Taiwanese companies have steadily built up their intellectual property (IP) portfolios over the past decade — including through a steady rise in research and development (R&D), which hit a record last year, government figures showed on Monday.
R&D spending last year rose to NT$793.7 billion (US$27.59 billion), up from NT$439.7 billion in 2011, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) data showed.
Last year’s figure was up 2.6 percent from a year earlier after adjusting for inflation, the DGBAS said.
A trade dispute between the US and China has prompted many foreign buyers to shift orders away from Chinese companies to Taiwanese suppliers, leading local companies to invest more in fixed assets, including IP development, the agency said.
Last year, fixed-asset investments rose 14.7 percent from a year earlier to NT$5.65 trillion, the first time it has exceeded NT$5 trillion, the DGBAS said.
Fixed-asset investments included NT$1.16 trillion in areas related to IP, or 20.5 percent of the total, a rise of 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier, the agency said.
The increase in R&D spending indicates that many local companies have sensed the importance of improving their intellectual property and reducing their vulnerability to foreign counterparts if investment in the area is lacking, agency officials said.
One example was the US’ ability to impose bans on exports of key technologies to Beijing because US companies own high-end technology patents that give them an edge over Chinese competitors, officials said.
A Ministry of Science and Technology survey also showed incremental growth in R&D spending among Taiwanese companies.
Enterprises in Taiwan spent NT$593.4 billion on R&D in 2020, up 11 percent from a year earlier, the highest rate of growth since 2005, the survey found.
Of that spending, 92.1 percent was in the manufacturing sector, while the service sector accounted for only 7.6 percent, the survey found.
Suppliers of electronic components, and makers of computers and optoelectronics were the two largest R&D spenders, investing NT$324 billion and NT$129.4 billion respectively in 2020, the DGBAS said.
Other major areas of fixed-asset investment last year were NT$2.14 trillion, or 37.9 percent of the total, in construction and NT$2.08 trillion, or 36.8 percent of the total, in machinery and equipment, it said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS