High Tech Campus Eindhoven and a Taiwanese business network recently donated face masks to social organizations in The Netherlands. "Recently we received 'Made in Taiwan' medical masks from our friends from Southern Taiwan", says Cees Admiraal, Director Business Development of High Tech Campus Eindhoven." Together we've distributed the face masks to social organizations that need them."
On Tuesday July 7 the medical masks were handed over to Léon Savelkoul, Director of Vitalis Residenties in Eindhoven, by Lilly Wang of the World Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce and Cees Admiraal, Director Business Development at High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
Back in the 1600s, the Dutch were Taiwan’s first foreign investors, with their legendary Dutch East Indian Company setting up Fort Zeelandia in what is now the Anping district of Tainan. The friendship between Taiwan and The Netherlands continues to grow. Philips was instrumental in the establishment of what is now Taiwan’s largest company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), serving as the biggest initial investor. It started as a collaboration between the government of Taiwan, ITRI, and Philips.
Later, ASML and NXP played a key role in Taiwan’s evolution into a global electronics-exporting powerhouse by being Taiwan’s largest foreign investor in the 1980s and 1990s. Because of the strong relation with Philips, the Taiwan network has a focus on Eindhoven. Taiwanese investors like Acer, Asus, Giga Byte, BenQ, Pegatron, TSMC, and MSi; bicycle makers Giant and Merida also moved their European Headquarters to the Netherlands.
Lilly Wang of the World Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce explains: "This year April, Taiwan Philharmonic planned to visit Amsterdam, Groningen and Eindhoven. Because of the global coronavirus outbreak, they unfortunately had to cancel the tour. This pandemic has changed the way we live but not how we treat our friends. High tech campus has a long- standing relationship with Taiwan. We are not only business partners but also friends who support each other. When the pandemic is over, we will meet again."
A big thank you to our Taiwanese friends who made this happen: