In just three weeks, the Task Force received 353 petitions for assistance in securing US$64 million in past due payments owed by buyers from Nigeria alone.
"We are a little overcome by this, too," admits Vincent C. Siew, director-general of the Board of Foreign Trade, whose offices also house the Task Force. "After all, this effort is only a small part of our designed function. But, it does make us realize once again the depth of the problems our trade programs are facing."
The Republic of China's trade growth, to which its "economic miracle" owes much credit, experienced its greatest setback since 1960, a negative growth of 4.3 percent, in 1982. For 20 previous years, a steady 20 percent trade expansion rate had kept the economy flourishing.
To revitalize the country's trade energy, the government drafted Lin Chien-shan, president of a private economic research firm and publisher of a financial magazine, along with 40 experts from various government agencies, formally announcing the creation of the Special Task Force for Export Service on May 16. The Task Force promptly announced its intention of analyzing and fabricating problem solving models appropriate to the mammoth problems besetting today's complicated trade processes.
This initiative is in accordance with Economic Minister Chao Yao-tung's challenge to ROC financial circles to make 1983 "The Year of Action." The Automation Vanguard and Energy Saving Vanguard are task forces created earlier in the year to spur advances in their specified fields.
Vincent Siew hesitates to call the new group a "Vanguard." "People would tend to associate 'export vanguard' with the task of boosting money making 'export-orders,'" he explains. "But, government cannot really help exporters to get orders. It can only assist manufacturers and exporters in upgrading their products, packaging, and market strategies, to smooth the processes for exporting, and to organize their efforts in an orderly way. All in all, we hope the Special Task Force can play its role of advisor to the exporters in a way that will lead them to a long term development strategy."
Lin Chien-shen, on the other hand, is too ambitious to keep the group within an advisory role. He envisions the work of the Task Force as embracing three major steps-the task force functioning as counselor, coordinator, and attorney in the process.
Lin's first step is to identify the specific problems faced by the exporters in production and marketing, then to establish work committees to help solve the problems, to act to simplify administrative procedures, and to sponsor appropriate meetings and training sessions. He compares the Task Force function in this connection to that of "firefighters."
Less than a month since the creation of the group, Lin has already met several hundred exporters and manufacturers across the island, in the process, receiving over 500 petitions for assistance. The problems facing the exporters are almost as varied as their numbers.
"Of course, you have the overpublicized Nigerian payments case—then, a surprising number of petitions regarding the difficulties in importing and exporting samples. We have people· petitioning for assistance in problems ranging from the ravages of mutual price cutting, to difficulties in securing raw materials, to ways to finance shipping," said the 34 year old Task Force director.
Task Force staff members take an appeal for assistance
After meeting with export-oriented manufacturers to analyze their difficulties, the Special Task Force staff has focused on solving the problems, case by case. Nigerian payments is one of the first priorities.
Many local exporters who shipped products to such financially troubled countries as Nigeria, Libya, and Venezuela under D/A (document against acceptance) and D/P (document against payment) terms, are having difficulty collecting because of shortages of foreign exchange in these countries.
"In Nigeria alone, there is an estimated US$200 million in unpaid bills in our favor," noted Liu Ting-zu, who doubles as director of Department II of the Board of Foreign Trade and as secretary-general of the Special Task Force. "The larger exporters have their own means of collecting bills, but smaller exporters have to come to us for help."
To serve those exporters who have petitioned, the Special Task Force will intercede with trade organizations in the appropriate countries in an attempt to have foreign exchange, earned from Taiwan's purchase of crude oil or other products, transferred to local exporters to clear up the debts.
Liu Ting-tzu—"The larger exporters have their own means…"
The Chinese Petroleum Corp. has already expressed its willingness to cooperate in Task Force efforts by importing more crude oil from Nigeria, Libya, and Iran in order to make it easier for them to make the payments.
The Task Force is also considering using the services of European and American banking institutions that have experience in handling trade problems with third world nations, in collecting the Nigerian debts.
Although no government officials will be designated, for example, to negotiate with Nigeria on clearance of debts, officials offering differing expertise will be designated to study the case. In fact, the Special Task Force is comprised of experts from all government agencies that have something to do with trade: the Board of Foreign Trade, Indus trial Development Bureau, Bureau of Commodity Inspection & Quarantine, National Bureau of Standards, the Council of Export and Trade Development, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Other experts in banking, customs, and from the universities will join the force later, according to Lin Chien-shan. He was chosen for the post on the basis of his own long time experience in studying trade and economic problems in Taiwan, as well as his reputation for objectivity on the contrasting views of exporters and the various government agencies.
The additional experts will join the force in the first stages of its work, to solve the problems tabled by the exporters on a case by case basis. But, it is by no means the end of the assignment. While screening individual petitions, the Special Task Force will also look into the possibilities of establishing optional operating models that can be helpful to other exporters with similar problems. In the Nigerian payments case, for example, Lin plans to combine the skills of scholars, government experts, and businessmen to create a prototype of trade with third world countries that will be helpful to ROC traders in the future.
"I realize that we may not be able to make a perfect model in the one year period allotted to the task force," says Lin, who also teaches economics at National Chengchi University, "but I think it will be a good start."
Lin Chien-shan—Three major steps
Lin intends to set up a nation-wide commercial information center for exporters, to build strategic models for dealing in foreign markets (including shipments under D/A and D/P terms), and to blaze a path for introduction of an insurance system for export manufacturers with the potential for development of highly competitive products.
Most critics agree with Lin's academic slant in approaching trade problems. Lin Chung-pang, chairman of the department of foreign trade of Fujen University, points out that international trade has become increasingly oriented toward marketing rather than production and that, consequently, collecting and transmitting market information promptly to traders is a very important effort, regretfully very weak in Taiwan at this stage. Lin's approach, if it works out, will bridge this gap. Others, including the president of the Tai-huang Trading Company, speculate on the practicality of setting up such an information center within the Task Force's limited budget-NT$80 million (US$2 million) Lin counters this proposal by stressing the importance of educating the traders on the nature of such business information and the value attached to it. "Of course, a market information program will be expensive, but it will bring more wealth. The exporters will be willing to share the cost burden once they realize it. "
The overall third step for Director Lin is to attempt to carry out long term plans to exhibit ROC competitive products worldwide, to unify trademarks, to encourage cooperation among advertising companies, and to seek to improve after-sales service.
In an attempt to enhance the standards of all export products, ROC trade missions abroad and local trade centers are asked to identify, collect, and exhibit the world's most competitive products. Using high-quality foreign products as a reference, the Special Task Force will help exporters to create an evaluation system by which the quality of locally made goods can be judged.
Despite the many export product exhibitions that take place in Taiwan, Lin thinks there is a shortage of exhibitions of competitive products that actually serve the purpose of stimulating discussion and emulation among local manufacturers. Learning to evaluate our competitors' strong and weak points and to analyze new market trends is necessary for ROC exporters if they want to appropriately upgrade their own products, he says.
For now, the Special Task Force is concentrating on collecting 60 product items of which either the ROC is already a strong producer, or which offer a big potential in the international market.
For example, the Task Force is collecting shoe samples from world famous makers as well as the ROC's strongest competitors. After analyzing manufacturing methods, materials, color tones, special features, costs, etc., a report will be issued. As an educational model, it will hopefully not only provide shoe producers and exporters valuable market information, but will also serve as a market analysis model for other product items.
Of the many roles fitted to the Special Task Force-firefighter on emergency problems, advisor to manufacturers, consultant to exporters, coordinator among government agencies, librarian of market information-Lin thinks the role of "interface" between exporters and government befits his group best. "Since we are only an advisory board, with no administrative power, the best we can do is to coordinate among the parties, try to clear bottlenecks for the exporters when necessary, to interpret government policies to them when the need arises, to seek to smooth export operations, and to act to upgrade our trade quality." That is no small task.