TAITRA Eyes Market Opportunities in Oil-rich Countries and the Mekong Area

With money flooding into the oil-exporting countries of the Middle East and Central Asia, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is planning to tap some of the riches by organizing a trade promotion delegation to visit Iran, the Kazak Republic, and Russia in April.

Huang Wen-jing, executive director of TAITRA's Market Development Department, notes that with crude oil selling for US$50-60 per barrel—almost double the price four years ago--the oil-rich countries are obviously awash in cash. TAITRA hopes to find market niches that will enable Taiwan to take advantage of this increased buying power.

Iran is the world's third-largest producer of petroleum, and the Kazak Republic is among the top 10 countries in terms of oil reserves. Russia is also rich in oil reserves, and its huge population and growing economic power make it an even more attractive market. The three countries that TAITRA is targeting have a total population of around 240 million; last year they imported US$868 million worth of products from Taiwan, and the figure is expected to keep growing in the years to come.

TAITRA chairman Hsu Chih-jen, who led a mission to Central Asia last year to assess market opportunities there, says that the Kazak government welcomes Taiwan real estate companies to help develop its public housing and commercial property. Some Kazak enterprises have also shown interest in cooperating with Taiwanese companies in joint business-development efforts.

For example, Sulpak, a leading Kazak enterprise group, hopes to cooperate with Taiwanese information technology (IT) firms in producing liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors and TV sets for sale locally and in other Central American markets. Almaty Tea, a Kazak soft-drink producer, wants to serve as an agent of the government-affiliated Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp. and market the latter's new alkaline ion bottled water in Central Asia.

Neman Pharma, a leading drug chain in another Central Asian country, the Kirghiz Republic, would like to sell Taiwan Salt's biotech cosmetic products. Muhametov, the largest retailer of cosmetics in the Kazak Republic, is interested in marketing Taiwan-made biotech products.

TAITRA reports that the upcoming mission, which is scheduled to leave Taiwan in the middle of the month, will be made up of representatives from electronics, IT, machinery, building materials, food, and textile manufacturers.

In addition to the Middle East and Central Asia, TAITRA is also keeping its eyes on emerging markets in Southeast Asia, where it expects business opportunities to continue expanding over the next decade.

TAITRA believes that the area along the Mekong River (including Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Yunnan Province in China), where the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is funding a US$15 billion development project, is Southeast Asia's last virgin market. It has an area of 2.6 million square kilometers and a combined population of more than 300 million, and TAITRA is urging Taiwan's manufacturers to take advantage of the emerging business opportunities there.

TAITRA plans to organize a fact-finding mission to the Mekong area in the second half of this year, hoping to find market niches for Taiwanese manufacturers there.