Studytour 2018: A great trip

Last February, together with my committee, I made the most important decision we would make as a committee: What will be the destination for the Studytour 2018? We weighed all pros and cons against each other and our choice ultimately fell on Taiwan. The Netherlands officially does not recognize Taiwan as its own state, because then the People’s Republic of China would disconnect all relations with us. Taiwan, officially called Republic of China, is a prosperous country with many international companies. For that reason, Taiwan seemed from political and economic perspective an interesting country to visit.

The purpose of the Study Tour is that participants get acquainted with business in another country, get to know another culture and enjoy a beautiful country. We did this in Taiwan by visiting companies and engaging in cultural activities. We visited several companies in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. For example, we visited PwC, where we learned a lot about aspects of Taiwan that make it attractive for companies to settle. Taiwan has a very favourable location in Asia and the tax rate is below the average in Asia. In addition, Taiwan has a dynamic and innovative economy with well-developed industrial clusters. Taiwan is high ranked as one of the most competitive economies and offers trade and investment opportunities to the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets.

Taiwan is 15th in the ranking of the 190 countries in terms of a hospitable business environment. To get to know more about this we visited the NTIO. NTIO stands for Netherlands Trade & Investment Office and is the official representative of the Netherlands in Taiwan, but is not an official embassy or consulate. The reason is that China would sever all ties with us if they did. The NTIO helps Dutch companies to do business in Taiwan, and on the other hand it helps Taiwanese companies in the Netherlands. Examples of well-known Taiwanese companies are Giant, Accer, Foxconn and HTC. We were also able to ask the NTIO questions about the political situation, because political questions can be very sensitive to the Taiwanese people. We learned that there are political parties which are pro-China, but parties which are not as well. During our time the campaigns for the local elections in Taiwan were happening. We saw posters of politicians everywhere in the city. Taiwan has a multi-party democracy, but Taiwanese people vote more for a person than for political party. A political party program as we know it in the Netherlands does not exist in Taiwan.

”What is immediately noticeable is that you encounter street food everywhere. We have also done a food tour where we tasted all kinds of Taiwanese dishes on the night market.”

In addition to the company visits, we also enjoyed Taipei. What is immediately noticeable is that you encounter street food everywhere. We have also done a food tour where we tasted all kinds of Taiwanese dishes on the night market. What is also very striking is that you find a 7-Eleven in every street. They are the largest convenience store in the country. Taiwanese people almost always eat outside the door. For example, our guide did not know when she had cooked in her own kitchen for the last time. In addition, Taipei has many Daoist and Buddhist temples. Daoism, or Taoism, is a Chinese philosophical and religious movement and it is about morality, and how to act in your life. During the city wanderings we visited a temple, visited the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and saw the government building. The city center is dominated by the Taipei 101. This building is also known as the Taipei World Financial Center and is 509 meters high. It was the tallest building in the world from 2004 until 2010. The lift goes up from the 5th to the 89th floor in 37 seconds at a speed of over 60 km / h. Near the Taipei 101 are many western chain stores and restaurants. This shows that Taipei is a really international city. Another aspect that makes Taipei very enjoyable is that just outside the city you can find various forests and parks. We did a day trip to the tea plantations close to Taipei in order to enjoy this nature more. We really enjoyed the beautiful views over the tea plantations.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange is located in Taipei 101 and we visited it during our Studytour. On a normal day, people trade between 8.30 am and 2.30 pm. During our visit we saw a lot of red numbers on the screen. We assumed that times were rough at the stock market, but this was not the case. In Taiwan the rises are in the red and the falls in the green, which is a big difference then what we are used to. The last company that entered the Taiwan Stock Exchange is SCSB. The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank was also one of the companies we visited. The company was very happy that we came just after their IPO. We have taken pictures of our group together with the board of the SCSB and these were shown on the Taiwanese news.

”It was a hot day, and in combination with some steep slopes it was quite a tough ride, but more than worth it. The cycle path around Sun Moon Lake is considered as one of the most beautiful cycle paths in the world.”

After almost a week in Taipei, we continued our trip by bus to the Sun Moon Lake. This is a large lake in the middle of Taiwan. It is a beautiful place where many tourists come all year round. Since we are true Dutch people, we rented bikes and cycled around the lake. It was a hot day, and in combination with some steep slopes it was quite a tough ride, but more than worth it. The cycle path around Sun Moon Lake is considered as one of the most beautiful cycle paths in the world. During last days of our trip we went to Hualien. This is a city of about 100,000 inhabitants and is located on the east coast of Taiwan. Hualien is close to Taroko National Park where we had been for two days. We made a beautiful hike along a cliff here and we did some river tracing. These two days were active, beautiful, and very enjoyable. We ended our trip with a dinner in a small local Taiwanese restaurant in Taipei. It was quite an experience to order something with a Chinese card and no English speaking waitress, but ultimately we had a delicious meal. The next day we had to get back on the plane to the cold Netherlands. After two intensive and especially enjoyable weeks the Studytour came to an end and normal life could start again.

Finally, I would like to thank my committee members Boris, Ivo, Britt, Ruben, Sjors and of course our coordinator Niels!