Douglas Hsu, Chairman of Far Eastern Group and FEDS has been so kind to give us his opinion about the pandemic as follows:

‘I would like to share with you that in Taiwan the so-called organized retails sales did not drop during the last six months, as more are shifted to digital buying. Those who are behind in e-commerce of course suffered a bit. As Taiwan seems to be less hurt by this Covid-19 pandemic, we still are on the street all the time but with masks. Interesting fact is that as we cannot travel so all the traveling purchases are having to be done locally, which helps to keep the volume up. In particular the name brands and high-end jewelleries have a strong uplift, as most are not shopping from outside the country. This is well received by the big-name brands such as LV, Hermes, Gucci, etc. The big issue is how long will the effect of Covid-19 continue to impact us. General sentiment is it will linger to affect us for the next six to nine months.’