The government yesterday announced it plans to invest NT$1.395 billion over the next five years to help manufacturing industries in Taiwan incorporate electronic business (e-business,
"Taiwan's business model will transform from OEM (original equipment manufacturing, 委託代工) to GL (global logistics, 全球運籌)," Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Chi-kang (王志剛) said yesterday.
To achieve this, Wang said industries are being encouraged to become e-businesses. An e-business includes e-commerce, e-supply chain management and other electronic business functions.
Wang Ya-kang (汪雅康), director of the ministry's industrial development bureau, said that if companies don't start conducting e-business today, "You're going to regret it to-morrow."
By using e-business, companies can speed up the flow of data, materials and cash exchanged between one another. The benefit is increased efficiency, according to ministry officials and company representatives.
"Speed is everything," said Frank Lin (林清正), vice president of Mitac International Corp (神達電腦). The PC and notebook manufacturer has estimated its revenue for this year will reach NT$6 billion.
Mitac's enterprise resources planning service (
As well as saving time, e-business helps cut costs.
"We have cut approximately 30 percent off our total costs by conducting e-business with our suppliers," said Jamii Wu (吳永彬), senior analyst at Tatung Co (大同公司).
By using e-business, suppliers no longer need to forecast demand for their products far in advance; instead, they can count on up-to-date data provided by customers. This cuts costs by reducing excess inventory, Wu said.
According to the economic ministry's plan, 2,500 companies in the high-technology industry will have adapted to e-business by the end of next year. They will be joined by 2,620 companies in the manufacturing industries by 2004.
"The information technology sector will be the forerunner," said Robin Fu (傅新彬), chief of the second division of the industrial development bureau.
To further the move toward e-business, Fu said the government expects problems such as limited bandwidth, electronic service certifications, lack of payment mechanisms and security concerns will be solved within two years.
The automobile, petrochemical and textile industries have been targeted to be the first in the manufacturing sector to participate in the government's e-business plan. Subsidies to help them along can reach up to NT$100 million per project.
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