The 43rd Taipei International Electronics Show, Taitronics 2017, organised by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA) was hosted at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1, from October 11 to 14, 2017. The Electronics Bazaar team was present at the event. Here are the key highlights.
By Baishakhi Dutta
The themes and highlights of Taitronics 2017 were unveiled by James C.F. Huang, chairman of TAITRA, who welcomed the Indian delegation to the event. He said, ‘The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has built a great connect with Taitronics over several years. It has set up a national pavilion at Taitronics this year and has led a delegation to this event.”
This year, the show had 1,050 booths with 530 exhibitors. A total of 3,547 international visitors attended Taitronics, apart from around 20,507 local visitors. Most of the international participants came from China, Japan, USA, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, UK and Thailand.
‘New Technology, New Applications’ was the main theme for this year’s event. Some of the key exhibitors were Cheng Uei, Chroma, Compal, Excel Cell Electronic, GW Instek, Inventec, King Desige, Lite-On, Protech, Tatung, and Tenmars.
The key product categories represented this year were energy-efficient solutions, smart manufacturing, smart living and consumer electronics, broadband and communication, batteries and power supplies, industrial process and automation equipment, electronic components and parts, active and passive components, meters and instruments, and LED lighting and its applications.
The feature pavilions at this year’s exhibition included the IoT pavilion, the startup pavilion, and the pavilions for smart devices and IoT applications. Other pavilions included the pavilions for green technology certification, the cloud computing association of Taiwan and the ‘Made in Taiwan’ products.
A special desk at MeitY for Taiwanese manufacturers
During the opening ceremony, Ming Hsin Kung, deputy minister of economic affairs (MOEA), spoke about the successful accomplishments of the Taiwan ICT industry and the government’s determination to promote domestic collaborations with South East Asian countries.
This year saw the first India-Taiwan collaboration summit, jointly hosted by CNFI (Chinese National Federation of Industries) and III (Institute for Information Industry) along with FICCI, where all the Taiwanese delegates were invited to meet people from the Indian industry as well as from the state governments to take the ‘Make in India’ initiative to the next level.
Ajay Prakash Sawhney, secretary, MeitY, was the chief guest of honour this year. He said, “India is one of the fastest growing markets in electronics. We are witnessing a huge increase in domestic production in the electronics sector in India and we expect a very robust growth in the upcoming years. We will shortly embark upon setting up a Taiwan desk at MeitY, to help investors from Taiwan who would like to invest in India to explore the opportunities and make their investments happen in a smooth manner.”
Opportunities for startups
A highlight of this year’s Taitronics was the Industrial IoT Forum. Eminent speakers like Richard Brown, the Open Connectivity Foundation’s marketing director for Asia, and Gary Stuebing, LoRa treasurer and IoT standards manager for Cisco CTAO, discussed the opportunities for industrial IoT as well as long range and low power wireless technologies for the commercial ecosystem.
This year, Garage+, Asia’s largest non-equity incubator founded by the non-profit Epoch Foundation and backed by Taiwan’s key players in the global supply chain, launched the second batch of its Startup Global Program 2017, which is scheduled to run from November 27 through to December 8.
More than 300 applications were submitted from 37 countries, including India, from which 20 startups were to be selected to participate in an acceleration programme to explore partners, investors and markets, at Taipei. Those managing the Startup Global Program promised to arrange for the selected startups to have intensive one-on-one meetings with high level corporate executives, site visits to world-renowned manufacturers and open house activities.
“The benefits are unmatched anywhere. Startups get access to solid industrial resources in Taiwan, as well as to regional markets. Within only 10 days, you confirm what you can do here. Companies meeting the startups include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Quanta Computer Inc., Delta Electronics Inc., Wistron Corp., Advantech Corp., MediaTek Inc., Foxconn Technology Corp., Phison Electronics Corp., AU Optronics Corp. and Acer Group,” said Josephine Chao, president of Epoch Foundation.
International players set to enter India
A lot of international players are coming up with new investments and expansion plans for their India business since they believe India has emerged as one of the fastest growing countries in the electronics industry ecosystem and offers humongous opportunities. The Electronics Bazaar team came across a few companies that are ready to explore the Indian electronics ecosystem further.
“India is a huge market for our T&M products. Indian customers tend to opt for low priced products and, right now, that is one big challenge we need to overcome. However, quality consciousness among Indian buyers is increasing gradually. We have six to seven distributors in India who sell our products but, going ahead, we are planning to increase our distributor base in the country. Within the next three years, we are targeting to acquire three more distributors in India,” said Biing Liu, general manager, Tenmars Electronics Co. Ltd.
“We consider India to be a very important market for us right now because your prime minister is promoting local manufacturing to a great extent, which in turn is ushering in a lot of foreign investments in various SEZ areas in India. Many Taiwanese companies are also setting up their manufacturing bases in India because of this initiative,” said Peter Wang, marcom specialist, Goodwill Instrument Co. Ltd.
He added, “We are planning to expand our India office very soon. Right now, we have an office in New Delhi; we are planning to open another one in a different state and for that, we are sending many engineers to India to explore the market well before we start off afresh. As far as investments are concerned, in terms of our products, we are continuously investing to upgrade our existing product line.” However, the spokesperson refrained from disclosing the name of the state that the company is targeting for its new office.
Talking about GW Instek’s distribution channel in India, Yu-Ju Liao, director, wireless communications R&D department, Communication BU said, “At present, we have around 20 distributors in India but we are looking forward to joining hands with a few more once we open our new office. We are aiming to tie up with may be around 10 more distributors down the line and have a total of 30 distributors for our India business. We expect them to be aware of the India market, and the probable pros and cons of doing business here, before we build a trust-based relationship with them.”
Going forward
Despite India opening the doors to manufacture locally, a lot of Taiwanese companies have held back because the Indian market seems complicated and, most importantly, too price sensitive. Taiwanese companies are of the opinion that Indian customers focus more on the price and less on the quality of the product on offer.
However, there are quite a few Taiwanese companies that have been doing business in India for around 10 years. These enthusiastic organisations feel India is one of the fastest growing markets, where their business has been growing steadily with every passing year. Some of the companies are even ready to expand their Indian base further by opening their arms and welcoming global players.
The golden era of Indian electronics manufacturing is about to take off. It’s time for everyone to come forward, join hands and help in setting up a game-changing scenario for the Indian electronics industry.
