Central Mass., Taiwan ties lauded
Photo/Michael Novinson
Anne Hung, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, discussed the economic relationship between Massachusetts and Taiwan at Worcester State Monday.
Taiwan may be small, but the island state of 23 million people is vital to the Central Massachusetts economy.
That’s the message Taiwanese and local business leaders delivered Monday at Worcester State University, hours before Taiwanese national baseball team played the Worcester Bravehearts.
“The strengths of our economy are hand and glove with those of Taiwan,” Tim Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, told roughly three dozen people. “”There are a lot of synergies.”
State Sen. Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, led a delegation of Massachusetts legislators to Taiwan. She said the East Asian island is also small and densely populated, and has an advanced, technology-driven economy.
“Taiwan is so much like Massachusetts in so many ways,” she said.
Boston Bumper Supply in Whitinsville currently exports plastics made out of damaged automobile parts to Taiwan, owner Tim Lewis said. And he’s looking to open up a production shop in Taiwan if it provides decent support for recycling.
Nearly $825 million in exports traveled from Massachusetts to Taiwan in 2013, Murray said, making it the commonwealth’s fourth largest export market in Asia and 10th largest in the world. More than half – or $424 million – of those exports were silicon wafers or other semiconductor materials, said Peter Shih, economic director for Boston’s Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO).
And the Bay State imports nearly $600 million in goods and services from Taiwan each year, Shih said. Electric machinery – used mostly in the information technology industry - is Massachusetts’ largest import at $158 million each year, he added.
Some 1,000 Taiwanese students are also studying in Massachusetts, said Murray, who hopes to attract more of those young adults to Greater Worcester’s 13 colleges and universities.
Taiwan is America’s 12th largest trading partner, more significant than either Italy or The Netherlands, according to Anne Hung, director general of Boston’s TECO.
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