Taiwan Excellence Award 1st Round Selections Reveal 4 Industry Trends

The first round of 2020 Taiwan Excellence Award selections, announced by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan External Trade Development Council, saw 31.6% of ICT products advancing, followed by machinery and parts at 19.2%, furniture equipment hardware building materials ranked at third with 12.9%.

The award committee will continue selecting the gold and silver award winners, with the final results slated for announcement on November 25.

According to the Bureau of Foreign Trade, the award winners are a strong indicator of four upcoming Taiwan industry trends. The first being products correlated to anti-pandemic efforts. This year's medical equipment and surgery instrument entries that combined AI and IoT increased by 10%, which is a strong indicator that more medical instruments are integrating ICT capabilities. The second trend is the rise of precision machinery products incorporating smart machinery, machine tools, cobots, and smart industrial monitoring. Entries in this category grew by 40%, suggesting that Taiwan remains competitive with its smart machinery solutions and diversification.

The third trend is a continual indicator of Taiwan's ICT edge, as the committee selected more gaming laptops and computers to advance into the second round. The Bureau of Foreign Trade expressed optimism regarding the growing number of entries in this category, as it shows the sector's success in combining both software and hardware capabilities.

Increasing electric bikes and scooters' entries indicate that the fourth trend sees growing acceptance of transportation powered by environmentally-friendly energy.