Heading to the Future, Working in harmony and shareing the benefits.

　　Time flies, it is again the time for us to review the passed year and envision the future!

　　This year is the record year for new members joining the association, six more companies have joined us—4Life Research LLC and Unicity International Taiwan Inc in January, Shaklee (Asia) Inc in May, AMKEY (Taiwan) Co. Ltd, Sheng-En Development Co. Ltd., and R&Y International Co. Ltd in September, which brings the total number of members to 39. I think this result is the hard work of our committee members and this also symbolizes that the efforts we have contributed in the past 17 years have won the recognization and affirmation from the society and the direct selling industry! Especially on January 16, the President of World Federation of Direct Selling Association, Mr. Neil Offen, took a special trip to Taiwan, delivered a speech and called on Fair Trade Commission of Executive Yuan! Mr. Neil hasn’t visited Taiwan in the recent ten years, this time, he especially arrange a visit to Taiwan Direct Selling Association in his global visit schedule to inject new energy into Taiwan’s Direct Selling industry. Furthermore, I was fortunately to be invited by “Asian Symposium on Direct Selling 2007” which is conducted in November in Hong Kong to be the host of the Panel discussion on “Social, Economic, Cultural and Political Challenges” which pushes Taiwan R.O.C Direct Selling Association onto international stage.

　　Furthermore, there are two more things worth celebrating for Taiwan R.O.C. Direct Selling Association! First, Direct Selling Association has moved to an independent office in June and hired Francisco Liu as full-time secretary-general. These do not only promote the association to Gold performance standard of World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, dedicated person and dedicated place have made the operation of this association more efficient!

　　One more thing worth celebrating is that the Ministry of Finance has raised the tax exemption of stock for direct selling staff from 50,000 dollars to 70,000 dollars in 2006. All the direct selling staff has started to enjoy this welfare when submitting tax returns in this May!

　　Although Fair Trade Commission in its 2005 statistics report for direct selling industry has pointed out that the total operation scale has dropped from 68.37 billions for 2006 to 59.3 billions. The industry is obviously suffering from economic recession and piling debt; however, many member companies can still see the pulse of the society and seize the trend against the downward spiral! One more thing worth mentioning is that the people participate in direct selling industry has reached 4.23 million which is about 5% more than those of 2005. This number means almost 70% of the households in Taiwan is using products from direct selling companies which also means the quality and price are trusted and recognized by consumers. This also means that Taiwanese people is more and more acceptable to the financial concept of direct selling industry offering extra income. From Ernst & Young management consulting company’s 2004 survey, we could see some clues. In that year, Taiwan direct selling industry created more than 7 billion tax revenue for the government. If we add up the operation and tax revenues from the surrounding supplier industries, direct selling industry has made a big contribution in creating job opportunities for Taiwan society and generating tax income for the country’s development.

　　In the recent survey done by Synovate Taiwan, it founds that more than 50% of the general public has favorable impression on the direct selling industry. This also means, after 30 years of hard efforts by the member companies, direct selling has become a channel which is recognized and accepted by the general public. More importantly, our business ethics and education committee has launched a serial of education publicity activities and through the broadcasting of radio, internet and TV, the activities have obtained positive responses. We also jointly conduct a cross strait Greater China Direct Selling Seminar with Professor Chen Te Fa’s Direct Selling Management Association which has contributed many fresh ideas to correct direct selling management concept and academic researches in the field of direct selling!

　　In recent year, Taiwan Direct Selling Association has continuously maintained good interaction relationship with Fair Trade Commission! In July, our directors and supervisors called on newly appointed chairperson, Chin Chuan Tang, and established an inactive mechanism with the Commission to reflect market dynamics to the Commission and to maintain fair and good market orders. Because the trust and interaction between industry, government and academic circle, although the direct selling industry has suffered some setback, I still strongly believe, under our strong and good efforts, we will not only drive the continuous development of this industry, we will also feedback to the society. Next year, the association will establish a charity committee and CEO’s gathering club, we believe, under the joint efforts of all the member companies, we can bring about some good examples for the society. Again, thanks to all the support and contribution from our members! I expect to work together with all the member companies in the future and continue to work for promoting the image of the direct selling industry and constructing a better operating environment! Wish our association all the best in the future!!

Chairperson of Taiwan R.O.C Direct Selling Association