Local companies and the government should look beyond China when considering corporate investments, a local trade organization said yesterday during the release of its competitiveness study on ASEAN and Indian economies.
The 254-page report by Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Associations (電電公會, TEEMA) is the product of its 2,012 surveys of local companies in 11 countries.
The data compiled compared the nations in terms of competitiveness, overall investment environment, investment risk, corporate rating and across four major sectors — fishing/ farming, information technology communication, traditional industry and services.
“Overall, the combined results show Singapore and Brunei as the top two nations best positioned for general foreign investments, while the bottom two are Laos and Myanmar,” Leu Horng-der (呂鴻德), TEEMA’s director at the Center for Global Taiwanese Business Studies, told a media gathering.
Leu, who is also a business professor at Chung Yuan Christian University, said Singapore’s No. 1 ranking was not surprising because the city-state has a highly diversified economy and well-developed legal system.
Brunei came in second because of its highly centralized petroleum and refining industries, he said.
The TEEMA report comes at a time when most Taiwanese companies are eyeing China as their target for major investments. Government data show that more than 60 percent of outbound business investments went to China this year.
“Taiwanese companies have a herd mentality,” Chiang Shi-huang (蔣士煌), deputy director-general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade, told the conference.
Chiang said he hoped that with TEEMA’s report, Taiwanese companies would consider ASEAN countries and India when mapping their foreign investment strategy.
“Although China has a population of 1.3 billion and the internal demand is overwhelming, the combined population of ASEAN plus India is more than 1.7 billion. This is an opportunity that cannot be missed and is the premise behind the research in terms of both potential consumer demand as well as strategic business positioning,” TEEMA said in the report.
The report also showed that in terms of sector ranking, Indonesia’s Batam Island led in fishing and farming, Singapore in information technology communication, Malaysia’s Penang in traditional industry and Singapore in the service industry.
Leu said that when Taiwanese businesses look to investment overseas, they need to weigh the pros and cons of various cities’ public infrastructure, technical expertise, labor force, compensation, the regulatory environment and associated expenses amongst many other factors before setting up operations.
“This seems like a lot of work, we do not recommend putting all your eggs in one basket [China],” he said.
Restaurant chain Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) today announced it is to close 14 stores in northern China, completely exiting the market by the end of October. Beijing Hengtaifeng Catering Co (北京恆泰豐餐飲), which operates Din Tai Fung restaurants in northern China, said its 20-year operating license expires this year. As the board was unable to reach a consensus on continuing operations, its 14 restaurants in the region are to close by Oct. 31, it said. The company apologized for the inconvenience and disappointment the news would cause among its customers, and said it would provide compensation for its workers. “We continue to be optimistic about
EXPANDING: The European Commission has contributed 5 billion euros in state aid to TSMC’s 12-inch wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, which broke ground on Tuesday Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Saturday said that it has received a total of NT$62.5 billion (US$1.95 billion) in subsidies from China and Japan since 2022. In the first half of this year, TSMC received NT$7.96 billion in subsidies from China and Japan after receiving about NT$47.55 billion last year and obtaining NT$7.05 billion in 2022, financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed. The company, which makes about 90 percent of the world’s high-end semiconductors, said the subsidies were used to finance its investments in Kumamoto, Japan, and Nanjing, China. TSMC owns a 12-inch wafer fab in
STRATEGIC SHIFT: Diversifying away from the volatile flat-panel industry, AUO aims to boost sales contribution from non-panel business to half of total revenue by 2027 AUO Corp (友達) yesterday said it has agreed to sell its idled manufacturing facility and land in Tainan to Micron Technology Inc for NT$7.4 billion (US$231.8 million) as the company shifts strategy to reduce the impact from the boom-and-bust flat-panel display industry. The company expects to book NT$4.17 billion in disposal gains from the sale, it said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. The Tainan factory produced color filters used in monitors, notebook computers and flat-panel TVs before being shut down last year, as AUO sought to optimize its asset utilization. The company has been striving to diversify and broaden its business
Micron Technology Inc has reportedly set its sights on two facilities owned by flat-panel maker AUO Corp (友達) after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) recently clinched a deal to buy a facility and equipment from Innolux Corp (群創), another major flat-panel maker. Micron, the world’s third-largest memorychip maker, is expected to purchase two AUO plants in Tainan to expand its advanced chip packaging and testing services and high-bandwidth memory production, local media reports said. The two plants were shut down in August last year and AUO is seeking to dispose of the facilities, the reports said. They are expected to cost Micron