Made in Taiwan

Taipei - It has been one year since I am back to here. Upon arrival my usual limo driver was there to pick me up. He has prospered tremendously from many introductions to use his service - and now he has a huge database of customers that he needs to sub-out to his limo driver friends to help.

The hotel for my stay was The Westin Taipei @ 133 Nanking East Road. Previously, stayed here before. There is a in-house cinema and was curious and so I went to check it out. This might be the only hotel that has a cinema on its premises. Located at B2 - they charge the public NT$400 (S$20) and for room guests NT$320 (S$16). It is quite expensive compared to Singapore.

For my hotel stay, I had complimentary pressing for 2 shirts and would like the hotel to just iron it for me to be ready for my meeting tomorrow but the reply was it will be return by tomorrow 7pm. The laundry staff was so inflexible and insist that I had to pay an express price unlike other hotels where guest interest is most important. Quite disappointed with their service - I had to do my own ironing....

The traffic in Taipei is ok, about the same like in Singapore - mostly are scooters. There are so many of them but these scooters do not take so much space and pollute as compared to a car. The only other country that has that many scooters is Vietnam.

Made in Taiwan - To many people, Taiwan companies are unknown and kept a very low profile but in fact they are very huge corporations. Taiwan in terms contract manufacturing are a Juggernaut in this industry.

Therefore it is no surprise to hear the story of Acer founder Stan Shih recalling how Singapore companies acted when he tried to sell them his MicroProcessor I, the first computer Acer launched under its own brand in 1981. He was told "We are not interested. Taiwan is not known for making computers." Today, Acer is a name known around the globe.

Take for example, Hon Hai (also called Foxconn) - may be the biggest company you never heard of and is one of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturers. It manufactures computer, consumer electronics, and communications products, including connectors, cable assemblies, enclosures, flat-panel displays, game consoles, motherboards, and servers. By keeping a low profile they are able to produce for Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Microsoft, Dell and Apple - these are all keen competitors in their own industry but uses the same contract manufacturer.

Yue Yuen is a large Taiwanese manufacturer that manufacture shoes for Adidas, Puma and Nike. Quanta-which has makes notebooks for Dell Computer, Gateway and Apple Computer and Inventec - makes notebooks for Compaq. And the list goes on and on...

There is also Asustek and HTC who have been churning out component parts or made to order products for big brands of the West. They are the hands behind the hottest gadgets from Apple's iPhote to Dell's laptops and the upcoming Goggle Phone.

Taiwan is the world's largest producer of more than 13 types of IT and communication productss, including motherboards, notebooks, PDA phones, LCD monitors. It is amazing to note that Taiwanese manufacturers accounted for 49 percent of the world's notebooks and majority are exported out. According to IDC, Taiwan is the No. 1 manufacturer, most of US brands are made by contract manufacturers. Contract manufacturing in Taiwan goes way back before the China economic boom. Now, with China now on the rise - most of these Taiwanese manufacturers have shifted their manufacturing plants to China to be even more competitive - leaving Taiwan an empty shell. I have been told that there are at least 1 million Taiwanese living in China - no one single nationality has that many people living in China.

At around 7pm, met up with my friend David for dinner @ a Teppanyaki restaurant at Ming Shen Bei Road # 103 (Tel: 02-2742-2428). It is really value for money - the food is fresh and the price is right. I have tried other Teppanyaki restaurant in Taipei but they all very expensive around US$50-60 per person.