Turkey should cooperate with Taiwan for EVs
supply chains experience an important THE GLOBAL change and they desire to be in Turkey strategically in the new world, according to Felix Chiu, Executive Vice President of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). Chiu, who visited Turkey with a commercial delegation consisting of representatives of institutions and companies representing Taiwanese flagship sectors, told daily EKONOMI that many sectors shift their choice from China to other regions with a new restructuring observed in the world. “We saw in our research that Turkey stands out, especially as a regional production base with its location linking the Middle East with European countries,” Chiu said. “Taiwanese firms, which produce in China, desire to go to every corner of the globe such as Mexico, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West. In this sense, Turkey will have a very important role and contribution,” he added.
Felix Chiu stated that the bilateral trade between Turkey and Taiwan is carried out with machinery and electrical appliances traditionally, but smart technologies have started to come to the fore in the changing world. “That’s why smart cities and smart cars are very popular. Taiwan is very competitive in these sectors in which the semi-conductır technology becomes prominent,” Chiu noted. “Turkey also wants to develop in the smart industries such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), and it should cooperate with Taiwan, which receives a demand from the world as one of the leading countries in these fields,” Chiu highlighted.
“WE MAY CONTRIBUTE TO TURKEY’S EV PRODUCTION”
Touching on the Taiwan Tech Day 2023, which was held in Istanbul on May 25 with the attendance of a commercial delegation, Chiu said everything will be related to AI in the future. “EVs, which are at the center of the event, will be among these fields and their development depends on semi-conductors,” the TAITRA Executive President noted. “The Taiwan-based companies, which have had a key role in the EV industry, may contribute to EV production in Turkey.”
Top representatives from Foxconn, Master Transportation, Zerova Technologies, Advantech, Chunghua Telecom, Merit Lilin, and Taichung Veterans General Hospital, the leading corporations in the EV and smart city industries, visited Turkey within the scope of the Taiwan Tech Day 2023 hosted by TAITRA and The Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) of Taiwan. They held collaboration talks with the leading Turkish companies in their sectors.
“Bilateral trade is low compared to Turkey and Taiwan’s GDP”
Taipei Economic and Cultural Mission Representative Volkan Chih-Yang Huang emphasized rising bilateral foreign trade in his speech at the Taiwan Tech Day 2023, where Taiwan Economic and Cultural Mission Economic Division Director Charles Tseng, Taiwan Trade Center Istanbul Director Tony Fan, (DEIK) Turkey-Taiwan Business Council Chairman Necmettin Uzun and Presidential Investment Office Vice President Furkan Karayaka attended. Stressing that the total goods and services trade volume rose by 11.49% to nearly USD 2bn last year between Turkey and Taiwan, Huang said machinery, vehicles, and auto parts are Important Items. “The volume Is quite high considering re-export and extreport trade through China. However, our trade is really low and needs to be encouraged on a large scale, as both countries are large economies with a GDP of around USD 850bn.”