TAIWAN Excellence Shows LOHAS Day with Catriona Gray

When I heard of it initially I didn't know what it meant, but LOHAS basically is Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability. Taiwan Excellence brought the cause to Market!Market! this morning with no less than Miss Universe Catriona Gray, a fitting face because this is something that she feels so strong about and they talked lengthy about it in what they call LOHAS DAYS Activate, which makes a lot of sense in this day and age. 

Fitness sessions and lifestyle experiences, with the tons of brand that Taiwan has, they will be showcasing them at the Activity Center from September 12-14 to support your goals. 

Check out what we saw at the event:

Aropec for water and diving gear, Besv Folding bikes, Acer Swift Laptops, Vinxper wine accessories, Hepty Extinguishers, Atunas Yoga and Fitness equipment, ASUS laptops, FECA Slam dunk Basketball Kit, GIANT XTC SLR 29, and more.

Josephine Shun of TECO says "Taiwan is serious about health, and the idea is very simple which is why we launched a program like LOHAS. This is health and lifestyle using Taiwanese technology. We are currently third in the world exporting fitness machines. Running along the mountain, the ocean and the warm smile, that is LOHAS and we want you to enjoy what you see around you!"

Director Alex Lai of the Taiwan Trade office in Manila says "LOHAS is not just strength, but a choice, the way we live. This is not just limited to us, but the generations to come. We have 70 Taiwanese companies presenting 30 products like folding bikes, eco products, and excited about you enjoying the fitness classes which we will hold here at the activity center. There is something for everyone, this is carefully selected to match your market and most of them have awards. You will also have the mascot to make sure you'll have fun today. On 17-19 there will be a Taiwan expo on SMX Convention center where you can find even more companies to grow your business with."

Catriona Gray says "As the LOHAS ambassador in the Philippines, I'm excited to make you enjoy fitness and a healthy lifestyle. I am very proud to represent them, many of us know it is attainable. A healthy sustainable life is achievable, we get to encourage our friends too. Like this year, I got into running because I wanted to move, it made me happy, I guess it's endorphins. My schedule is crazy but I wanted to have an achievable routine, so I do pilates, stretch, get in the water, it should fit your lifestyle. You need to take care of your mind spirit and body. I'm really inspired by their LOHAS movement, they enjoy it, use their spaces, something that we can learn and adapt in the Philippines. I love getting sleep, have a night without phones, eat good food, not just convenient food. We have to schedule time with activities, we are busy but we have to have some of it for ourselves."

She adds "Making conscious decisions is what sustainability is. I am conscious about water bottles, fashion, we need to look for solutions that impact the community. The car free days, the community runs, small actions that we can do for the environment."

If you want to join the fitness and wellness sessions, see exhibits and products from Taiwan, they will be there til the 14th so make sure you head down to Market!Market! or their FB page for updates by searching TaiwanExcellence.ph on the platform.

TAIWAN EXCELLENCE "Your Song of Excellence: Duo Legacy" Bares Winners

Taiwan certainly has a lot of things that Filipinos could connect to. One of it is the love for music. TAITRA aka Taiwan External Trade Development Council recently held the Taiwan Excellence "Your Song of Excellence: Duo Legacy" at the Market!Market! mall in Taguig City. 

Out of thousands who sent their entries, they got the judges choose 3 finalists to battle it out on this one day at the mall's activity center. This isn't a walk in the park as we talked to the judges Kean Cipriano, Ice Seguerra, Yeng Constantino and Paulo Zarate. They also had to choose a winner based off a themed composition about Taiwan Excellence and an original song. Taiwan is known for their various quality products and seeing the Taiwan Excellence seal on them just assures you of their high standards. Aside from the economic standpoint, it's the connections we share in culture that makes it a worthwhile event.

We also got to talk to the executives of TAITRA and asked about what they were looking for as far as winners go. It's a combination of talent, x factor and the ability to showcase the Filipino talent. Because just like Taiwan, we find excellence in these things. Makes sense?

 Various Taiwanese brands also joined the event in support of the Taiwan Excellence program and this songwriting and singing competition:

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In the end, they announced The Unexpected Duo's Vench Larenas and Renz Salazar as Second Runner Up, Haranajeeb Duo's Khen Aldovino and Nephtali Fajardo as the First Runner Up. The grand winner is Mandarhyme Duo's Rusty and Janine Loayon, they won Php 300,000 for it. The event was witnessed by TAITRA's Brian Lee, Alex Lai, and people from Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office. Also in the event was Ambassador Wallace Chow and Ms. Josephine Shun of TECO Philippines.

Taiwan Set to Hold "Your Song of Excellence: Duo Legacy Grand Finals" at Market! Market!

Connecting through music, Taiwan's External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) will be holding "Your Song of Excellence: Duo Legacy" Grand Finals at Ayala Malls Market!Market! this coming August 31, 2024. This is a nationwide competition of duo singers and from thousands of entries, only three made it to the finals. They are Haranajeeb Duo, The Unexpected Duo and the Mandarhyme Duo.

This is hard to do because from their eliminations, they are now asked to compose 2 songs of 3:30 minutes each that will be performed on stage with one of the entries being the jingle with the theme "The Best Made in Taiwan". Catch is, it should contain the words "Taiwan Excellence" and will be judged through their core values of innovation, interests, sustainability and quality. This is supported by their home grown brands Acer, AOPEN, Aorus, ASUS, D-Link, Gigabyte, Kymco, MSI, PC Express, ROG, Tatung and Zyxel. If you would like to know more about the event, follow them on social channels by searching TaiwanExcellence.ph.

Judges include industry greats such as Kean Cipriano, Yeng Constantino, Ice Seguerra, Nicole Asenso, Paulo Zarate and more. Who knows, they might also perform that evening too. Make sure to be there primetime!

Filipinos Deserve Excellent Products

Everybody deserves excellent products, this is something that remains true with celebrity Kiray Celis, actor Arron Villaflor, streamer Stephan Estopia and body positivity mover Pash Pacia.

Just like them , we have our differences, but when it comes to the things we need, one must be discerning and make sure what we buy is worth every cent. We worked hard for it right? They all have found this is true in East Asia's well loved island of Taiwan.

Kiray for one travels and eats a lot. Going to places like Taiwan is like therapy, it clears the mind. A handy dandy Tatung Rice cooker for example can get rice cooked perfect every time. (bit.ly/KirayTatungReel) Taiwan is also one of her dream destinations, so meeting the people and seeing their culture was certainly a great experience. She'll be back for more! Arron on the other hand needs to look good once he steps out of his home. Always on the go, his businesses and professional dealings usually come in a compact flash drive by TeamGroup. During trips outdoors, he still wears reusable Dacian face mask and eagerly wants to discover more of what Taiwan has to offer. 

Meanwhile, Gamer and live streamer Stephan Estopia believes to get ahead of the game, one needs to get quality peripherals from ROG and ASUS. From mice and earphones; he knows the things he need to use every day. they're one tough company to break especially since there's so much great electronic products that is brought to PH that all feels so good to have, I should know, I own one. 

Check out his videos here and see where he's coming from. (bit.ly/StephanROG_Reel). Pash loves those who exude body positivity, and beauty. Why they use O'Right may have so many reasons. This means you get lots of help to get great pearly white teeth. This means less stress with dealing with local suppliers, as I've been in the same boat since I got my own laptop from them. Let's just say it was life changing, which si pretty good to hear. Check more products manufactured here  bit.ly/TaiwanExcellenceBrandDealership or their official site taiwanexcellence.org/en because their participating brands would fit like a glove with what you need. 

That right there is certified, it's Taiwan excellence!

Music, Milk Tea and Gabbi Garcia at the “Panahon sa Taiwan” Event

Spent quite a few hours at Glorietta 2 Activity Center as the Taiwan Tourism Bureau gave Filipinos a taste of how it feels like in Taiwan these days. The folks treated us to a few song numbers courtesy of artist Unique Salonga in the afternoon while the folks got acquainted with the multitude of airline and tour operators offering the best flight deals, hotel and destination packages right on the spot.

This definitely spurred from the recent developments of giving visa free privileges to Filipinos, making it so easy to go to and from the country formerly known as Formosa. I was certainly even more excited about the street food that they have, the Lantern Festival, the sweet tangy pineapple cakes and one of the most tallest buildings in the world Taipei 101. 

 

They also got us to see Kapuso star and international endorser Gabbi Garcia, the official celebrity endorser who was just in Taiwan to experience Cherry Blossoms, Shopping and just about every food item she loves.

 

Gabbi was just ecstatic telling us about how patient and helpful people were during her trip, that even if you're a first time traveler, it wouldn't be difficult to actually take public transportation (she took the MRT), or eat on the streets, have some wonderful tea amidst the majestic views of the Taiwanese countryside. This is also the second time that they are holding "Panahon sa Taiwan" which was graced by Ambassador Peiyung Hsu of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines and Abe Chou Shih Pi who is the Taiwan Tourism Bureau KL Office Director.

Ticket promotions were available for Taiwan's China Airlines, STARLUX Airlines, our very own Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and AirAsia. Some of the travel operators like Touristique Travel and Tours and Jeron Travel and Tours Corp. offered not just hotel and tour packages, but a meet and greet with Gabbi Garcia in Taiwan on some dates in March.

The event was hosted by Chuckie Dreyfus

Unique Salonga was quite a talented chap!

Here's what happened during the event on video, please enjoy!

 

Gabbi also participated in a DIY Milktea activity where she made her own drink in the venue courtesy of the folks from Tea Melody. They also announced that they will be getting her to appear in a meet and greet in National Taiwan Science Education Center on March 19 at 12PM for the Filipino and Taiwanese community. You may visit eng.taiwan.net.tw for more details about it. Else, you can also check facebook.com/tbrockl for updates since they post regularly there.

I guess it's time we do visit Taiwan! :)

Smart Solutions To Combat Covid-19 Offered by Taiwan

This pandemic has brought upon a lot of changes in the world and yes, we’re continuing to battle an invisible enemy. The World Health Organization (WHO) said there are 18,354,342 confirmed cases globally claiming around 696,147 lives bringing distraught to their families. Taiwan is one of these 200 countries dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, but dealt with it using smart solutions; and they believe effective communication should be at the forefront of the fight against the virus. The Global Covid-19 Index in a recent report has put Taiwan as among the Top 5 countries that can best recover from Covid-19.

This is why they recently launched recently launched https://www.anticovid19tw.org, a website where Taiwan shares its experience in fighting the virus to affected countries around the world, including the Philippines. This info drive website offers information for stakeholders, local and foreign expertise and comprehensively answers common questions and other information the public needs to know regarding Covid-19.

The Philippines can also have their LGU’s learn more about how they conduct contact tracing and how the Taiwanese government implements health and safety protocols to prevent the spread of the virus at first reporting. The website also includes information for medical frontliners, as the site shows different scenarios on how patients can be treated in case they are infected. The site also keeps ordinary individuals informed about how virus transmission works, what risks and complications people can get that can affect various age and gender demographics. There are also materials for mental health concerns, how to spot the usual symptoms and procedures on what to do immediately in case of suspected infection and where people could go for medical assistance in case it happens.

Philippine businesses can also learn a thing or two on how to implement smart supply management solutions. Taiwan has done measures on companies to help protect their employees via face masks and other protective equipment. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has been a reliable partner of Filipino businesses and has organized various forums including “Taiwan’s Medical Services and Epidemic Prevention Experience Sharing” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ndgzjkjUqU&feature=youtu.be) which was held last July. They also featured “Taiwan Biomedical Solution to Covid-19 and Genetic Analysis,” which was co-organized by Hsinchu Science Park. It featured some of the top biomedical companies in Taiwan.

It’s quite nice Taiwan is making headway battling this virus and it has remarkably shown how effective their measures are and how they have flattened the curve. The Taiwanese government is willing to share their victories to other affected countries so they too can overcome challenges of this economically and health debilitating virus. We’ve got to listen to good measures and apply it to our own. That would be a good thing.

Taiwan Excellence’s “Stay-At-Home Economy” Starts Fight Versus Pandemic and Boredom

COVID-19 has affected tons of people, closed businesses and wreaked havoc in the economy. People stayed at home for the most, and got bored in the process. They started doing things left and right, and let their creative genius take the wheel.

Taiwan sets a good example of how to successfully contain the virus. Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) Deputy Director General Guann-Jyh Lee attributes these with the cooperation of all citizens and industries plus the measures they have taken while they stay-at-home. They want to share how they did it. For better health, they encouraged home workouts, to stay warm after sweating and be hydrated by water to fend off disease.

Taiwan Excellence selected three award-winning companies namely Strength Master, Victory and the AROFLY for the latest home exercise trends. Things that could better cardiopulmonary conditions, muscle strength, and overall health. Strength Master’s cycle boxer has interactive boxing games that can simultaneously train brain response. It also imoroves cardiopulmonary function. This makes it fun to do boxing! Muscle strength training also improves physique and immunity. Victory, got Olympics Weightlifting silver medalist Ying-Chi Lu to do weight training on Victory’s shock-absorbing mats. It reduces vibration and noise while lifting barbells. It just makes training at home an enjoyable feat. AROFLY used smart technology to move cycling into homes. Now with stats, everyone can workout smart at home and burn fat effectively.

This also raised sales of home and fitness products by 20 percent, helping tons of businesses survive during the pandemic. Taiwan Excellence has chosen the best of the best Taiwanese companies putting their seal on it. There are tons more of them who would likely celebrate Taiwan's zero new coronavirus cases, I envy them! Make sure to look for the seal when you buy products, Taiwan Excellence takes good steps in making your home smart and disease free, you're doing your share to fight against the disease and boredom.

Now I want my own bike from Taiwan :(

Video Conferencing and Education Solutions from Taiwan Excellence

Taiwan has been undoubtedly a super power in the technology sector. They are one of the countries that has given solutions aimed at supporting remote work and study technologies. This has proven very useful now that COVID19 happened and everyone had to stay at home.

For those who don't know, Taiwan Excellence is the international promotional campaign of the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). They recently introduced a suite of Remote Video Conferencing solutions. In a recent livestream press conference, TAITRA showcased several of these from Taiwan. All of which can address the need for Remote Video Conferencing which can be used either for work or education.

This is no surprise as Taiwan’s strong ICT technology and hunger for innovation has already impressed a lot of countries including the Philippines. Taiwanese brands have made their mark in being part of the new norm as we all find new ways to do work and learning.

Simon Wang, the Executive Vice President of TAITRA says "Due to the pandemic, a lot of people have lost mobility, the ability to travel anywhere. This also hampers physical contact with people, no more shaking hands,  meetings and conferences. People had to do it at the comforts of their own homes, to spend more time online, relying on information security to ensure communication over the internet remains safe. This is why Taiwan Excellence, which likens the Oscars of the US for the best in movies, is a symbol of the best products selected by the Taiwanese government. For quality but reasonably priced networking solutions, Taiwan, specifically Taiwan Excellence products, are in position to fill that need."

At the virtual press conference, 4 Taiwanese brands showcased their products aimed to enhance the quality and utility of remote communication.

CyberLink

CyberLink has “U Communication Suite” designed for business communication. It has fully integrated service for online meetings, presentations and even business chat. The app features ease of use on any device, complete organization management for administration to keep track of key metrics. It also has internationally recognized “Information Security Certification” and video quality backed by AI technology.  The "U Meeting" function in this suite was also selected as the Best video conferencing software in 2020 by MSN.com.

AVer

AVer has this "Mechanical Arm Wireless Interactive Visualizer". It is ultra-lightweight and convenient for educators to carry. Equipped with a 4K 13-megapixel camera that can do 60fps imaging, it can present teaching materials without missing any of the finer details. It also functions as a network camera which can be used to  facilitate remote teaching. It also has won awards such as the Taiwan Excellence Gold Award for Good Design and Best of Show at ISTE last year.

 

DeltaKnEW

The groundbreaking DeltaKnEW Academy is an innovative and open platform for Smart Learning. This has patented learning experience design to equip professionals and enterprises with the latest Industry 4.0 skills. It comes with a web version and mobile app which enables on-the-job, in the moment and on-the-go learning. Professionals can use this very versatile and personalized platform for learning so they could start re-skilling and upskilling.

BXB

BXB's very own “Q.con Video Conferencing Solution” helps to improve the quality of video conferencing. Its lens can auto-track and provide close-ups of participants to show the facial expressions of speakers, providing the personal touch so often missing from online meetings. Its built-in cardioid microphone can also auto-detect the voice of speakers and block out background noises to ensure the highest of sound quality. Moreover, Q.con supports various platforms such as U meeting, Skype, Good Meets, Microsoft Teams, ZOOM and LINE, among others. 

Top products meant for the most discerning customers in the world is now available in the Philippines. I am so glad Taiwan is such a nice ICT product source, they've been very good quality wise.

Taiwan Excellence Holds 2019 ESports Cup at SM The Block

Three whole days of non stop fun and gaming at the Taiwan Excellence 2019 ESports Cup held at SM The Block in Quezon City.

Taiwanese brands also showcased their best computers, laptops, keyboards, storage devices, even SSD drives which ordinary Joe's were able to try and use right on the spot. As for the programs,they have already held gaming challenges for CS GO and League of Legends on the first two days, then today they got a huge Cosplay Contest with the same game theme. I love how they got into it so good.

The serious cosplayers brought their A game, strutting out some really nice character costumes which looked like mages and cyborgs at the events area.

If you're in the north or nearby areas, come to the SM The Block for some good ol gaming fun and cosplay selfies, you have to do that of course!

Today is the last day! You gotta go! 

 

Taiwan Excellence Showcase Bests in SM The Block

Taiwan Excellence has always been coming out with best of what their country has to offer. The Philippine IT industry will benefit from this especially if we’re all getting to be inspired with what we plan to do in our own shores. They brought in the best gaming gears, accessories, wireless and wired devices as they want to please even our own ESports players. They’re doing an ESports Cup in the three days they’re staying at the SM North The Block Atrium from Friday this week til Sunday.

Pro and amateur gamers would be able to experience using their wares playing CS GO and League of Legends. This is organized by the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Taiwan External Trade Development Council, ASUS ROG, Aorus, AVerMedia, In-Win, Kingmax, Transcend, XPG, Zadak, G.Skill, Zyxelnd and other top Taiwan corporations from the ICT industry. The games will be streamed live via the Taiwan Excellence facebook page so stay tuned! I’ll cover it too on Sunday!

This is just awesome!

Taiwan Excellence Showcases Best To Inspire Philippines

Taiwan Excellence just concluded their presentation at the ASIA IOT Business Platform conference at the Mariott Hotel in Manila, Philippines.

Taiwan has been regarded as a leader in the ICT sector, proudly serving the global companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft) and their supply chains for years now. In Telco, retail, business, industries, even AI and IoT, they’ve practically done it all and places a significant part in production of the world's best tech devices. Wireless or otherwise.

Clement Chen the Director of TECO in Manila says “We invited companies to briefly introduce what Taiwan Excellence is all about as authorized by the ministry of Taiwan. We bring only the cream of the crop, seeing this seal only means that. Thank you for gracing our presentation.”

Mr. Wen Chung Chan the Director of the Economic Division of TECO in Manila says “The Philippines is one of the largest population and is continually growing. The need for greener and more climate healthy cities is also increasing and Taiwan fits to inspire the Philippines in industrial development. The AI sector in Taiwan has been highly recognized and the Taiwanese companies offer innovation and ideas for future solutions. We want to also introduce brands that have our seal, successful in their own right and has passed strict standards to be able to hold that.”

IOT Lighting Solutions

Accton Technology Corporation’s Arnold Dimayuga says “We are in the ODM manufacturing and design industry based in Taiwan and has offices in China. We have wireless solutions, power over ethernet, management and even a smart lighting control system which are cloud based. You may check Accton.com for more information.”

Smart Storage Solutions

Apacer Technology Inc’s Mike Wang says “It is our first time to be here, we are very glad to participate this year. We have subsidiaries around the world and function as a digital storage brand. We have consumer products in Japan, China, Netherlands and the US. We also have a 24/7 delivery service for industrial solutions mainly for industrial storage, do hardware and firmware design, around 240 patent applications, write our own source codes, deliver flash memory modules like SSD, Sata, USB, etc. Our software also provides solutions for extreme environments, data security. We also have tons of partners who have been with us for a number of years including providing solutions for offshore rigs. We currently are the 8th largest provider of SSD’s in the world and number one in industrial applications.”

Visualizers

Aver Information Inc’s Raver Jocson says “We are a global communication and audio visual technology company. In this age of technology, meetings and collaborations are not the same. Teleconference, audio issues, we all had problems with that before, we still experience that. As systems integrators we want that not to happen so we partner with different providers and platforms to help make the most of your investments be future proof.”

Smart Factory Monitoring Solutions

Industrialization and automation technology is the name of the game with Joyce Yeh’s of ICP DAS. She discussed “Keys to Build Smart Factories and key data needs automation solutions. We apply machine, networking, energy management solutions so your production costs go down. We also have sensing solutions, recording systems in food factories, smart farming, breeding and food processing. We also build Smart Control Centers so you can manage these well. We also have IoT Cloud Software for private and public cloud, sensor data import analysis, so you can look at information real time. We also can integrate with mobile applications in our cloud solutions. You may look up the ICP DAS website for more information. They supply hardware and software solutions, and have local partners to operate and analyze it.”

The Transport Sector

Senior Product Vice President Don Yu introduced IEI Integration, a company based in Taiwan. They have been in the industry since 1997. They work in aerospace and military industries, includes 3200 employees all over the world and plans to do more work in AI. From consumer retail, Health, everything around us, the have experience in providing adept solutions and use Intel technologies. They also have IEI AI Inference Solutions and apply this on Smart Transportation technologies as well. They also use AI for Smart City solutions and City Surveillance, making it easier to manage communities using proprietary technologies. They not only capture data, they also can modify AI solutions (even facial recognition) and integrate it in some existing software and solutions.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and if you’re raring to avail these services or technologies, you can identify it with the Taiwan Excellence seal so you’re sure to get only the best. Hopefully the Philippines gets inspired with what they’ve done, we just can’t be left behind.