Taiwanese businesses have performed well in terms of globalization, with 18 Taiwanese firms ranking among the world's top 100 non-financial transnational corporations from emerging economies for 2005, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) officials said yesterday.
Referring to the World Investment Report 2007 released in October by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD), the officials said that the foreign assets of these 18 corporations amounted to US$48.4 billion for 2005, up 55.3 percent from the year-earlier level.
The companies were Formosa Plastics (台塑), Hon Hai Precision Industries (鴻海精密), BenQ Corp (明基電通), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), Acer Inc, United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子), Chunghwa Picture Tubes (華映), Cheng Shin Rubber Industries Co (正新橡膠工業), CMC Magnetics Corp (中環集團), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光半導體), Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), Unimicron Technology (欣興電子), Wistron Corp (緯創資通), Mitac International Corp (神達電腦) and Elitegroup Computer System Co (精英電腦). These corporations had a total of 370,000 foreign employees in 2005, marking an increase of 41 percent over the previous year, the officials said.
While both growth rates -- in terms of foreign asset value and foreign employment -- were the highest among Asia's four little dragons, foreign sales of the 18 Taiwanese corporations jumped 28.7 percent for 2005, the second-highest growth rate among the four, the officials said.
Meanwhile, two Taiwanese companies were ranked among the world's top 100 transnational corporations by the number of host countries and the Geographical Spread Index for 2005, with Acer Inc ranking 81st and Hon Hai ranking 100th, the report said.
The CEPD officials also pointed out that six Taiwanese companies were included on Fortune magazine's list of the world's 500 largest companies this year, compared with three last year. The six companies were Hon Hai, CPC Corp, Taiwan (
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