Taiwanese purchases of US high-tech products surged 42 percent to US$10.4 billion last year, one of the highest percent increases worldwide, according to US trade data published by the American Electronics Association yesterday.
Despite widespread fears Taiwan is losing its technical advantage over China, the nation's high-tech purchases doubled those of its giant neighbor, and rose at a faster rate. China bought US$4.6 billion of US high-tech products last year, a 40 percent rise from 1999, according to the report.
The American business community has salivated for years over the fabled "China market," which has been slow in developing. With a population topping 1.26 billion people, China still purchases far less high tech gear from the US than Taiwan, a nation of only 23 million people.
Although the report did not specify what kind of products are being shipped to Taiwan, one industry analyst said semiconductors from companies like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices and other PC components probably make up a large portion. The chips and components are used in personal computers and laptops manufactured here and then shipped overseas for sale in markets worldwide.
Taiwan's high-tech purchases leaped ahead of those from Singapore for the first time last year, moving the nation up one place to become the third largest purchaser of US high-tech goods in Asia behind only Japan and South Korea. Had the electronics association report not separated Hong Kong and China, however, the combined region would have surpassed Taiwan by a small margin.
The rate of increase in US high-tech purchases from Taiwan also beat out South Korea and Japan for the year, as Taiwan raced ahead with 42 percent growth versus 22 percent for South Korea and 24 percent for Japan.
The nation with the highest percentage increase of high-tech purchases from the US last year was Vietnam, whose total jumped 58 percent on purchases of US$780 million.
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