RIYADH, 21 April 2005 — Taiwan, which is particularly strong in the IT sector, looks forward to greater trade cooperation with the Kingdom, said Taipei Economic & Cultural Representative Sheng-tsung Yang.
Yang was speaking during his visit to Arab News Bureau here yesterday. He was accompanied by Director of Information Fareed Hwang. They congratulated Arab News on turning 30 and presented an exquisite Chinese teaset to Riyadh Bureau Chief Raid Qusti as a token of appreciation.
Talking about trade relations between Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, ROC Representative Yang said they were on the upswing. He mentioned that the Hsinchu Industrial Science Park, set up on a 571-hectare site, had 400 companies in operation in 2000. They employed a work force of 100,000 and had an annual turnover of $27.3 billion, or around nine percent of Taiwan’s GNP of $313.9 billion.
In 2003, 434 companies were approved, of which 356 units were in operation. As a result of this effort, Taiwan ranks No. 1 in several IT areas, such as IC packaging, notebook, LCD monitor, CD ROM, DVD, PC camera, modem, Lan card, and many others.