Exhibition World | Feature25Taiwan has been a familiar label on a wide range ofgoods in shops in all corners of the world for manydecades. The world's tallest building was once'Made in Taiwan' (Taipei 101 is soon to be an accreditedgreen building).Now the Government in Taipei is investing heavily inraising the proposition for international businesses toexhibit in Taiwan.Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade has been charged bythe Ministry of Economic Affairs with pushing the MICEagenda after the Government named exhibitions as one ofa number of key sectors to support for growth, as the islandstate strives to diversify its economy. The 2010 Asian MICE Forum and the second edition ofthe Exco exhibition and convention industry show ranconcurrently in Taipei and were lynchpin events in theexhibition promotion strategy. This year's Exco at the WorldTrade Centre drew 4,587 visitors, including 195international buyers. Event organiser TAITRA (TaiwanExternal Trade Development Council) said this representeda year-on-year growth of 39 per cent. A total of 105 domestic and international companies took236 stands at the show. They included firms from China,Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. Meanwhile, 650 exhibition and meetings specialists,including international experts, attended the Forum at thenearby Taipei International Convention Centre. The two events formed the nucleus of Meet Taiwan Week2010, designed to show the south-east Asian state is morethan a manufacturing hub. Indeed, Taiwan's manufacturingexports have been hit hard in the past couple of yearsagainst the backdrop of global recession, so there is everyurgency to harness the state's manufacturing powerhousesectors to support more trade exhibitions. Chinese mainland exhibitors and organisers are nowbeing targeted following last year's signing of the EconomicCooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) betweenTaipei and Beijing. The accord has led to a slight thaw inwhat have historically been difficult political relations, andbusiness travel across the strait separating the twoterritories has been one winner thanks to the ECFA.The statistics for major exhibitions and conventions forTaiwan's events identitybegins to bloomTHE MAGAZINE FOR THE GLOBAL EXHIBITION COMMUNITY WWW.EXHIBITION-WORLD.NET| Nov/Dec 2010|As Taipei and Beijing take tentative diplomatic steps to ease tensions across the strait,Paul Colstonfinds that Taiwan is reaching out for international exhibition business with anew sense of confidence.