The government's production-line diversification policy for the thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-display (TFT-LCD) industry is moving in the right direction amid cut-throat international competition and will make operations more profitable, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said yesterday.
Saying that Taiwan could not afford to go down the road of "dominating the world market but making no money," Ho said that diversifying product variety and marketing would not only help the industry survive global competition but also sharpen its competitiveness.
Ho made the remarks while addressing the 2005 Flat Panel Display Prototype Technology Awards sponsored by the Industrial Technology and Research Institute.
Companies receiving awards included Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), Toppoly Optronics Corp (統寶光電), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) and Ritdisplay Corp (錸寶) for outstanding business operations or technological development.
Products and technologies cited included organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCoS), wide-angle view and low color-shift technology, active-matrix full-color OLED displays and low temperature polysilicon technology.
Takeyasu Murayama, head consultant to the Japanese-invested Asahi Glass Fine Techno Taiwan, which was cited as a role model in cross-border joint ventures, said that Taiwan's development of LCD technology and production was amazing.
According to Murayama, the industry's consumption of LCD glass panels exceeded that of South Korea last year to become the world's largest in the field, and the trend is expected to grow further this year.
The following two or three years will be crucial to find out whether Taiwan will remain the world's No.1 LCD country in the face of aggressive competition from South Korea, Murayama added.
According to market researcher DisplaySearch, Taiwanese companies shipped more big LCDs in March and April than South Korean producers, making it the world's biggest LCD producer in terms of quantity. South Korea beat Taiwan in the value of total displays sold, because Korean producers made more high-end products, the researcher said.
The output of TFT-LCDs and related products totaled NT$715 billion (US$23.1 billion) last year and the figure is expected to exceed the NT$1.37 trillion mark next year, according to tallies compiled by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Ho estimated that the production of TFT-LCDs and related products will exceed NT$1 trillion this year with research and development as well as manufacturing operations in these companies continuing to flourish.
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last