Taiwan promoting safety industry

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 30, 2006. It reports that in order to beef up Taiwan's safety and security industry, the Bureau of Foreign Trade and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council are helping the industry in tapping the world market. These two government agencies are planning to adopt flexible strategies to promote Taiwan's safety and security products as meeting the needs of different markets.

At present, the safety and security industry is one of the few sectors that still maintain operations in Taiwan. The industry is facing growing competition from other neighboring countries, including China, Japan and South Korea. However, the industry has the advantage of being supported by Taiwan's well-developed electronics industry and its sound network of related satellite plants.

According to industry analysts, due to growing anti-terrorism sentiment around the world, in recent years the global security industry has developed very rapidly. The industry's global production value in 2003 was merely US$15 billion. But the value is expected to soar to US$40 billion by 2021.

In 2005, the Industrial Development Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Affairs established a "Safety and Security Industry Promotion Office" to effectively assist the industry. The office is aimed at collecting and analyzing global information for the industry, as well as helping domestic manufacturers to seek more business opportunities.

The safety and security industry covers a wide range of products. They can be divided into four categories: information and telecommunication safety products; fire-fighting and industrial safety equipment; general safety equipment; and system integration and related service. Currently, Taiwan's safety and security industry generates production value of more than NT$56 billion (US$1.65 billion) every year. The Bureau of Foreign Trade plans to boost the industry's production value by 10 percent and its exports by NT$3 billion (US$88.24 million) in 2006. More significantly, if the industry can post an annual growth rate of 20 percent, then its output may jump to NT$152.2 billion (US$4.48 billion) in 2011.

In recent months, the Bureau of Foreign Trade and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council have been helping the industry in search for overseas market niches. For relatively mature markets in the United States, Europe and Japan, they adopt "pull" strategy and invite potential buyers to Taiwan to directly place orders with local manufacturers. Meanwhile, the two government agencies also adopt "push" strategy and launch visits to other emerging markets such as Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Romania and Russia.

In 2005, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council led a delegation of safety and security product manufacturers to visit South Africa - and gained US$2 million worth of orders during the following twelve months. In May 2006, the government agency will organize another promotion group to tape the safety market in France, after the French government passed an anti-terrorist law at the end of 2005 that legally requires reinforcement in public safety. It is expected that more monitoring cameras and other sophisticated safety devices will be installed in public areas around France in the near future.

Furthermore, in 2006, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council also plans to promote Taiwan's safety and security products to markets in Mexico, Brazil, Romania, Russia and Poland. Promoting tours will be organized to either exhibit o demonstrate Taiwan's products in these countries.