Forty-two companies — including three Taiwanese firms — are still operating in Russia, despite the majority of international companies having left the country in protest over its invasion of Ukraine, US research showed yesterday.
On Feb. 28 — four days after the invasion began — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the senior associate dean for Leadership Studies at the Yale School of Management, and other Yale researchers published on a Web site a list of companies that had left Russia or were continuing to operate in the country.
The team divided the list into five categories: “withdrawal,” “suspension,” “scaling back,” “buying time” and “digging in” to describe their actions since the invasion.
                    Photo: Cho Yi-chun, Taipei Times
The Web site says that firms in the “suspension” category are “temporarily curtailing operations while keeping return options open,” while those “buying time” are “postponing future planned investment, development and marketing while continuing substantive business.”
Those “digging in” are “companies defying demands for exit/reduction of activities,” it says.
As of yesterday, the Yale School of Management Web site, where an Excel spreadsheet of the firms can be downloaded, showed 174 companies in the “withdrawal” category, or an “A” grade, 195 in “suspension” (B grade), 31 “scaling back” (C grade) and 56 “buying time” (D grade).
Forty-two were listed as “digging in,” or given an “F” grade, including Taiwanese tech firms Acer Inc (宏碁), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩, Asus) and Micro-Star International Co (微星科技, MSI).
Other international companies listed as remaining in the Russian market included French supermarket chain Carrefour, French sporting goods retailer Decathlon, British-Swedish pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca and Swiss financial services firm Credit Suisse.
New Taipei City-based Acer yesterday said that it would “comply with all laws and regulations related to international trade.”
MSI as of press time last night had not commented publicly on its inclusion on the list.
Asus on March 14 said that it has effectively stopped shipping to Russia and would donate NT$30 million (US$1.05 million) to a disaster relief fund for Ukraine after Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on Twitter that Asus should withdraw from the Russian market.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on