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T a i w a n S p o r t i n g G o o d s M a n u f a c t u r e r s A s s o c i a t i o n
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Mr. John Chen-Chung Deng
Minister of Economic Affairs
Optimizing the Sports and Leisure Industry; Enhancing
Competitiveness via Productivity 4.0
With the global economy apparently entering a prolonged
period of slow growth in recent years, described by some
as the “new mediocre,” Taiwan’s export-oriented economy
has been facing serious challenges. In such an environment,
heads of enterprises have been striving to think of ways to
transform challenge into opportunity.
Despite this protracted economic sluggishness, parallel
positive trends have been occurring at the same time,
including the rapid development of cloud technology.
Now, 3G/4G mobile communication technology is reaching
maturity, while smart 3C products and the use of apps have
become popular, leading to high-tech wearable devices
becoming a sports fashion. This latter development has
created potentially lucrative business opportunities for
enterprises in the sports and leisure industry that can take
advantage of the trend by developing more advanced
and even smarter devices and applications. In other
words, cloud technology has enabled businesses in
this traditional sector to create even greater added
value in their products and services.
Meanwhile, advanced and emerging economies
around the globe have in recent years begun to
launch major national initiatives aimed at advancing
automated and intelligent production systems. The
reasons are manifold and varied, including shrinking
workforces due to declining populations; a growing
focus on the rights of laborers in “3K industries”
(sectors in which jobs are considered dirty, dangerous
and difficult); and increasingly intense global
competition and the resulting need to boost one’s
comparative advantages. Among the world’s major
economies, some of the more notable such initiatives