Roger Liao, Vice President of TEEMA
Taiwan people showed that Taiwan can help once donated face masks to several countries all over the world during the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020. In mid-2021, when the epidemic situation was heating up and vaccine shortages occurred in Taiwan, countries such as Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia extended the hand of friendship one after another to donate saving-lives COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan. President Tsai, Ing-wen called this is a kind of "virtuous cycle."
Recently, Taiwan and Central and Eastern European countries have become increasingly close in complementary and mutually beneficial cooperation in various industrial fields. As this reason, between October 20 and 30, the Taiwan Trade and Investment Delegation to the Central and Eastern Europe led by Dr. Ming-Hsin Kung, Minister of National Development Council, with a total of 66 member delegates composed of government officials including Minister of MOST Tsung- Tsong Wu, Deputy Minister of MOEA Chern-Chyi Chen, and Deputy Minister of Finance Frank Juan, industry associations such as TEEMA, research institutions such as the ITRI, and industrial entrepreneurs visited Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.
During this visit to the three virtuous countries, a total of 18 memorandums of cooperation (7 in Slovakia, 5 in the Czech Republic, and 6 in Lithuania) were signed with the governmental authorities and private institutions.
The cooperation contents including science parks, space technology, electric vehicles, smart cities, machinery, digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, tourism, Internet of things, semiconductors, education, scientific research, biotechnology and financial cooperation, etc.
TEEMA Managing Director Winner Yu and Vice President Roger Liao participated in this meaningful mission and linked up with representatives of industry, government, academia and industry in Slovakia, Czech, and Lithuania. By way of promoting Taiwan's E&E industry strength through complementary communications and presentations in several business meetings, they established a mutually beneficial bridge and set up the trade ties between TEEMA and these three friendly European countries.
First stop-Slovakia
Slovakia's overall economic development strategy focuses on five areas: green economy, health care, public administration, education & scientific research, and innovative research and development. Nan-Yang Lee, the ambassador of Taiwan's representative office in Slovakia, and Shao-Lin Hu, Director of the economic division, arranged for 33 delegation members to conduct a total of 149 bilateral business dialogues with 33 Slovak companies within two days. TEEMA's Vice President Roger Liao gave a briefing to explain the development of Taiwan's electronics industry at the Taiwan-Slovakia Investment Forum on October 21. On behalf of TEEMA, Mr. Winner Yu signed an Electric Vehicle Cooperation Agreement with Mr. Patrik Krizansky, the chairman of the Slovak Electric Vehicle Association (SEVA).
Taiwan is Slovakia's second largest Asian investor. Taiwanese companies have invested more than 500 million euros in Slovakia and created more than 3,000 job opportunities.
Currently, there are three TEEMA member companies, Delta, Hon Hai and AUO investing in Slovakia.
It was observed during this trip that the automobile industry is the drving force of Slovakia's economy. In the past 20 years, it has become an important source of foreign direct investment. Slovakia is one of the world's 20 largest car-producing countries with an annual production of more than 1 million cars. In 2020, Slovakia produced more than 1.25 million cars a year, setting the country's historical high.
Second stop-Czech Republic
In 2020, Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil led a delegation to visit Taiwan. The first non-governmental meeting was to meet with Mr. Richard Lee, Chairman of TEEMA, to discuss the high-tech industry investment and cooperation on August 30, 2020.
The delegation arrived in the Czech Republic on October 23. Under the thoughtful arrangement by Ambassador Liang-Rui Ke, on October 24, all the delegates communicated with the city government team led by Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib; On October 25, Mr. Eric Lin, General Manager of Wistron Infocomm(Czech), also titled TEEMA advisor in Europe, met with TAITRA's Vice President, Mr. Simon Wang, to exchange views on the European issues of Taiwanese business deployment; Mr. Winner Yu met with TEEMA's ally, Mr. Jan Prokš, Director of the Czech Electronics Association (ELA). The two parties exchanged opinions on block-chain, information security cooperation and electric Vehicles. In the afternoon, Mr. Winner Yu discussed the business opportunities with Valeo, the French vehicle tier 1 from the Czech Automobile Association at Ministry of Transportation Minister Wu of the MOST visited the R&D and Innovation Committee of the Czech Prime Minister's Office on October 25 to conduct extensive exchanges and discussions on the key areas of scientific research between the two sides in the future. Deputy Minister Chen of the MOEA and the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry of the Czech Republic jointly held the 5th (2021) Taiwan-Czech Economic and Technical Consultation Meeting on October 25. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on topics such as smart machinery, electric vehicles, and smart cities, and reached consensus on ways to promote cooperation in the future.
Deputy Minister Juan of the Ministry of Finance and senior bank officials also called on the Deputy Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic. Both parties exchanged views on tax cooperation and the establishment of representative offices of Taiwan's financial institutions in Prague.
On October 26, the delegation was invited by Miloš Vystrčil, President of the Czech Senate, to attend the "Technology Resilience and Innovation: New Paths for Taiwan-Czech Cooperation" organized by the Czech Senate; Minister Kung mentioned four most important resiliencies in the era of the epidemic, including democracy, fighting the epidemic, supply chain, and cybersecurity, emphasized the new path of bilateral cooperation between Taiwan and the Czech Republic. All the senators present warmly applauded and welcomed our delegation.
The Taiwan-Czech Business Opportunity Business Opportunity Matchmaking Meeting was very enthusiastic, with some 120 Taiwan-Czech companies participating and conduct about 170 physical and online negotiations among group companies in smart cities, electric vehicles, advanced industries, laser industries, tourism, biotechnology, etc. Taiwanese investment in Central and Eastern Europe is mainly centered in the Czech Republic, and has expanded to neighboring countries such as Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and even Balkan Turkey. With the convenient geographical locations and high-skilled labor force, V4 countries are the most important auto parts producing clusters in Europe.
Third stop-Lithuania
Lithuania has a high degree of social-economic development. Due to its excellent position as a hub in Europe and the booming financial technology, Lithuania is now the second largest fintech center in Europe. There are more than 200 fintech companies. The ease of doing business ranks among the top three in the European Union.
Satellite, Information and communication industries are world-renowned. Lithuanian laser technology, especially with semiconductors, can also be TEEMA members' good source.
The delegation arrived in Lithuania on October 26, and the new coming embassy arranged a number of business opportunities and industry talks; Minister Kung pointed out that Taiwan has many industries that are wellknown internationally, and they can join forces to strengthen bilateral investment and cooperation, such as ICT. Lithuania is the first European Union country to announce the Covid -19 vaccines donation to Taiwan. Lithuania has donated nearly 260,000 doses of vaccine. The delegation is especially here to donate professional drones developed and manufactured by Taiwan.
TAITRA held the "Taiwan-Lithuania Investment Forum" on October 27, focusing on five major areas such as information technology, biotechnology, laser industry and semiconductors, agricultural products/food, and electric vehicles. TEEMA VP Roger Liao gave a briefing to explain the development of Taiwan's electronics industry and the Taiwan Vehicle System Integration Alliance (V-Team) at the electric vehicle group of the forum. Managing Director Winner Yu shared the industrial experience with the members of the Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce and Lithuanian manufacturers.
The Taiwan representative office in Lithuania was officially established in the capital city Vilnius, on November 18, 2021. The first in Europe to bear the name "Taiwan" instead of "Taipei" is a significant diplomatic milestone. The first ambassador to Lithuania is Eric Huang who will be responsible for the entire territory of Lithuania and provides consular services.
Fruitful and Successful Achievement
Entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania all have high expectations for the cooperation with TEEMA's industry. The establishment of pipelines and bridges for TEEMA members with industrial sectors among these three countries is the most important task and achievement. Managing Director Winner Yu and VP Roger Liao believed this trip has established contact channels with the relevant associations in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Lithuania, which can pave the way for members' future investment layout and trade sales. It is worth mentioning that one of our members, Mr. Richard Hwang, Chairman of Tron-e, successfully established a business link with the Lithuanian company ALTAS AUTO under the arrangements of TAITRA and TEEMA. In the foreseeable future, electric buses from Taiwan will be available in the European market.
Karol Galek, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economy of Slovakia, led a delegation to pay a return visit on December 5, and held the 1st Taiwanese Deputy Minister-level Economic and Trade Consultation Conference with Deputy Minister C. C. Chen of MOEA on December 6. TEEMA Chairman Richard Lee hosted a Taiwan-Slovak business exchange meeting and dinner reception for strengthening the friendship between TEEMA and the Slovak Ministry of Economic Affairs Karol Galek and the entrepreneurs of the Slovak delegation. In addition, in order to find more and more business opportunities for TEEMA members, Chairman Lee announced TEEMA will organize an industrial delegation to Slovakia in June 2022.
