Trade Secrets on Display

This article was written by Oscar Chung and published by the Taiwan Review on October 1, 2005. It reports that Taiwan is sharing its technical know-how with fellow APEC economics by holding seminars every year on information and communications technology. Participants come from South America and Southeast Asia to learn practical knowledge about trade and R&D in the information sector.

Taiwan joined APEC as a member economy in 1991. Since then, Taiwan has shared its experiences in developing its agricultural sector and small and medium-sized enterprises. It is the SMEs that have formed the base upon which Taiwan has constructed its high-tech manufacturing industry in recent decades.

The annual seminars are organized by the Secretariat of the APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) and held in Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom. They are the brainchild of Lee Yuan-tseh, who has represented President Chen Shui-bian in attendance of APEC meetings for the last three years. Lee is the head of Taiwan's Academia Sinica. He put forward the ADOC initiative at the Leaders' Meeting in Bangkok in 2003, and suggested that the establishment of a digital training center would help close the digital divide in the Asia-Pacific region.

Taiwan contributes to APEC mainly through the Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH), an important policy objective of the organization. Apart from its technical contributions, Taiwan also helped initiating and organizing APEC's Health Task Force in 2003 after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Asia. At the APEC Leaders' Meeting in 2004, Taiwan also argued for local development and production of flu vaccines so that Asia can deal with future epidemics independently and does not have to rely on European and American manufacturers.

While Taiwan shares its economic and technical achievements with other APEC members, the international organization represents an opening of informal diplomatic channels to other nations in and beyond the Asia-Pacific region. Taiwan needs more alternate routes to multilateral diplomacy in order to raise its profile on the world stage. Since Taiwan is barred from participating in the United Nations because of China's objections, its participation in APEC enables other countries to see the value of including Taiwan in international organizations.

More detailed information about Taiwan's role in APEC and how the nation struggles for a chance to participate in other international organizations is provided in this article.