Some 51.7 percent of the Japanese enterprises in Taiwan are satisfied with their current operations in the country, the results of survey released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Thursday showed.
The survey, commissioned by the ministry and conducted by the Taipei branch of Japan’s Nomura Research Institute, was aimed at learning more about how Japanese enterprises view the Taiwanese market and their means of coping with the country’s changing investment environment.
Japanese firms invest in Taiwan mainly because of the market, the respondents indicated, with about 65 percent of those in research and development saying that Taiwan was their target market for product development, and 68 percent of those in production indicating that they wanted to be close to the market.
About 32 percent of respondents said one of the advantages of operating in Taiwan is that they are well positioned to develop products for other Asian markets including China, and 25 percent of the respondents in the field of marketing and selling said Taiwan functions as a test market before they look at other countries, the poll showed.
In terms of coping with the shrinking Taiwanese market, 50 percent of the respondents said they chose to invest in high value-added products and services, while 47.3 percent said they will expand to other markets.
Some 19.1 percent of the respondents that sell their products in Taiwan think the market will expand in the future, while 45.5 percent think the situation will remain the same, the poll showed.
Among the respondents, 78.1 percent have operated in Taiwan for more than 10 years, and 48.1 percent for longer than 20 years.
The respondents were drawn from a wide range of business operations, with 68.9 percent in marketing and selling, 53.8 percent in purchasing, 51.8 in after-sale service and 32.7 percent in research and development.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San