Printing industry expands its business structure and accepts challenges

From next year, Taiwan’s islands will be able to conduct economic and trade activities with 142 member states under the WTO trade mechanism. After joining the WTO in the island, the printing industry must break through narrow business thinking as soon as possible, and operate in a “continental” mode of thinking. In order to cultivate the professional talents with a global outlook, we can take the initiative in mastering access and opening up opportunities for entering the international market.

According to Zhang Zhongyi, general manager of the Research Center, the current focus of the printer should be on how to respond to changes in the environment for economic and trade development. In terms of market development, as the two sides have entered the WTO, based on fair economic and trade mechanisms and principles, the future of the two sides Trade may be more direct, which can greatly reduce the time and cost of re-export. It is good news for labor-intensive printers who want to borrow the abundant manpower and low wages in the mainland.

In addition, in the face of the Chinese market with a population of 1.3 billion people in the Mainland, Taiwanese companies should also actively explore. At present, many European and American printing companies are targeting Asian markets and are preparing to cooperate with local printing and publishing companies. This case of combining foreign investment opportunities has been In the active brewing of Taiwan and the mainland, how to win cooperation opportunities as a springboard to expand the international market is an issue that should be considered by the printing companies on the island.

Yuan Ronghua, chairman of the color printing company, pointed out that after the reduction and elimination of tariffs in the printing industry, regardless of the original materials, such as paper and ink, prepress printing equipment, and product import/export, the protection of tariffs was limited, so the negative impact degree Less intense, but because of the reduction of tariffs, the industry has saved many costs in the import of raw materials and machinery and equipment, and expanded profit margins. In the short term, the tariff rate for printing inks will be reduced from 5% to 4%; the tariff portion of imported papers will still have a 2 year buffer period for tariff concessions, which is expected to decrease by 10% from the current 5% in 2002 and then decrease again in 2003. 50% will reach zero tariff by 2004. Tariffs on imports of printing machinery and equipment and components are currently 5%, and will drop to 3% from next year. Therefore, as a whole, accession to the WTO is still more beneficial than harm in reducing printing production costs.

Chen Zhengxiong, chief publisher of the Print Magazine, stated that in terms of improving competitiveness, the direction that needs to be exerted lies in the establishment of a system for the quality standard of printed matter, intensifying the exquisiteness and particularity of products, accelerating the cultivation of foreign talents for printing and marketing, and printing quality. The establishment of the standard represents the benchmark for the identification of the print grade on the island, and is also an important basis or indicator for future transactions with other regions.