That’s what I was thinking
You haven’t noticed your typo?
What are you saying that the WTO does identify Tainan as a country?
Wow that quora post was a monster, really interesting.
He covered a lot of tech I had no idea about.
I can tell you in the area of biomedical research Taiwan is very advanced indeed! Not only developed but actually a leader in some areas. The human capital has great depth and they work diligently. I personally know a few world class scientists and doctors that I think are a little ignored because they were based in Taiwan. There are also many more smart Taiwanese overseas unfortunately.
Also in the manufacture of biosensors nobody beats Taiwan in terms of production scale and efficiency and rapid prototyping. I believe a large portion of the blood sugar monitors and strips used worldwide come from Taiwan.
The place looks a bit grotty , it’s easy to forget the incredible infrastructure and technical capability of this small island. How many times we drive on the freeways, through massive tunnels everywhere, take a trip on the bullet train or the flawless Taipei MRT and forget this stuff is top notch and bloody expensive and hard to do right.
Even handling regular typhoons im the congested cities without breaking much of a sweat (excepting typhoon Nari).
Soon the entire country’s railway system will be electrified, this is something that is also really expensive and really rare. Only Switzerland in Europe has really achieved it .
For example the UK only has 33% electrification as they simply cannot afford it (or they prioritise London over the regions). Electric trains are far more efficient that diesel trains, they break down less and have faster acceleration and deceleration. Of course they are cleaner too.
That’s just some of the good stuff…I can write another paragraph to counter about the bad stuff but I could do that about any developed country I guess
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I think Taiwan as made great strides. Progress is not always fast and noticeable but when I was a kid even Taipei was a dump full of trash. They did a lot in terms of making the streets clean and making recycling a household thing. I’ve never seen a country that makes this much effort recycling with everyone on board. Even food wastes are recycled. I feel so bad in Malaysia because they don’t recycling here, it feels guilty throwing everything down a single dumpster.
As @Brianjones said. Biomedical is top notch here. Big pharmaceuticals are all moving in to Taiwan and the government has made it their priority to make it our future.
Transportation is above and beyond what I see in most developed countries. Clean, efficient, reliable and is continually improving.
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Interestingly this poster said that the Netherlands was more advanced than Taiwan in science and technology.
When I think about this I don’t think it’s so clear cut at all. The Netherlands does have good submarines though, we could do with a few of them !
The technology sectors Netherlands leads are completely different than Taiwan. Things like telecommunications, but my experience with telecommunications in Europe is pretty poor so I’m not sure it’s saying much.
There was a thread up here like 12 years ago in which ppl were complaining about filthy streets and hideous buildings in Taipei, now you don’t really see anyone complaining about dirty streets, just hideous buildings, which makes sense as the countries most users are from have become pretty dirty (the streets anyway) over the last decade and many of their cities are rife with homelessness.
I think they just got lazy with their trains, and the excuse is always “oh it’s more than a century old”, which is laughable. As if the age of the system prevents you from wiping the pee off.
Mine too. Expensive and awful connection.
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Yeah telecom services are generally much worse in Europe.
Also agree the streets have really cleaned up. Apart from cig butts and teeth cleaners you don’t see a whole lot of rubbish strewn about. Very little generally. Countryside has cleaned up quite a bit too, seems to be less flytipping. Beaches are 10x cleaner as well. Some beaches here were LITERALLY rubbish dumps. People would drive to the beach and dump their stuff there. That’s what it looked like.Had to be seen to be believed. I’m guessing even young Taiwanese wouldn’t believe us if we told them that.
The streets uses to stink of shit every Summer. Now I rarely get a whiff as the sewer network has expanded
Massive massive strides. There’s still big gaps such as the dirty rivers and the dirty air which are dragging life quality down badly. I’m hopeful they will improve over time.
Most of the cities look like shit though …I’m not sure what we can do except go Communist on people’s asses and knock it all down and start again.
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Yeah it’s kind of depressing when you hear the Chinese tourists talking about how shitty and ghetto Taipei looks. Won’t change in my lifetime but hopefully a few generations down the road.
I think it’s very possible to fix the “dirty” image of cities. It’s basically just two things: (1) there should be a local ordinance about building exterior upkeep, and (2) revamping street-level infrastructure in terms of parking, traffic flows, pedestrian safety, etc.
Neither of these are expensive. I saw a large community in my area that went from 40 year old “3rd world” looking grimy with bricks falling off to a nice new facade that looks really great.
If traffic lane markings could be lined up across intersections, more one-way streets, better bus stop and parking management/enforcement, pedestrian crossings/signals improved to something like Dutch or UK standards, etc. it would make a world of difference at ground level.
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I don’t care about the looks. Without the history it’s not like cities here can look like Venice. The fact that everything goes back to normal the day after a category 4 typhoon is ok enough. I only hate the scooters.
You can complain all you want, but do not look down on Taiwan or Taiwanese people. It is a completely different tone and attitude. Complaints are why we are here, mockery and superiority complexes separate us.
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Probably refers to Philips/NXP. Ericsson is another great European tech giant.
Yep Netherland has very good science and technology companies but I don’t think overall there is any gap with Taiwan, especially these days. Taiwan’s heavy industry , military and semiconductor capability is really strong. Also in scooters , bikes, car manufacture, general electronics …
In the medical area Philips is a great company and great name but Taiwan also has hundreds of lesser known names in the general space…
Didn’t they fall off? I don’t know anything they are doing in recent times.
You are thinking Sony Ericsson. That partnership failed, basically.
Ericsson is the world’s biggest B2B communications provider. They make the 2G/3G/4G mobile network infrastructure technology that your provider uses to give you a good connection.
They hold almost all of the relevant patents
Anyone asking this has not traveled much. It’s highly developed.
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Taiwan needs better baseball stadiums. Our newest stadium in Xinzhuang still doesn’t have a bullpen that is outside the field of play. That is embarrassing.
No