Director Min-Shy Chen of Economic division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles accompanied by James Y.C. Chang, vice Economic Counseler attended a seminar entitled Trade Connect - Business Opportunities for U.S Businesses in Asia on October 3, 2013 at the Universal Hilton Hotel in San Gabriel, CA. This program is hosted by the the Port of Los Angeles.
The purpose of this seminar is to assist local small- and medium-sized businesses in the
US access to global markets. Trade Commissioners from 11Asian countries attended this seminar, including Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
Approximately 100 attendees participated in this seminar, which was comprised primarily of small- and medium-sized businesses and members of the international trade community including importers, exporters, forwarders, brokers, bankers, attorneys, and consultants. They were all very eager to hear about the unique and exciting business development opportunities in Asia.
Director Ming-Shy Chen spoke at this seminar. First, he gave an overview about Taiwan and talked about economic and trade relations between the US and Taiwan. He emphasized that the US is Taiwan’s 3rd largest trading partner and that Taiwan is the 4th largest trading partner of the Los Angeles Customs District. He also introduced the Taiwan Excellence logo and the MIT Smile logo. He explained the major benefits of doing business with Taiwan, namely, Taiwan is the hub of Asia and the gateway to China and Southeast Asia. Taiwan has well-developed industry clusters. Taiwan also has strong innovation capacities including the 59 multi-national companies that have already set up their R&D centers in Taiwan. Taiwan has the lowest corporate tax rate compared with nearby countries . According to BERI, Taiwan’s investment environment ranks 3rd in the world. IMD, ranked Taiwan as the 11th in the world in terms of global competitiveness. Finally, Director Chen introduced the function of our office, the Economic Division, TECO, Los Angeles to the audience.
