Sourcing Taiwan 2012 Begins in TWTC Exhibition Hall 1 Today

Taipei, March 29, 2012 (CENS)--Sourcing Taiwan 2012, an event organized by the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to promote transactions between Taiwanese suppliers and foreign buyers, has begun today at Exhibition Hall 1 of the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC).

Worth mentioning is that to make the most of his efforts to contribute to success of Taiwan Sourcing 2012, President Ma Ying-jeou paid his personal visit to the venue this morning to promote Taiwan-made products after participating in a greeting party held yesterday evening to meet the invited foreign buyers.

According to TAITRA, a total of 556 professional buyers from 59 different countries of the world have been invited to the business-matchmaking occasion, including 155 ones with annual revenues of over US$100 million and 52 larger-sized ones with turnovers of US$1 billion.

Peter Huang, TAITRA's executive vice president, indicated that the sourcing event this year has effectively attracted more large-sized foreign enterprises, with 14 more buyers with turnovers of over US$1 billion, for instance, invited than last year. Heavyweight buyers include France's box-type supermarket operator Auchan Group, China's globally known telecom solution provider Huawei and North Europe's largest building material retailer DT Group.

Huang went on to note that enterprises with turnovers of more than US$20 billion, such as China's communication equipment and terminal device supplier ZTE and Japan's electric wire and cable manufacturer Sumitomo Electric Industries are also on TAITRA's invitation list. Noteworthily, Japan's largest mansion construction company Daiwa House Industry has also sent its purchasing agents to the venue for the first time.

Meanwhile, TAITRA has also arranged online sourcing meetings from March 12 to April 6 for invited foreign buyers who can't attend Sourcing Taiwan 2012, which are particularly targeted at those from China and other emerging countries in East Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. The arrangement has paid off, as TAITRA staffers confirmed that 34 Chinese buyers concluded transactions worth US$33.7 million with 145 Taiwanese suppliers via the online meetings arranged on March 12 through 16. TAITRA indicated that more than 800 online meetings between Taiwanese suppliers and a total of 219 foreign buyers from the said regions will be held during the time span.

The Sourcing Taiwan event, which helped to achieve transactions of over US$4 billion last year, will hopefully materialize business chances worth US$4.8 billion this year, with ICT (information and communication technology) devices, photovoltaic products, LEDs, building materials and hardware, machinery, auto parts, foods and biotechnological and medical products to be major merchandises inquired by foreign buyers.