HP center gets subsidy

The government has subsidized Hewlett-Packard Co's product development center several million US dollars, the center's director said yesterday.

"The Ministry of Economic Affairs has supported the center by a few million US dollars," Josephine Tan (陳巧鳳) told the Taipei Times.

The center, which develops notebook computers from the design stage through to manufacture, opened in Taipei in September.

According to the ministry, it's no secret that the government offers incentives to companies to set up research and development centers in Taiwan.

"We do offer financial support for companies who want to set up R&D centers in Taiwan," said Chang Ching-wen (張景雯), an investment specialist at the ministry's Department of Industrial Technology. "We also offer manpower and one-off payments for flights, for example, if a company wants to bring a foreign expert to Taiwan."

Chang said that the government will match the amount local companies invest in an R&D center by as much as 50 percent, but she declined to elaborate on government guidelines for subsidizing foreign firms. "Each investment is looked at on a case-by-case basis," Chang said.

HP officials refused to disclose the exact amount they have put into the facility, except to say "HP will invest several million US dollars in the product development center over the next few years," said Tom Mitchell, a vice president at HP.

The investment appears to be paying off. It took the center just 84 days to develop its first notebook computer, HP Taiwan's managing director Rosemary Ho (何薇玲) said at an event to launch the product yesterday.

"The time to develop a new notebook has decreased from about 10 months to about six months, so this is significant," said Martha Chen (陳洪), an analyst at Primasia Securities in Taipei.

Others attribute the cut in product development time to the location of the center in Taipei.

"A three-month development time is possible as HP has located its R&D center in Taipei close to their manufacturer, Inventec Co (英業達)," said Frank Su (蘇穀祥), an analyst at BNP Paribas Taiwan. "In this way the two companies can communicate with each other more easily."

Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) was on hand to announce the new notebook computer. Inventec produced the PC.

HP praised the new notebook, saying the center managed to squeeze the same processor used in a desktop computer into a much smaller space, and fit in a larger screen.

"We had a very aggressive schedule and overcame lots of challenges during the development cycle, especially mechanical issues," Tan said.

Inventec supplied 60 design engineers for the project, Vice Chairman Wen Shih-jen (溫世仁) said yesterday, which is double the number of engineers employed by HP on the project.