BioTaiwan 2009, slated to open at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall One July 23, will showcase the latest developments in biotechnology and related industries at home and abroad, organizers of the event said Wednesday. The exhibition will feature a Taiwan biotechnology theme hall set up and manned by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the IDB will also collaborate with the non-profit Development Center for Biotechnology in organizing a series of seminars to help local biotechnology companies tap markets around the globe. Now in its 10th year, BioTaiwan has become the most prominent biotech event in Taiwan and one of the largest biotech gatherings in the Asia-Pacific region, according to IDB officials. Seventeen local biotech companies, including eight licensed biotech new drug manufacturing firms, will exhibit their new products in biomedicine, biotech service and biolife style in the upcoming exhibition, the officials said. Biotech corporations from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Canada, Germany and Malaysia will also showcase their new products and innovative biotechnologies in the trade fair, the officials added. In connection with the exhibition, meanwhile, a BioBusiness Asia forum will be held at a local hotel July 21-22 that will bring together biotech corporate executives and scholars from home and abroad to discuss the latest biotech development trends and potential business opportunities, the officials went on. On July 24, a presentation featuring Taiwan's latest achievements in biotech research and development will take place at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1. 'We look forward to helping our biotech companies explore business opportunities through academic seminars and the establishment of a platform for business exchanges, ' said an IDB official. According to the official, BioTaiwan has experienced phenomenal growth over the past few years, with the total number of companies participating in the exhibition increasing from 68 in 2000 to 417 in 2008. The total number of booths has also soared from 98 to 832. Meanwhile, he went on, the sector itself has also enjoyed booming domestic growth, with private investment surging from NT$12.1 billion (US$366.67 million) in 2000 to a record high of NT$27 billion in 2007. In 2007, the total number of listed biotech companies in the country had reached 35, with a combined turnover of NT$191.2 billion. Compared with 2000, the figures represented a nine-fold growth in the number of listed biotech companies, and double the turnover. From 2000 to 2007, the average annual growth rate for the biotech industry in Taiwan reached 11 percent, the official said. 'In the past decade, as the exhibition grew significantly in its scale, we also witnessed the flourishing development of the country's biotechnology industry, ' he said, adding that the 2007 enactment of the Statute for the Development of the Biotechnology New Drug Industry contributed significantly to the boom in the sector. The statute offer incentives and improvements in four areas -- preferential business tax, professional manpower recruitment, product review efficiency and industry upgrading. 'This statue was written with the objective of supporting the local biotechnology new drug industry, which will in turn drive the capital growth in the sector and strengthen the position of the industry in the Asia-Pacific region,' the official said. 