Top traders awarded by government

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (經濟部) yesterday handed out awards to companies that generated billions of dollars in international trade last year.

The international trade awards, which was organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Board of Foreign Trade (國貿局), recognized the large sums of money both spent and generated by some of Taiwan's most important firms on imports and exports.

At the top of the list of 10 firms for total value of imports and exports last year was the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which chalked up US$4.78 billion, followed by Inventec Corp (英業違) with US$4.21 billion.

Leading the 10 firms for growth in total value for exports and imports from 1999 to 2000 was Pro Arch Technology Inc, (光威電腦) whose total value grew by 910 percent, followed by Toshiba Electronics Taiwan Corp (台灣東芝) whose growth in total value came in at 538 percent.

The total value of Taiwan's exports and imports last year amounted to US$288.3 billion, a growth of 24 percent over the previous year and the highest jump in ten years, said Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (林信義), who prestented the awards for highest growth in total value.

Lin also pointed out that over 3,263 companies earned more than US$8.5 million in 2000.

The total value of imports and exports of the top 10 companies -- including TSMC, Quanta and Acer -- amounted to US$32.67 billion or 11.3 percent of Taiwan's total international trade in 2000.

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), who passed out the awards for largest total value of imports and exports, said that despite the tremendous performance last year, the high-tech exports and imports this year were suffering from the contraction of the US economy and a downturn in the overall world economy.

This was evident in export and import figures released yesterday for the first six months of this year, during which exports fell 10.8 percent from the same period last year to US$63.02 billion and imports slumped 16.9 percent to US$56.46 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The ministry's statistics department director Hsu Kuo-chung (許國忠) said imports are expected to post a double-digit decline in 2001 from a year earlier and exports are seen falling around 9.4 percent.

The awards have been given to Taiwan's leading international traders since 1969. The theme of this year's awards was "vigorous Taiwan, leaping into globalization," which according to the organizers represented the direction of the nation's economy.