JEDDAH, 26 December 2004 — Taiwan is looking for joint venture projects in the engineering sector. “We understand that there is tremendous potential in engineering, especially manufacturing in the small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) sector, and are having discussion with local businessmen interested in our specific proposals,” John Chen, director of business division of the Taipei-based Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry, said.
The association has a membership of 2,500 companies, 106 of whom are taking part in a two-day catalog exhibition which opened at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry yesterday.
Taiwan is especially targeting the machine tools industry, as many local SMEs have shown interest in expanding their units. “We can set up new units or upgrade existing ones and help create job opportunities,” Chen said. Over 200 association-member companies participated in a catalog show held earlier in Riyadh.
“We discussed many specific proposals with businessmen,” he said, adding that the talks would continue between the association and the various chambers of commerce and industry in the Kingdom.
“Taiwan is strong in SMEs and we can assist the Kingdom’s business sector in upgrading technology and setting up joint ventures,” he said.
“Right now Taiwan has no joint venture in the machinery area here, so we want to go step by step and convince the local business community of our expertise especially in the engineering sector,” he said.
The only major joint venture a Taiwanese fertilizer company has here is with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) in Jubail, which exists for many years. “The $750 million urea plant has 50:50 equity participation,” W.K. Lai, economic counselor of the Riyadh-based Taipei Economic & Cultural Representative Office, said. “It recorded a profit of $40 million in 2003 and hopefully will mark a higher profit this year,” he added.
Taiwan makes machineries that suit this market, and also specializes in giving technical training, Lai said and mentioned the visits of hundreds of young Saudis to Taiwan for training in the engineering and machinery field over the years. We hope to boost our exports, as the Kingdom presents a booming economy coupled with the global economic recovery,” he said. “While two or three Taiwan trade missions visit the Kingdom annually, who also take part in some of the major trade exhibitions here, we want Saudi business delegations to visit Taiwan to get a first hand knowledge of our development and capability,” he said, adding that Saudi businessmen have been visiting Taiwan individually.
Taiwan is also targeting the Kingdom’s market for expanding its export of machineries.
“We exported only $38 million of our machineries to the Kingdom in 2003, which amounts to 0.4 percent of our total machinery exports,” he said.
General Organization for Technical Education & Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) sent more than 100 young Saudi graduates to Taiwan for training in electrical, electronic, air-conditioning and auto repair and spare parts. Its another batch of over 100 trainees was sent in mid-2004.
