Global procurment event Sourcing Taiwan 2017 hosted by TAITRA attracts Southeast Asian buyers
By Judy Lin
International buyers and Taiwan suppliers trying to seal business deals at Sourcing Taiwan 2016. (Photo courtesy of TAITRA)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Sourcing Taiwan 2017, the annual global procurement event hosted by Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), has seen a record number of buyers attending the show, specifically buyers from Southeast Asia and emerging markets who make up the biggest procurement group this year.
In its ninth year, the annual trade show has seen a surge in Southeast Asian buyers, who account for 43 percent of the 581 buyers from 61 countries attending the one-day show that will take place on March 29, 2017, at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall.
“The ratio of Southeast Asian buyers increased this year; last year they made up about 30 percent of buyers,” said Patty Yen, manager for ISC for Consumers Goods Section, Market Development at TAITRA.
TAITRA defines the Southeast Asia market as the 10 ASEAN member states plus South Asian countries including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, said David Hsu (徐大衛) deputy director general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade.
Buyers from emerging markets comprised the second-largest group, with about 165 buyers or 28 percent of attendants.
According to Hsu, buyers from emerging markets include those from Russia, South American countries such as Brazil, and African nations such as Nigeria and Egypt. The organization will for the first time invite a delegation of buyers from Nambia and Rwanda.
Basic infrastructure products and products closely tied to Southeast Asian country policies attract buyers from these regions the most, followed by products to meet their domestic demand, said Yen.
International buyers flying in to Taiwan are most interested in information and communications technology (ICT) products with up to 26 percent or 148 buyers showing interest in IoT, smart homes, AR, VR and surveillance products, noted Yen.
Precision equipment, smart machinery and automated machinery ranked second with 19 percent (112 buyers), while green energy product buyers, such as solar cell batteries and LED lights made up the third-largest group of about 7 percent (43 buyers).
For instance, a large German lighting company has shown interest in procuring OLED equipment from Taiwanese suppliers, said Vanessa Chang, the organization’s deputy executive director of Market Development.
To encourage buyers from Southeast Asia to attend the show, TAITRA invited Indonesia’s second-largest e-commerce company blibli.com and Vietnamese e-commerce company Tiki.VN to attend the international purchasing trade show in Taiwan for the first time, said Yen.
Owned by PT Global Digital Niaga, a subsidiary of Djarum Group, blibli.com has been raising capital over the past year to avert a similar fate as Indonesia’s largest e-commerce company Lazada, which was acquired by China’s Alibaba for US$1 billion in April 2016.
Indonesia’s largest automobile accessories manufacturer Astra Otoparts, Vietnam’s largest construction company Coteccons Group, and Vietnam’s biggest ICT importer KMD Company Limited will also be attending the show.
The number of Chinese buyers at this year’s show remained about the same at around 10 to 11 percent or 51 buyers, said Vanessa Chang. China’s Sunning Commerce Group (蘇寧雲商), for instance, will be attending the show.
Notable foreign buyers include big Japanese consumer electronic retailer Bic Camera, which has 41 franchises in its homeland, global e-commerce company Newegg, semiconductor company Future Electronics, and German tool equipment maker Meister Werkzeuge.
Video conference and real-time video streaming services will be provided by TAITRA to cater to the needs of 84 buyers from 31 countries that cannot physically attend the show, said Hsu.
He estimated the 1,568 Taiwanese suppliers that attend the show will host an estimated 6,300 business meetings and generate a total trade value of US$4 billion.
“We expect this figure to be the same as last year,” said Chang.