Taiwan’s technology firms were the top performers in ASEAN markets in terms of sales as of the end of 2016, a report by China Credit Information Service Ltd (CCIS, 中華徵信所) published on Thursday last week showed.
Asus Global Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), topped the list of 500 Taiwanese firms operating in the region, with sales of NT$368.73 billion (US$12.35 billion), the report said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) ECMMS Precision Singapore Pte Ltd, ranked second-highest, with sales of NT$331.26 billion, followed by Delta Electronics Inc’s (台達電) Delta Electronics International (Singapore) Pte Ltd, with sales of NT$225.14 billion, it said.
The CCIS report, the first of its kind, showed that total revenues from the top 500 Taiwanese firms in the region rose 20.89 percent annually to NT$2.58 trillion at the end of 2016, with net income rising 10.22 percent to NT$90.21 billion.
The report found that among the top 500 firms, 324 were manufacturers, with the remainder belonging to the service industry, including 16 financial companies.
A total of only 74 manufacturing companies fell under the technology sector, while 250 belonged to the traditional textiles, rubber, metals and petrochemical industries.
The results suggest that Taiwanese businesses could use technology more to expand soft power penetration in the region, as most are still operating under the export-oriented, contract-based manufacturing model, CCIS said.
Taiwanese companies should heed the differences in culture, spending habits and market conditions in each ASEAN nation, CCIS president Alice Kuo (郭曉薇) said, adding that success cannot be easily replicated across the region.
For instance, while President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) saw smooth sailing in its expansion into the Philippines, the company did not fare as well in Vietnam, Kuo said.
Acer Inc (宏碁), which despite having a distribution network across seven ASEAN markets, also reported significantly lower regional sales compared with Asustek, which is focused on tapping into the Indonesian market, she said.
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