What do you think of Tsai's Go South policy?

[quote=“headhonchoII”][quote=“Zhengzhou2010”]Not related to ractopamine . . . I wonder what kind of policy elements that a Go South approach for Taiwan could have. It would seem to me that a transfer of the current Taiwanese approach to China, even if it could be reproduced in SE Asia and other places would not be desirable. Setting up low cost factories to make contract electronics for someone else just doesn’t seem like it will lift Taiwan’s economy much. Moreover, in another 20 years those low costs areas will likely have developed such that it no longer makes as much economic sense.

I’d hope Taiwan can develop a kind of cachet or brand appeal among its enterprises such that Taiwanese firms can prosper by selling their own goods and services in these economies irrespective of where the product is made. Similar to they way Korean products and formerly Japanese products had a cultural appeal that drove their desirability, I’d hope that Taiwan can do the same in SE Asia. Irrespective of whatever political outcome happens with China, from a branding perspective I think Taiwan needs to emphasize its Taiwanese-ness and not its Chineseness (which will always be largely owned and drive by China). Korean products enjoy a cultural cache of being hip, fashionable, good looking, modern and sufficiently Asian to be comfortable and Western to be cosmopolitan. What distinguishes “Brand Taiwan”?[/quote]

20 years too late, the ‘Taiwan’ brand simply is not even on the map anymore, especially with consumer goods, but even in things like media, they are only popular with some ethnic Chinese. Remember people keep voting in the KMT who don’t want anything much to do with Taiwan, rather they emphasis republic
Of China …China. Taiwanese owned factories still produce much of the worlds goods, but few ever jumped up to the next
level. Some high profile firms like HTC and Acer
And Asus enjoyed success but have largely failed to make profits and compete in the 2010s. Poor software and understanding of marketing has done them in along with competitive pressures.
They should have gone for more niche markets but always struggle with the coolness factor.

Now Chinese firms are establishing their brands and Taiwanese companies just get
Confused with them mostly. Brand Taiwan is not exactly
Going to give you much cache anyway is it?[/quote]

Agreed. This should have been done in 1995 rather than 2015. Many more things were possible then. But Taiwan is where it is, and it can either try and build up its branding and services to target the less lucrative SE Asian/South Asian markets (compared to the West and Easy Asia), or it can keep on with its current model of trying to do everything on the cheap. There are probably other options too. My point is just that Taiwan needs to change its industrial and economic policy in connection with any Go South approach it its just going to be a repeat of the last 20 years in China (and probably less smooth and less productive given the greater actual and cultural distances involved).

I visit SEA quite often. Korean and Japanese firms have invested massive amounts in both production and marketing all around the region. Now you see stuff from the Chinese like huawei. I’m sure there are many successful Taiwanese owned businesses in SEA, but they don’t seem to have any brand name and certainly aren’t associated with Taiwan.
I did find out that Vietnamese still watch some Taiwanese soap operas, but that’s probably because they couldn’t afford to buy the Korean stuff yet :slight_smile:.

My point is what’s good for some Taiwanese owned businesses is not necessarily what’s good for Taiwanese. Taiwan media and food and as a tourist destination does have a brand with ethnic Chinese which is better than nothing I guess.

[quote=“headhonchoII”]I visit SEA quite often. Korean and Japanese firms have invested massive amounts in both production and marketing all around the region. Now you see stuff from the Chinese like huawei. I’m sure there are many successful Taiwanese owned businesses in SEA, but they don’t seem to have any brand name and certainly aren’t associated with Taiwan.
I did find out that Vietnamese still watch some Taiwanese soap operas, but that’s probably because they couldn’t afford to buy the Korean stuff yet :slight_smile:.

My point is what’s good for some Taiwanese owned businesses is not necessarily what’s good for Taiwanese. Taiwan media and food and as a tourist destination does have a brand with ethnic Chinese which is better than nothing I guess.[/quote]

Understood. My point is that what is good for Taiwanese businesses in the short term (focusing on low cost, low margin manufacturing) may not even be good for Taiwanese businesses in the medium to long term. I’m sure your views on SE Asia are far more informed than mine; if Taiwan has already lost the opportunity to “brand” into higher margin, value added products and services in SE Asia, then I’m not sure what the next step is (other than sinking further into economic marginalization).

I guess that while Taiwanese branding would be great, so long as Taiwanese companies are able to have some successful branding (even if it as some anonymous and vaguely Chinese company) that is better than nothing.

Dont get me wrong, there are some successful Taiwanese branded companies out there to various degrees …giant, sym, kymco, acer, Asus, HTC. But the most successful Taiwanese conglomerates tend to be making components and heavy industrial groups and light manufacturing and assembly and testing groups. For example TSMC is massive and hugely profitable, but pretty much an unknown brand.
Taiwan never really cracked that nut except for a few cases above. It’s really difficult competing with global giants with multi billion dollar marketing budgets and huge home markets in some cases. The lack of mergers and acquisitions probably hinders Taiwan too In terms of brand and service scale. Now lack of free trade agreements and political lobbying power is also hurting.

In two areas area of life science I used to work in in Taiwan, one has about 10 vendors and another has 25
Vendors covering almost exactly the same niche. Most people
Don’t know but a significant number of the worlds glucose test
Strips are made in Taiwan. There are over 25 companies
Making or developing these strips, with 5 bigger players. Their major competitors for global
Business are their Taiwanese compatriots. Every year brand name vendors squeeze more cost saving out of these OEM
Suppliers. The Taiwanese are very good at reducing cost,
Using less material etc, but it doesn’t give much room
To grow your revenue and reach into new markets.

In the UK
These companies would quickly be merged and acquired by financial
Groups to reduce competitions and increase scale, but that doesn’t happen in Taiwan!

This company has very good technology and manufacturing processes, but look at their bloody marketing, how will they get to be top tier? Yes maybe good enough in some countries with a cheap price.
bionime.com
bionime.com

Interestingly you can see they licensed the Ge brand name for marketing in the US which seems like a pretty good strategy for them…but not benefiting the name ‘Taiwan’.

I bought an HTC and died on me. I bought an ASUS and it kept rebooting at random outside of the box. Taiwan has a very, very long way to go when it comes to branded items.

Yeah, but Taiwan’s best defense may be that most personal computers these days seems to be garbage. I’ve bought some Taiwanese products and while they weren’t great, they were no worse than any other brands I bought (conceivably, they were all made by Foxconn anyway). Not that you can really build much of a brand off of “Buy Taiwan, just as crummy as everyone else but a little cheaper!”

I would say thought that my two ASUS products seem to have endured a bit better than other electronics I have, so maybe I’ll give some partial credit there.

I think the perfect opportunity for Tsai to expand and explain her “Go South” policy would be during a debate with Eric Chu. But, Tsai keeps dodging Chu on the debate, IMO, they must have. Tsai Ing-wen needs to debate Chu. Open that black box, Tsai.

…there are three debates scheduled.

I just don’t think that Chu’s “agenda”, to talk about a debate, is what most people care at this moment. It looks like his trying to hard to divert people’s attention from the fiasco of his VP and model China businessman Ding Xin.

Not that there is anything wrong with debates.

Where did you hear that?

focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201511290021.aspx

Chu just challenged Tsai to a debate. This is how she reacted:

Accept the challenge and debate Chu, Tsai; open your black box.

Where did you hear that?

focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201511290021.aspx

Chu just challenged Tsai to a debate. This is how she reacted:

Accept the challenge and debate Chu, Tsai; open your black box.[/quote]

He challenged her to a debate on cross-strait policy. Why should she indulge him or any KMT leader who we all know say one thing in public and another to China and probably yet another to their own heart?

How fucking clueless is Chu:

When Taiwanese hear that they get angry – at China and the KMT.

Where did you hear that?

focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201511290021.aspx

Chu just challenged Tsai to a debate. This is how she reacted:

Accept the challenge and debate Chu, Tsai; open your black box.[/quote]

web.cec.gov.tw/files/15-1000-27876,c6015-1.php

Debates are organized by the CEC, not individual candidates. What Chu is demanding is an additional debate as a hail mary pass because he’s 30 points behind and has nothing to lose at this point even if he bombs.

It really feels like garbage time and the crowd has already left the building.

Hiesboeck made some comments on this policy and it had triggered quite many responses from local society. For example:

goo.gl/auSRSx
goo.gl/cL3awk
goo.gl/rTfMHJ

His original comments in English:
goo.gl/wqwtvD