Asian Time Zone

ECONOMY: AGRICULTURE, LIVESTOCK AND FISHING

Agriculture is still fairly practiced, occupying 5.2% of the active population; largely satisfies internal needs and even manages to export some products, thanks to the high specialization and modernity of the techniques. The base of the local diet is rice, which in irrigated areas produces two crops a year; this crop occupies the whole flat hilly belt of the western part of the island but, with the terraces, also the mountain sides. The other cereals give modest quantities (corn comes first, then sorghum); On the other hand, sweet potatoes and numerous horticultural products, such as cabbage, tomatoes, onions, asparagus, as well as various types of fruit: citrus fruits, papaya, pineapple, watermelons, bananas and mangoes which also feed a fair export current. Industrial crops are modernly organized, the range of which was very wide even if in recent years those that contribute most to exports have been strengthened. Sugar cane clearly prevails, which affects a large part of the arable land, being cultivated in all the flat areas of the island, inserted between the rice fields; sugar is the main agricultural export product. Another relevant crop is that of tea; add tobacco, various oil crops such as soy, peanuts, la Sugar cane clearly prevails, which affects a large part of the arable land, being cultivated in all the flat areas of the island, inserted between the rice fields; sugar is the main agricultural export product. Another relevant crop is that of tea; add tobacco, various oil crops such as soy, peanuts, la Sugar cane clearly prevails, which affects a large part of the arable land, being cultivated in all the flat areas of the island, inserted between the rice fields; sugar is the main agricultural export product. Another relevant crop is that of tea; add tobacco, various oil crops such as soy, peanuts, la rapeseed and sesame, as well as textile plants such as cotton, jute, sisalana agave and flax. The forestry heritage is also a conspicuous resource, which occupies about half of the territorial surface and is luxuriant due to abundant rainfall and high temperatures; good quantities of wood are produced annually, which feed a decent wood industry; among the main essences there is a cypress locally called kinoki, the camphor tree (for which the island was once very famous), whose cultivation has practically disappeared since the last years of the twentieth century, and bamboo, which in particular finds the most varied uses. The zootechnical patrimony has been considerably enhanced; the breeding of pigs and that of poultry (ducks) prevail, which are practicable at family level; cattle and buffaloes are decreasing, the latter being used as working animals in rice-growing areas. Fishing is also of considerable importance, favored by the fish richness of the seas around the island; fish is an essential component of the local diet, an element common to most of the Chinese and Indochinese regions. The fishing activity, of which the main centers are the ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung, it is particularly taken care of by the government; the catch (tuna, swordfish, sharks above all) is partly exported and partly processed in modern canning plants.

ECONOMY: INDUSTRY AND MINERAL RESOURCES

According to businesscarriers, industry is clearly the backbone of Taiwan’s economy; despite the pre-eminence of the tertiary sector, it contributes about a third of GDP and almost all exports. The sector has undergone an interesting evolution, in relation to changes in international markets; despite the pre-eminence of the tertiary sector, it contributes about a third of GDP and almost all exports. The sector has undergone an interesting evolution, in relation to changes in international markets. The Taiwanese industry was at the beginning essentially linked to the processing of local agricultural products; this traditional sector is still very flourishing, represented above all by sugar factories, fruit and vegetable canning factories, breweries, milling complexes, tobacco factories, paper mills (the paper is obtained from the residues of sugar cane) and textile factories, eminently cotton, which also work to a large extent for export. Subsequently, other industrial sectors were developed encouraged by significant foreign investments: the clothing sector, the chemical industry (sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acid, caustic soda, resins and plastics, nitrogen fertilizers, superphosphates), petrochemicals (which it works imported crude oil and is represented by various refineries, including those in Miaoli and Kaohsiung), the precision electromechanical and electrotechnical industries. In the cement sector and for the shipbuilding industry, Taiwan has experienced a long season of growth reaching European levels, even if it is slowing down. Many of these productions, in particular that of the textile sector, have been partly delocalized to other Asian countries at lower labor costs. Finally, good productions come from the steel industry (steel, cast iron of which the country is still one of the major world producers, and ferroalloys), from the metallurgy of copper and aluminum, from the automobile industry (represented however by assembly plants) and construction of other vehicles (Taiwan is the fourth largest bicycle manufacturer in the world). The third secondary “revolution” concerned the electronics, information technology and telecommunications industries; high technology has become the dominant sector and the country continues to invest in this direction: in 1980 the Hsinchu science and technology park was built, S of T ‘world leader, and in 2005 a second pole, dedicated to biotechnology, at T’ainan. Mineral resources are not very relevant; the subsoil mainly offers coal, which together with good quantities of natural gas represents a decent energy source. There are scarce productions of copper, gold, silver, pyrites, sulfur, asbestos, rock salt, etc. In relation to the strong development of the industrial sector, the production of electricity has recorded a notable increase; nuclear power plants prevail (the country is the fourth Asian producer of nuclear energy).