Taiwan’s total foreign trade in 2010 surged by 39.1 percent year on year to US$526.04 billion on the strength of continuous economic recovery at home and abroad, the Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said Jan. 11.
The bureau’s statistics revealed that the country’s total exports for the year surged by 34.8 percent year on year to US$274.64 billion, while imports rallied by 44.2 percent over the same period of time to US$251.4 billion. Both figures are the highest in history.
“2010 was a bumper crop year for Taiwan’s foreign trade,” said Bureau Director-General Cho Shih-chao.
Further breakdown of the tallies shows mainland China (including Hong Kong) as the leading destination of Taiwan’s exports, accounting for 41.8 percent of all shipments delivered. Six major members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and the United States came in second and third, respectively.
Japan supplied the largest amount of imports to Taiwan at US$51.93 billion, or 20.7 percent of the total. It was followed by mainland China at 14.9 percent.
Based on the accumulated figures of the first 11 months of 2010, Taiwan outperformed all of its major Asian rivals in both export and import growth.
Despite forecasts of a slowing economic recovery on the global front by most major research bodies worldwide, “we are predicting a 10-percent rise for Taiwan’s exports in 2011, as the country gets ready to reap the dividends stemming from the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement,” Cho said.
Strong demand from emerging economies created by innovations in consumer electronics will also continue to boost exports of Taiwan’s information communication technology products, the official pointed out.
To help meet next year’s export targets, the government will help the nation’s businesses open new markets in such emerging economies as Brazil, India, Indonesia, the Middle East, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam, he added. (HZW)
Write to Meg Chang at meg.chang@mail.gio.gov.tw