A majority of Taiwanese CEOs voiced confidence about the economy, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, surpassing than peers in the region and around the world, thanks to enhanced operating models and the nation’s quick control of its COVID-19 outbreak, a survey released yesterday by KPMG Taiwan showed.
The pandemic is taking a toll on the sentiment of CEOs around the world, including Taiwan, but the effects are less severe among local chief executives, said the survey, which polled 50 local chief executive officers.
Taiwan’s efficient control of novel coronavirus infections lends support to the relatively rosy sentiment, while efforts to upgrade business models among local companies also paid off, the accounting firm said.
Thirty-eight percent of Taiwanese CEOs believe their companies can achieve revenue growth this year, while another 22 percent are looking at flat showings, it said.
The public health crisis drove 78 percent of the CEOs to rank global supply chain realignment as the most pressing matter, the survey found, after earlier lockdowns in China disrupted supply of materials used in electronic devices and hindered labor flows.
As most countries maintain border controls and quarantines to contain the virus, many companies consider manufacturing products locally, KPMG Taiwan said, adding that talent disruptions are also high on the list of concerns.
Forty percent of Taiwanese CEOs think it is important to speed up digital transformation for their companies and 50 percent are willing to spend money in upcoming technologies to reach that goal, the survey showed.
In addition, companies would assign more importance to climate change, public health and environmental sustainability in planning their operations, it said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure