12:00 - 14:00, Thursday, 10 November, 2016

The Sherwood Taipei, Ballroom (3F)/ 台北西華飯店3樓 宴會廳

111 Min Sheng E. Road, Sec 3, Taipei/ 台北市民生東路三段111號

Taiwan's economy has been moribund for over a year as a consequence of a slowdown in trade with its major trading partners. The value of Taiwan's exports in 2015 was equivalent to 74% of GDP, making Taiwan much more dependent on exports than countries with large internal markets. Taiwan has a trade dependency ratio that is significantly higher than those of China, Japan and South Korea. This means that Taiwan is more vulnerable to changes in the global trade and investment environment than other countries. Furthermore, Taiwan's economy faces at least three major structural challenges, namely market concentration, product concentration and a lack of investment momentum. The new government has promised to reshape Taiwan's global competitiveness by focusing on five major innovative industries: biotechnology and medicine, national defense, the Internet of Things, green energy and smart or precision machinery. Will this be enough to revive Taiwan's economy?

The ECCT's 2017 Position Papers will share European experiences, best practices and models with the government that are aimed at ensuring Taiwan's continued economic prosperity.

As is tradition, the Minister of the National Development Council (NDC) has been invited to the launch to receive a copy of the Position Papers and make a few remarks on behalf of the Taiwan government.

The ECCT's Position Papers are published annually by the ECCT and include a collection of industry-specific issues and recommendations from a European business perspective on how to further improve the business environment in Taiwan. This year's papers, compiled by the board of directors and 24 of the ECCT's 30 committees, primarily address the Taiwan government, but also serve to inform the European Commission, the governments of the individual European member states as well as the media and the general public.