Taiwan's trade with the world reached a new high to US$526.4 billion in 2010, an increase of 39.15% from a year ago. Of this figure, exports grew 34.84% (or US$70.94 billion) to US$274.64 billion. The year-on-year export growth rate to the China market reached 37.10%, to emerging markets 37.56%, to the USA and European markets 33.6% and 30.14% respectively, and to Japan also up 24.28%. According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) of Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s exports in 2010 contributed as high as 68.44% to the country’s economic growth of the year.

Under the direction of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and joint efforts of all TAITRA staff, the export growth rate of Taiwan in 2010 far surpassed the original target of 17%, which is also better than that of Japan and South Korea. Looking back at 2010, numerous achievements were accomplished by TAITRA and worth sharing in this report:

The World Expo 2010
Taiwan was officially back to the World Expo in 2010 after being away for 40 years. TAITRA overcame challenges to plan the exhibition contents and completed the construction works within 199 days. The Taiwan Pavilion opened on time on May 1 and closed perfectly on October 31, 2010. After the opening, the Taiwan Pavilion rapidly stood out as one of the most popular pavilions for its rich and humanistic exhibitions and warm hospitality. Our pavilion staff members insisted throughout the Expo period the spirit of service – “every visitor is VIP; every day is the first day.” The Japanese magazine FLASH even ranked the Taiwan Pavilion as the No. 1 in the World Expo.

The Taiwan Pavilion received a total of 750,000 visitors. About 36 million visitors watched the outdoor LED films. On the Internet, the “Online Taiwan Pavilion” received 15.8 million visitors. The unaltered Taiwan Pavilion will be reopened again in the Hsinchu Industrial Innovation Park in October, 2011.

The Effective Continuation of Market Development
TAITRA continued to implement the various cases of the “New Zheng He Plan” which successfully boosted Taiwan’s exports.

	The Mainland China Market
	There are four gradual steps to TAITRA’s market development strategy: market research, market expansion, brand building, and distribution-channel creation. In 2010, market research on 53 cities in China was completed. TAITRA also organized 5 “Taiwan Trade Fairs” in Mainland China and invited 12 Chinese procurement groups to Taiwan. All the cases fruitfully generated US$20.89 billion worth of trade opportunities. In September 2009, TAITRA organized the first “Taiwan Trade Fair” in Nanjing which successfully promoted Taiwan’s brands in Mainland China. In 2010, TAITRA further organized 5 “Taiwan Trade Fairs” in Dongguan, Nanjing, Tianjin, Jinan and Chongqing. In addition to setting up “Taiwan Excellence Pavilion” at the Fairs featuring Taiwan’s innovative products, the Fairs also demonstrated Taiwan’s capacity in manufacturing all kinds of consumer goods.      The Fairs not only generated remarkable business opportunities for the exhibitors worth about US$2.66 billion, but also allowed both Chinese sourcing businesses and consumers to experience Taiwanese products first-hand which made them interested in building “Taiwan Trade Mart” all over Mainland China.
	Emerging Markets
	TAITRA focused on Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South America, the ASEAN (particularly Vietnam and Indonesia), and India as the 6 new emerging markets for business development. Projects such as the “Procurement Plan for Attracting Buyers of Emerging Markets,” outbound delegations, business talent incubation program and video-conferencing trade opportunity matching service are bases in 2010 for helping Taiwan’s enterprises to develop the emerging markets, which altogether produced business opportunities worth about US$5.6 billion. On March 31, 2010, TAITRA organized the “Sourcing Taiwan” convention and successfully attracted 494 buyers from 450 enterprises in 43 different countries. They conducted about 10,000 procurement meetings with 2,107 Taiwanese enterprises and generated an impressive US$3.65 billion worth of business opportunities.
	Government Procurement Agreement ( GPA) Project
	In July 2009, Taiwan became the 41st WTO GPA signatory. In 2010, TAITRA intensified Taiwanese enterprises’ ability to compete globally for government tenders by organizing 3 industry associations specialized in construction, aircraft maintenance, and security monitoring, and 3 tendering groups for US military reconstruction in Guam, Nepal’s solar photovoltaics (PVs) and smart-metering (intelligent digital power meter). In addition, a total of 35 foreign enterprises which had won government tenders from 12 different countries were invited to visit Taiwan for trade meetings. TAITRA in 2010 pro-actively generated US$555 million worth of GPA business opportunities.
	Service Trade Promotion
	TAITRA focused the service trade promotion in medical tourism, cultural & creative arts, and construction & environmental protection. A total of 12 overseas promotional activities and 10 procurement cases by overseas buyers in Taiwan were held in 2010, generating US$150 million worth of business opportunities.

Raising Taiwan’s Brand Value

The year 2010 was the best year so far for Taiwan’s brand makers, particularly Acer, HTC, Asus, Trendmicro, and Master Kong, whose individual brand value topped US$1 billion. These companies’ performance has reached Taiwan’s goal of having at least 5 brands with individual brand value over US$1 billion earlier than the expected year 2012. The total brand value of the Top 20 Superior Brands winners was recorded at US$9.36 billion, a 7.9% increase from 2009.

Taiwan’s Meeting, Incentive Travel, Conference, and
Exhibition (MICE) Industry Grew Notably
In 2010, TAITRA organized 29 international trade shows, which attracted 10,293 exhibitors (a growth of 5.7% from 2009), and 69,999 overseas buyers (a growth of 0.5%). And, the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) was the venue of choice for 907 conferences, meetings, and trade-related activities (a growth of 2.5%). All the numbers are all-time highs.

Prospects of 2011
Facing the ever-changing global economic situation and fiercer international competitions, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has set an export growth goal of 10% for 2011. As the base performance in 2010 was already high, it would be hard for us to exceed expectation. TAITRA will as a result try even harder to promote the following focused activities for 2011 to accomplish the mission bestowed by the government:

	Enhancing Market Research
	TAITRA has expanded its original “International Trade Information Center” to become the “Market Research Department” in order to fully enhance the depth, width, and professionalism of the organization’s market and industry research capacity. The expansion and enhancement are aimed to provide Taiwanese enterprises with even better reference on formulating market development strategies.
	Equal Emphasis on the Developed, Emerging and Mainland China Markets
	In addition to reach further into the European, American, and Japanese markets, TAITRA will persist in spearheading effort in exploring trade opportunities in China. Several brand-building marketing and customer-centered activities that integrate with the resources of Taiwanese businesses in China will continue to be launched. For example, in 2011 TAITRA will organize “Taiwan Trade Fairs” in Nanjing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Guangzhou. For the focused 8 other major markets (Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, South Africa and the Middle East), TAITRA will plan all kinds of promotional activities according to their distinct market characteristics.
	Expanding the Scale of Taipei Trade Shows
	In 2011, TAITRA will host 29 Taipei International Trade Shows. The scale of the Taipei International Information Technology Show (Computex Taipei), Taipei International Machine Tool Show (TIMTOS),Taipei International Cycle Show (TAIPEI CYCLE), Taipei International Auto Parts & Accessories Show (AMPA), Taipei International Automobile Electronics Show (AutoTronics Taipei), and Taipei International Sporting Goods Show (TaiSPO) will be expanded further. As the world is paying increasing attention to environmental protection or “green” concepts, we will also introduce for the first time in 2011 two new shows--“Taiwan International Electric Vehicles Show” (EV Taiwan) and “Taiwan Smart Green Building Exposition.” The 29 shows are expected to attract more than 10,000 exhibitors and over 70,000 overseas buyers to come to Taiwan.
	Selecting Top 100 “Taiwan Brands” & Retrospective on “Taiwan Excellence”
	To persist in enhancing the global brand image of Taiwan’s products, TAITRA will hold the “Top 100 Taiwan Brand Selection” and “Taiwan Excellence Awards 20-years’ Retrospective Show” in 2011, as well as participate in major domestic and international events that will assist more Taiwanese companies in developing the “Taiwan Brand.”
	Enhancing Service Trade Promotion
	Aside from the overseas marketing for medical tourism, cultural & creative arts, and construction & environmental protection, we will also make the best use of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement’s (ECFA) Early Harvest List to further promote the cross-strait chain-store industries as a focus of the service industry promotion.

Looking into 2011, TAITRA will remain committed to innovate in global marketing and complement the government to execute all kinds of economic and trade policies. With determined efforts, TAITRA moreover hopes to help Taiwanese businesses accomplish their goal of selling products to every corner of the world.

Chairman