Echoing the governmental policy, Yi-Chiu adapted solar power and installed the solar power generator on the rooftop of the plant. Yi-Chiu also developed plans to recycle and reuse waste materials, including waste glass and waste diapers. Considering the aging population in Taiwan, senior day care services and senior diapers are in great demand. Yi-Chiu is actively investing and developing in recycle-and-reuse technology.

VoL: Taiwan has been identified worldwide as one of the countries that has responded to the coronavirus crisis most effectively. Given the global image Taiwan has given over the last few months, what are the possible implications and benefits for the “Made in Taiwan” brand? How should the country take advantage of its recently strengthened global reputation?

CC: COVID-19 will surely leave an indelible page in the history of the fight against human diseases. God bless Taiwan! This time, we are working together to build up a good reputation for epidemic prevention in Taiwan, such as the experience of building up the mask production line, which resulted in 60 production lines being set up in just 25 days.

This shows that Taiwan’s small and medium-sized manufacturing industries, with their high flexibility and high efficiency, have developed into mature textile, petrochemical and auto-chemical industries. It is flexible and can effectively utilize its niche advantage in production and has a strong ability to respond to changes in market demand. So, how do we market Made in Taiwan (MIT) products based on this? To address this question, I believe that Taiwan has the technology to upgrade its marketing power. At the technical level, the government helps companies accelerate and deepen the deployment of intangibles in the regulatory system as a means to expand their R&D ability for international presence and global industry chain collaboration.

How to strengthen the international image of the MIT brand? This will require further development of a commercial marketing system. In this regard, I have tasked the Manufacturers United General Association of Industrial Park to develop ideas and concepts to use IT technology to create an e-commerce platform for communication between manufacturers and to assist in marketing Taiwan’s small and medium-sized manufacturers to the international market. More importantly, it is to understand international market demands and conditions as a driving force in the upgrading and transformation of Taiwan’s industries.

VoL : What message would you give to those looking to Taiwan as a land of opportunity? Why should businesses and investors look to Taiwan?

CC: Geographically Taiwan is situated in a critical location for strategies and transportation, its politics, technologies, environmental investment, and law and order are of high standard. Our government provides excellent support to assist manufacturers to set up their factories, including the airports and harbors of great land and hydroelectricity, and convenient logistics and freight services for exportation. Our government is also investing greatly in land development for factory sites. Up until June 6, 2020, Taiwan has invested in the three “Invest in Taiwan” plans, a total of $1,193 trillion NTD, and the number of applicants reached 521, creating 84,000 job opportunities. In the “Welcome Back Action Plan,” the government is funding $762 billion NTD to 189 businesses, creating an estimate of 61,984 job opportunities.

As the Chinese government is reinforcing the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law, it seems that the time for “One country, One system” has come, and this law worries many in the field of law, diplomacy, and business. According to some reports, 60% of the members believe that the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law will damage their business operations, because the scope and executions of this law are uncertain, and may violate the right of autonomy in Hong Kong, affecting its judicial independence, and changes its international status. More than half of the members are very worried about the future of Hong Kong, and another 30% are considering transferring their funds and assets out of Hong Kong.

I personally believe that the investment environment in Taiwan is fully supported and protected. In general, Taiwan is politically, economically, publicly safe and steady. The people are passionate, diligent, and active. The Taiwanese value environmental protection as well as economic development. International enterprises such as Google, Microsoft, and Esmer have come to set up factories in Taiwan. I hope we can use this opportunity to market “Ilha Formosa” — “The Beautiful Island” to all corners of the world.

Yi Chun collects used diapers, especially from hospitals and old age homes, then recycles them to raw materials. Diapers take 600 years to fully decompose and are a major environmental threat. Our objective is to recycle the used diapers and turn it back into its original raw material form. Utilizing recycled materials meaning less pollution and less energy consumption. A better and safer future.

VoL : How have you come to be so passionate about sustainability?

JC: I believe sustainability is what will make money in the future. It is the key business of human nature and human beings. The only one thing that can save the planet is sustainability. This is the only business and problem in the future that everyone needs to face. The basic needs for people are food, water, sun, etc. We do not need high technology to survive. The technologies are only for us to live easier, easier for now but harder for tomorrow. Stepping into this business before anyone else will give me the business advantage in the future.

VoL: Taking on four new companies and playing a big role in the family business may well be an intimidating challenge for many people of your age, who have just finished or are still studying, or starting their careers. Do you feel at all daunted by the upcoming challenges or do you feel that you have been preparing for this for a long time?

JC: I have been preparing for this for a long time, ever since I was a child I have known that my father is a businessman and I want to be a businessman in the future, that was my goal and I was raised in this way. Most of my experiences and knowledge came from observing what my father was doing. I did not learn from books and no-one taught me. Years of observation of what my father was doing and thinking why his making the decision has prepared me for who I am.

VoL: What is your personal message of confidence to the international community? Why invest in Taiwan or partner with a Taiwanese company?

JC: Geographical position of Taiwan is in the middle of Asian countries. Our policies are better than that of China. China is not very sustained in treating their businesses. When they are facing environmental or political problems, they can shut down a company instantly. When you are dealing with China, the risks are higher than that of Taiwan. In Taiwan we have many high tech resources such as TSMC and Foxconn.

Mainland China has the advantage of low labor costs, but in the future the labor cost will be gone. It will be AI, IoT or 5G, full-automation. Labor costs will be slim in the future. What’s the substitute for labor? It’s AI technology. Taiwan has a key part for those technologies, so we will develop those for other countries.

In the future when AI is more advanced, the factories will not need any workers, which means where you locate your factory is not that important. Logistics will be a major cost factor. You want your factory near the port so that way your transportation fee is lower. You want your factory to be closer to your customer so the transportation will be lower.

The most important thing is to communicate and to gather information from different countries, different people, so teamwork is their key point, not the technology or the project you’re doing. Labor cost is not important.

WH: It depends on the business executive, where the company focus is, what kind of industries and what kind of market it is operating in. To put it in the perspective of private equity (PE), I would definitely focus on Taiwan in the next few years. Local businesses are looking for expansion and partners; some might even sell the majority part or half of the business as the older generation faces succession issues. However, Taiwan is not fully covered by the majority firms, there are plenty of opportunities here and there will be more and more as succession continues to be a really big as well as urgent issue.

In Taiwan, where SMEs play a crucial role to drive economic growth, I see SMEs need more capital and a professional team to help them operate and expand; that is where CDIB can play a major role. We position ourselves as the solution provider, offering financial, management and moreover technology resources. I believe this strategic focus will be a key area for CDIB in the coming years.

We are pleased to announce the successful acquisition of a controlling interest in publicly-listed Jintex Corporation Limited (“Jintex”, TPEX: 1787) in June 2019. The acquisition has been recognized by the Taiwan Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity Council (“MAPECT”) and received the “2019 Most Creative M&A Award”. This is especially significant for CDIB as a landmark, take private, control deal in Taiwan’s mid-market space.

VoL: What strategic plans do you have in place for 2020?

WH: We are going to launch more products. We have managed funds denominated in USD, NTD and RMB as well as invested in a range of strategies including mid-market control buying, growth investments, early and later stage venture capital and special situations.

Moreover, CDIB also works on funds in Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea and we also have funds for small companies in the United States. Beyond that, we are focusing on biotech and healthcare, which is going to be a big fund and we are thinking about adding things such as credit and infrastructure as secondary products.

Healthcare is a major issue for us and we have just launched RMB funds for healthcare in China. Essentially, new products related to technology, healthcare, biotech, credit and infrastructure will be launched in 2020.

We recently completed the final round of fundraising for our Global Opportunities Fund with US$136M of committed capital as well as first-round fundraising for the CDIB Yida Private Equity Healthcare Fund with RMB760M of committed capital. In addition, CDIB Intelligence Partners has been launched and this focuses on global AI-related investment opportunities with a targeted fund size of US$75M. Finally, we are also actively raising funds for a second NT dollar-denominated healthcare fund, targeting NT$3B.

VoL: What is your personal message to the international community?

WH: I believe Taiwan will play a major part in the next year or two, especially given the ongoing Sino-U.S. trade issue. In fact, many companies that we have invested in have shown expansion in their businesses; instead of dedicating companies’ resources to China, they chose Taiwan and this has benefitted Taiwan a lot. Taiwan can become much more active in terms of the PE world and more transactions and purchases will be carried out here. In addition, family enterprise succession is going to be a key issue in Taiwan and I hope our scope will grow from there.

CDIB Capital Group has local presence in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei and New York.

For further information, please visit
www.cdibcapitalgroup.com or contact us at
ccapir@cdibh.com.

will continue expanding its cross-border payment offerings. When designing its innovative functions and convenient services, Taishin embraces these four guidelines in the hope of providing the best customer experience: simplicity, promptness, transparency, and thoughtfulness.

VoL: Can you tell us about Taishin’s commitment to innovation and excellence?

WL: Going forward, Taishin will make every effort to retain its existing market niche and sharpen its competitive edge by adopting new technologies, such as OpenAPI, Big Data, Al, RPA, etc. Taishin considers innovation to be its strongest organizational trait and will therefore adhere to its promise of continual business process reengineering for the goal of providing a better service. So as to lower service costs and improve efficiency and service quality, Taishin designed an in-house employee proposal system which enables staff make suggestions. With the number of proposals this year exceeding 10,000, Taishin’s employees have clearly taken “continual improvement to heart.

Taishin believes strongly in developing a digital mindset within the organization and also of the importance of cultivating digital experts. In order to foster and make best use of its staff’s talents, Taishin created an open office space, has relaxed its dress code, and is proud to work with National Sun Yat-sen University to provide financial innovation master programs—which offer paid internships—as a way of bringing quality staff into the bank’s digital team.

In order to develop comprehensive training courses, strengthen its employees’ digital expertise, and maintain a preparedness for the ongoing digital transformation, Taishin works closely with the IT academic groups at National Taiwan University, FIN & TECH at the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance, and the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute at the Institute for Information Industry. In fact, Taishin is so devoted to the cultivation of talent that it was the proud recipient of one of HR Asia Magazine’s 2018 “Best Companies To Work For In Asia” awards.

VoL: What are the advantages, in your opinion, of investing and doing business in Taiwan?

WL: With a ranking of 19th on the 2018 global GDP list, Taiwan demonstrates a strong and growing soft power. In the WEF 2018 Global Competitiveness Report, Taiwan – along with Germany, the U.S., and Switzerland—was listed as one of the world’s four major “Super Innovators.” With a long-standing position as one of most important high-tech places, Taiwan provides great innovation labs and has attracted investment from many multi-national companies. Last year, Microsoft chose to establish its Al R&D center in Taiwan. IBM has located its IBM Client Center and its IBM Studio here, and adds investment to the island each year. Google set up its data center in Chang Hwa and is establishing its third Asian data center in Tainan.

Taishin Holdings – Your

Smart Partner

Taishin Holdings – Your

Smart Partner

medical researchers and highly-recognized national healthcare system, Taiwan is well positioned at this moment to promote not only public health, but also biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries internationally. The Taiwanese manufacturers and producers are more flexible in adapting quickly to the changing economic conditions internationally. The strategy for promoting Taiwanese products was based on an affordable-price basis has actually served its purpose in terms of establishing Taiwan amongst the industrial nations but now this is the time for Taiwanese manufacturers to be flexible and adopt a new marketing strategy. I believe if we do the right thing and adopt a new market strategy; the next ten years will be even more exciting and profitable than the last ten years.

VoL: Do you see a change from governments or big pharma giants in terms of wanting to get their supply or manufacturing closer to home?

Gloria Hsieh: Yes, I think so. The Taiwanese government took action on calling the local pharmaceutical companies and research institutes to form alliances in order to integrate resources as well as to respond promptly to the country’s needs, in hopes of supplying essential needs locally instead of relying on imported supplies. This is a global trend that has evolved from the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

VoL: What are Taiwan’s key competitive advantages in pharmaceutical and biotechnology?

DW: The growing biopharma success in Taiwan was partly due to the policies of promotion of the industries put forward by the Taiwanese government. The government does not just understand the sector but has the political capital to make changes for example, institutional support and subsidized tax breaks. Also in this country, doctors and medical professionals are very well respected in this country. More people with medical degrees run for and are elected into political office, so there will be more support on broadening the economy in terms of bringing more bio-presence and Taiwan stands out for its cost-effective and very well-educated workforce. Besides that, there has been a very highly-functioning and competitive infrastructure behind the industries. To operate in a relatively

small-sized market of 23 million people in Taiwan, foreign investment and associations are fundamental to the development of the industries. In Taiwan our outstanding medical and research institutes have been generating enough good research scientists. This is more than enough to attract foreign capital and make the venture a success.

VoL: With all the subsidiaries, affiliates and key projects you have going on, how would you like to see CCPG as a group over the next three years?

WH: We are still a relatively small-sized pharmaceutical enterprise compared to the big pharma and multinational pharma. We would like to develop ourselves into a regional leader, but our scope of operation is still centered on generic pharmaceuticals, so we will continue to work with our affiliated companies on vertical integration. Right now besides the established technology platforms that we already have, we are making investments in new technologies as we continue developing more distinctive formulations in addition to specialized medical devices.

We are also getting involved in different categories of generics, not just the ones that we are working on at the moment. For example, special formulations that act in concert with special medical devices, such as pre-filled syringes, pen injectors, small mist inhalers, etc. These technologies have already successfully been applied to different products that we are also making investments in. Overall, we will explore new opportunities while staying centered in our core capabilities of research and development.

have double protections and keep a fresh smell all day long.

The pure natural propolis which is selected by our Pharmacist Wendy, has organic certification and process patents. It helps to enhance the immunity of humans and beat the COVID-19 away.

VoL: What has Wendy International’s learned about new technologies over the years? And how has it implemented them?

WL: We not only provide the customers with the raw materials they need, but also assist them in exporting their products. From RD to commercial, we solve all problems and provide a full range of services. After many years, it’s deeply valued by our customers.

VoL: What new technologies is Wendy International currently utilizing or planning to implement in its operations?

WL: Currently, we are committed to RD, as long as the customer provides us the chemical structure, we can help to customize it. In Fine Chemicals, we promote TP3 mainly to manufacture Peptides, VPA is used for color coating, Oxa Acid is used for moisturizing and anti-aging.

We also provide the safest reducing agent in the world, and are helping our customer to do OEM about reduction reaction. Furthermore, we assist customers at home and abroad with OEM and ODM service in PIC/S pharmaceutical factories, skin care and healthy food areas as well.

VoL: Taking into account the global reputation Taiwan has gained from their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, what are the implications and opportunities for the ‘Made in Taiwan’ brand? How should Taiwan take advantage of its recently strengthened global reputation?

WL: During this COVID-19 epidemic, Taiwan has handled it very well, so the situation is still in control. Pharmacist Wendy also specially prepared pure natural antibacterial essential oils, and donated masks and essential oils to abroad, hoping that the earth will soon be healthy again!

VoL: What are Taiwan’s competitive advantages in the pharmaceutical and medical supplies industries?

WL: Currently Wendy is setting up a charity association, hoping to help poor children in various countries get better education and stay healthy. Wendy believes that only education can turn the poverty of a country around. In addition, Wendy likes music and painting very much. There are many good paintings, which will be sold for charity. We welcome all interested people to join in this grand event.