be constructed. A thousand new hotel rooms have been added in Taipei during 2018 – and many more new hotel projects are in the pipeline both in the capital city and around the island. Unfortunately, they are coming onto the market just as the growth…
Taiwan rose to 13th place in the 2019 Doing Business report. Taiwan moved up two notches from last year to rank No. 13 in the World Bank’s recently released 2019 Doing Business survey. It passed Estonia, Finland, and Australia but came in behind the United Arab Emirates, which soared all the way from last year’s…
Forbes Lists Gou As Taiwan’s Richest In its annual survey of Asia’s wealthiest individuals, Forbes magazine named Terry Gou, founder and chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (also known as Foxconn), as Taiwan’s richest with a fortune worth US$7.3 billion. The Wei brothers of Ting Hsin Inter-national Group were ranked second with combined assets of…
Although Taiwan did not have a team competing in the 2018 World Cup in Russia this June, it was still well represented on the playing fields. The uniforms worn by the athletes from the great majority of the 32 participating countries were made by Taiwanese companies, mainly for such prominent international brands as Nike and…
Thirty-nine state enterprises have been converted into private companies since 1989. The next stage will be the most difficult. Over the past three decades, a total of 39 state-owned enterprises in Taiwan have been transformed into private corporations through the sale of shares in an effort to promote efficiency and reduce the direct involvement of…
Companies are seeking to avoid the low-margin trap by moving into this technically demanding segment of the industry. As the days are gone when fabric could be cut and sewn in Taiwan at competitive costs, its textile sector has been shifting toward technical textiles for which production relies on automation rather than human labor. In…
