Print

Mail

wiki links

Hon Hai head blasts TAITRA for attracting investor

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Kuo (郭台銘) yesterday condemned Taiwan External Trade Develop-ment Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) for helping its largest rival, Flextronics International Ltd to attract business partners in Taiwan, Chinese-language news-papers reported.

"At a time when Taiwan is striving to boost its economy, the government's method of attracting business is ridiculous and a complete mess," said Kuo, repeatedly striking his office desk in anger.

Kuo made the remarks after the Singapore-based Flextronics, the world's largest electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company, met local component suppliers at a meeting organized by TAITRA on Wednesday.

Hon Hai, the world's No. 3 maker of electronics for other companies, is challenging Flextronics' top position among electronics manufacturers by boosting its revenues this year to around NT$460 billion, analysts estimated.

Flextronics plans to increase procurement from local component suppliers to meet its growing demand for components from its expansion.

"We see Taiwan as a very good place to source many components in terms of quality and pricing," Flextronics' senior manager of consumer electronics Tom Atkinson said at that meeting.

The company plans to outsource a wide range of products from Taiwanese suppliers, concentrating on parts for mobile phones, digital cameras and other items, Clint Liang (梁忠楨), commodity manager of global procurement for Flextronics' Asia division, said on Wednesday.

Kuo complained that TAITRA spent taxpayers' money to help Flextronics arrange meetings with potential suppliers, and threatened that he may withdraw investment from the country.

"Not only was the invitation completely not beneficial to Taiwan, but it also allowed Flextronics to collect business information here," Kuo said.

"Is the government really forcing Hon Hai to leave Taiwan?" he asked.

Hon Hai held a ground-breaking ceremony for a flat-panel display plant on May 21 last year.

The company said at that time that it planned to invest NT$10 billion (US$301.2 million) in the facility.

In response to Kuo's protest, TAITRA president Chao Yung-chuan (趙永全) told local media that one of the council's missions was to attract foreign investors to place orders with Taiwanese suppliers.

Chao said the council and Hon Hai have closely cooperated with each other for a very long time, adding that the council has also worked with Japan's Sharp Corp, Ricoh Co and Canon Inc, as well as other businesses, as they tried to purchase various handset and digital camera components from Hon Hai last year.

But his words failed to comfort Kuo, who said that the government does not truly understand businesses' and taxpayers' needs at all.

"What TAITRA really should do is to assist local enterprises to take the international market, instead of helping their opponents," Kuo said.

"In fact, if TAITRA only helps foreigners, it should have been abolished long ago," he added.
This story has been viewed 2879 times.