The National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute (NTCRDI), an institution under the Ministry of Culture (MOC) that is dedicated to promoting traditional Taiwanese craftsmanship, published a book on Taiwan Woodcraft Furniture: Past and Present last December, providing an overall review of the woodcraft used in Taiwan-made furniture over the past century. “While Taiwan’s furnitur...

Furniture quality has entered the spotlight in recent years as consumers complain about excessive formaldehyde, chemical odors, and other problems. The trend towards greener living has further put producers under pressure to make their products healthier for both users and the environment. Under strict rules on wood and wooden products to be enacted by the European Union (EU) on March 3, 2013,...

Among the various segments of Taiwan's furniture industry, metal furniture producers have outperformed on exports over the past few decades, a feat that the Taiwan Furniture Manufacturers Association (TFMA) attributes to the local availability of high-grade raw materials. "Taiwan has a superior position in metal processing skills so there are no worries about material supply in this segment," obs...

With the massive outflow of furniture manufacturers over the past two decades, Taiwan’s furniture industry has downsized so much that today there are fewer than 100 export-oriented manufacturers still operating on the island. Over half of them run factories both at home and abroad, mainly in mainland China and Southeast Asia, and about a third seem to focus on the production of metal furniture, m...

The southern region covering almost one-fourth of Taiwan has been developed as the island’s major industrial base, including 19 distinctive industrial clusters, mostly related to traditional manufacturing. To further vitalize the local economy, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is developing cutting-edge, proactive technologies to nurture prospective industries that are theoreticall...

After around one decade of development, Taiwan’s creative cultural industry has seen fruitful results and attracts creative participants from various fields, reinforcing the influence of “creative culture” on human life. The Taiwan International Cultural & Creative Industry Expo (TICCIE) has thus seen considerable growth in the number of either participants or exhibit categories since the Council...

Taiwan entries win more than a quarter of the trophies The "Best 100" winners of the iF concept design award 2012 were announced in late May and included 27 entries from Taiwan. In this ultimate competition for young design talent, two of the top 20 winners that received both trophies and prize money are from Taiwan. Taiwan once again showed its strength in design talent by accounting for mo...

The island’s cultural/creative strength has won international recognition in the form of top prizes awarded to local designers at major design competitions With its traditional products suffering a shrinkage of exports, Taiwan has been working hard to develop its cultural/creative industry in recent years. One of the major strategies being used to achieve that goal is to help local businesses ...

Many Taiwanese engineers cannot speak English fluently to be promoted Not many know 208 German companies operate in Taiwan, almost 20% of which with 100-plus employees. Moreover, a recent survey conducted by the German Trade Office Taipei (GTO) shows that many of these companies, despite the challenges posed by the recent peripheral EU zone debt crisis and slowing export out of Taiwan, the maj...

Government-backed institute trails only Oak Ridge National Lab of USA Taiwan once again proves its technology innovation capability, in a contest among the world's leading R&D labs. The Taiwanese team sponsored by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) won seven of the 2012 R&D 100 Awards, given to the 100 most technologically-significant products introduced to market over the past year. ...