Minister of economic affairs-designate J.W. Kuo (郭智輝), chairman of semiconductor raw material and equipment supplier Topco Group (崇越集團), has been dubbed a "slashie entrepreneur" in the business sector after developing multiple careers.
Kuo, 71, was tapped by premier-designate Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) to join the Cabinet on Tuesday to succeed incumbent Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) after president-elect William Lai (賴清德) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) takes office on May 20.
In addition to his involvement in the semiconductor business building Topco Scientific Co (崇越科技), a supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Kuo has also engaged in food freezer equipment imports and even raised perch.
Photo: CNA
While selling perch to restaurants, Kuo set up Anyong Biotechnology Inc (安永生物科技), adopting management expertise he used in the semiconductor industry to manage a fresh food supply chain.
Kuo was born into a civil servant family in Pingtung County in 1953. Before starting his own business, Kuo turned down an opportunity to work as a top assistant to the head of a chemical company, which paid more, preferring to take an offer from a trading company as a salesperson after completing his military service.
While working for the trading company, Kuo was in charge of importing goods from Japan and learned the Japanese language in his spare time, becoming fluent in just two years.
With his fluency in Japanese, Kuo served as an interpreter and driver for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) and accompanied Gou to Japan on business trips.
Kuo then took a stake in Topco trading company, the predecessor of Topco Group.
Kuo has said he is optimistic about the healthcare industry and hopes to build a strong alliance to compete, which echoes Lai's advocacy for a "healthy Taiwan."
After more than three decades in the business sector, Kuo is currently the director of the Taiwan Eastbound Alliance - Landing America, a supervisor at the Chinese Professional Management Association, and a director at the Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry.
In 2020, Kuo was named one of the top 100 best-performing CEOs in Taiwan by the Harvard Business Review.
Commenting on Kuo's appointment, Taipei Computer Association chairman Paul Peng (彭双浪) said the incoming minister has a better understanding of industrial development in Taiwan because he comes from the business sector.
Peng said he is upbeat about Kuo working as the economics minister.
National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises chairman Lee Yu-chia (李育家) said he hopes Kuo will assist local industry to speed up industrial transformation and embrace net zero emissions.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
RSS