Taiwan's computer giant Acer Inc (
Last year, revenue from China operations accounted for 17 percent of Acer's overall revenues. The company has projected the percentage will grow to 25 percent in the fourth quarter of this year, and to 40 percent in three years. Acer Group revenues in 2000 totalled US$9.9 billion.
Shih said that in the first half of this year, the company's China operations only managed to gross US$3 billion, 20 percent less than the target. He attributed the setback to the global economic recession and severe competition from China's Legend Group (聯想集團) and Dell Corp.
In order to gain a solid footing in China's market, Acer is offering "ready-in-two hours" maintenance services at its outlets, said Shih.
One of the world's top 10 PC vendors, Acer's production lines range from high-end PC servers and multimedia desktop computers to notebooks, computer peripherals and components.
Despite the fact that the company's investments in the Internet sector in recent years -- including mobile phones, wireless communications and e-business solutions -- failed to meet expectation, Shih emphasized the importance of taking the business a step forward into the Internet age.
Shih announced a reorganization plan six months ago and the company is undergoing a transition to separate its design, manufacturing and service business from the Acer-brand business.
Wang Chen-tang (
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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