BIO TAIWAN 2009

2009 is a unique year! By the end of year 2009, it will be 10 years since Taiwan biotechnology exhibition was first launched in 2000! BioTaiwan has experienced an exponential growth in the past few years. The total number of companies participating in the exhibition has increased from 68 in year 2000 to 417 in 2008. The total number of booths has also soared from 98 to 832. Most incredibly, the private investment in the biotechnology industry has surged from NT$12.1 billion in year 2000 to the record high of NT$27 billion in 2007. In 2007, the total number of listed biotech companies reached 35 with a turnover of NT$191.2 billion. Comparing with year 2000, these figures represented a growth of 9 folds in the number of listed biotech companies and double in the turnover. From 2000 to 2007, the average compound annual growth rate for the biotech industry in Taiwan was 11%. In the past ten years, as the exhibition grew significantly in its scale, we also witnessed the flourishing development of the biotechnology industry in Taiwan. The "Statute for the Development of Biotechnology New Drug Industry" was announced and implemented in July 2007. The statute included incentives and improvement over four areas: business tax, professional manpower recruitment, product review efficiency and industry upgrade. This statue was written with the objective of supporting the local biotechnology new drug industry, which would in turn drive the capital growth in this sector and strengthen the stance of this industry in the Asia Pacific region. BioTaiwan 2009 will be held on July 23-26 at Taipei World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan. With strong government support and active participation from the biotech community and thanks to the join effort of many national as well as international scholars, BioTaiwan has become the most noteworthy biotech event in Taiwan. BioTaiwan has also attracted more and more international attention and has become one of the largest biotech gathering in Asia-P