In this week’s installment of Looking South, Eric Gau sits down with Tainan Investment and Commerce Executive Officer Hsin-yao Tseng to talk about the city’s efforts to aid the central government’s New Southbound Policy.
Transcript:
Eric Gau: Hello everyone, I’m Eric Gau, and welcome to today’s installment of Looking South, ICRT’s special program about the government’s New Southbound Policy. Today, we are joined by Hsin-yao Tseng, Executive Officer of Tainan’s Investment and Commerce Section under their Bureau of Economic Development, to talk to about local efforts to build ties with Southeast Asian countries. Mr. Tseng, welcome to the show.
Hsin-yao Tseng: Good morning, Eric. Thank you for having me.
Eric: Mr. Tseng, Before the New Southbound Policy was implemented, what kind of economic interaction did the city have with other countries in the region already?
Hsin-yao: Although economic and trade connections between Taiwan and Southeast Asia have a long history and our ties are close, in the past, we have tended to view this region primarily as a production base, a place in which to conduct export processing trade or investment. Before the launch of the New Southbound Policy, we had relatively little engagement in the region’s domestic markets. But in recent years, the national economies in Southeast and South Asia have developed rapidly, and their consumer spending power has risen sharply. Moreover, the rise of their middle class has created huge business opportunities in their domestic markets. They have become bright spots of global economic growth.
Eric: And since the announcement of the Policy, about two years ago now, what has Tainan city been doing to support this Policy?
Hsin-yao: Our city government has been vigorously promoting cooperation between firms in Tainan and those in New Southbound Policy target countries. We have also put a lot of effort into attracting those countries’ enterprises to come to invest or purchase in Tainan. Our city government has been employing the following concrete methods to help our businesses penetrate the target countries’ markets and to attract business and people in those countries to invest in Tainan. The first one is to set up bilateral exchange events to enable firms in New Southbound Policy countries to understand our city’s industrial development and investment environment, attract their investment in our city, and promote Tainan enterprises’ understanding of the environment in those countries, with the view to establish long-term economic interaction and cooperation between them and us. The second is inviting business delegates from New Southbound Policy countries to visit Tainan to investigate and discuss the investment opportunities and advantages, to enable their enterprises to gain an on-the-spot understanding of our investment environment and to encourage counterpart firms in our respective industrial chains to discuss possibilities for collaboration. The third, leading the industrial delegations to promote global trade expansion and economic cooperation in New Southbound Policy countries and to invite investment in Tainan with the goal of promoting exchanges and cooperation between their enterprises and ours, and of drawing a new source of vitality into our city’s economic environment. Fourth, promoting a food fair Halal pavilion, Muslim-friendly stores, and Halal certification. These efforts have significantly enhanced Tainan’s Muslim-friendly food and beverage environment, thereby attracting Muslim visitors to come and spend money in the city. Fifth, assisting enterprises to apply for Halal certification and exhibit Halal food and drink in order to develop the Halal market and increase production value.
Eric: It sounds like Tainan has been doing quite a lot already to foster bilateral economic ties. What kind of opportunities and benefits have these projects opened up for the business based in Tainan?
Hsin-yao: During the past year, our city has gained the following results and achievements in economic interaction. First, setting up a contact window to help Tainan enterprises develop trade and collaborative links with the markets of New Southbound Policy countries. Information and assistance provided by this window has helped our business to understand the industrial development status and market conditions in those countries, and lower their risks in investment. Second, businesses represented in the trade delegation from New Southbound Policy countries that came to Tainan negotiated deals amounting to around 106 million NT dollars, creating potential business opportunities totaling almost 258 million NT dollars in the year ahead. When our delegation expanded their market into those New Southbound Policy countries, our firms negotiated deals adding up to more than 130 million NT dollars, creating potential business opportunities of over 199 million NT dollars in the year ahead. Third, assisting 10 businesses to obtain Muslim-friendly restaurant certification to enhance Tainan’s Muslim-friendly catering environment and make the city more attractive to Muslim visitors. Fourth, designing and printing over 700 maps of Muslim-friendly stores, to help the stores gain exposure and advertise their catering to Muslim customers. Fifth, assisting 8 manufacturers to apply for Halal certification for 23 products, with the production output value surpassing 200 million NT dollars.
Eric: You touched on this briefly, but have these projects attracted more talent or investment from those countries to come to Tainan to set up shop, or to learn and invest?
Hsin-yao: Our city government has already invited enterprises from 8 New Southbound Policy countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, to visit Tainan for investment exploration and discussion. And besides inviting buyers from those countries to visit manufacturing enterprises in Tainan and to come to our city to conduct purchase negotiations, we also invited enterprises from those countries to participate in the Tainan Biotechnology and Green Energy Expo. Our city government’s approach is to emphasize economic and trade collaboration with New Southbound Policy countries, on the one hand helping our city’s enterprises to expand global markets in those countries, with the aim of expanding the scale of domestic production and increasing investment and employment, and on the other hand promoting our city’s excellent industrial and investment environment to those countries’ enterprises, to familiarize them with our investment and economic conditions and induce them to investment in Tainan.
Eric: Executive Officer Tseng, looking forward, what else is the Tainan city government planning on doing to boost economic ties with New Southbound Policy target countries?
Hsin-yao: Although the countries targeted under the New Southbound Policy vary in their development and have different customs and traditions, they all have at least reached the take-off stage of economic development, and their spending power, demographic dividends, and development outlook cannot be ignored. The Tainan city government will continue to help our businesses penetrate those countries’ markets and will continue endeavoring to lure their businesses to come and invest and their people to come to consume in our city. We will do our best to inform enterprises in those countries about Tainan’s industrial development and investment environment to induce them to invest in our city. And we will do our best to promote our enterprises’ understanding of the environment in those countries to secure the establishment of long-term bilateral cooperation and exchanges. In the future, our city will continue to join up with Taiwan’s business associations and pursue these goals as a team, instead of the old way of businesses going it alone. This will reduce the enterprises’ trade and investment risk and give them the best prospects of successfully penetrating the markets of New Southbound Policy countries.
Eric: We’ve been talking with Executive officer Hsin-yao Tseng of Tainan’s Investment and Commerce Section. Mr. Zeng, thank you for joining us on the air today.
Hsin-yao: Thank you so much.
Eric: That’s it for today’s episode of Looking South. For this and past episodes, you can go to the ICRT Web site and look for the podcast section, or search for the Looking South blog. I’m Eric Gau, and thank you all for tuning in.