ISC doing well in boosting trade for Taiwan makers

CETRA said that most of CETRA's promotion activities were suspended from March to June due to the breakout of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (ASRS) on the island. However, CETRA re-started all the trade promotions in July and international buyers have resumed their visits to Taiwan since then.


As of the end of November, ISC under the Marketing Development Department (MDD) of CETRA held a total of 40 procurement seminars for foreign buyers. Through such seminars, more than 800 purchasing cases are done and to be done for the year. Last year, there were 30 such seminars and 628 purchasing cases.

Late last month the United Kingdom-based AGCO's international procurement offices (IPOs) in the U.K., France and Brazil all sent their IPO officials to Taiwan to attend ISC's trade promotion seminars. And the IPO officials who are still in Taiwan have so far visited some 37 domestic manufacturers. AGCO, with annual revenue of US$2.9 billion, is the world's largest manufacturer of agricultural tractors, and its purchasing value averages US$1.5 billion per year.

Valeo, France-based auto parts manufacturer and also a world-class supplier of the products, will send its IPO officials to Taiwan to attend the ISC's seminar to be held on Dec. 16. Valeo is a major supplier of parts for such noted sedans as Volvo of Sweden and Benz of Germany, and the company records an average revenue of more than US$5 billion per year. Domestic auto manufacturers that will attend the seminar include Hota Industrial Mfg. Co., Tong Yang Industrial Co., Chun Yu Worls & Co., San Yes Automotive Technology Co., and Tai Yue Electric Co. In addition, ISC is going to hold next Monday a trade talk between domestic auto parts makers and potential buyers in Japan via teleconference.

CETRA indicated that ISC has been set up for about six years and has held a total of 2,400 trade seminars, through which the ISC has offered some 18,000 times of services to domestic manufacturers, helping them complete US$3.1 billion worth of transactions.