The 22nd Taiwan-France Industrial Cooperation Consultation Meeting (ICCM) convened on June 17 at the Taipei International Convention Center. Director-General Wu of IDB and Director-General` Faure of Directorate General for Enterprise co-chaired the meeting to discuss bilateral industrial cooperation issues.
ICCM is an important link to Taiwan’s participation in international relations, and is also the platform for industrial cooperation between Taiwan and France. Under the efforts of related government agencies and various industrial offices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, both sides were able to establish a deep and stable partnership in various industrial cooperation issues.
At the meeting, Director-General Wu addressed the many challenges and prospects of industrial transformation in Taiwan. Given the global economic fluctuation and free trade, industrial transformation is imminent. Taiwan has four major transformation strategies to assist industries with smooth and stable transformation – encouraging enterprises to enhance their high-quality industrial contents such as smart, green, and cultural and creative, as well as supplying the industry with related strategic tools to meet their industrial transformation needs.
Director-General Faure addressed on the latest developments of French innovation and industrial policies, while representative from BPIFrance also shared their experience on assisting enterprises in innovation, R&D, as well as in supporting international development and international investment cooperation. Both parties agreed that a flourishing industrial development is the only major driving force to economic achievement. To do so, it is important for nations to adopt industrial policies that encourage innovation and improve industrial competiveness, integrate resources and policy tools, and support key industrial development.
Issues on digital economy were also introduced for the first time at the meeting. Both sides exchanged views on future cooperation in 5G and IoT. Representatives from Taiwan delivered experiences on promoting big data development, and how industrial supply chain for big data is established under the coordination effort of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Both sides also exchanged information in green energy policies; while Taiwan gave examples of how the government promotes its offshore wind turbine policies, France shared its investment experience on floating offshore wind turbine project.
The meeting concluded with both sides reviewing their cooperation of the past year, and setting the grounds for the 23rd ICCM in Paris next year.