Taiwanese companies in 2021 accelerated research and development (R&D) investment to an all-time high of NT$820.6 billion (US$25.7 billion), driven mostly by expenditure by semiconductor companies, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement yesterday.
The spending was up 14.2 percent from NT$718.8 billion a year earlier, the fastest pace on record, the ministry said.
In the 10-year period from 2012, local companies have expanded R&D spending expand at an annual compound growth rate of 7 percent, it said.
The spending was 3.8 percent of national GDP in 2021, up 0.2 percentage points from 2020 and the highest on record, it said.
That helped Taiwan defend its position as the third-largest R&D spender among the world’s major economies in 2021, surpassing 3.5 percent in the US, Japan’s 3.3 percent and Germany’s 3.1 percent, the ministry said, citing Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) statistics.
Israel was No. 1, with R&D investment being 5.7 percent of its GDP, the OECD data showed.
South Korea was second in 2021, with R&D spending totaling 4.6 percent of GDP, the data showed.
Like most heavy R&D spenders, 92 percent of spending in Taiwan was in the manufacturing sector, the ministry said.
In 2021, local manufacturers invested NT$639.26 billion on R&D, up 17 percent from the previous year, the statement said.
Manufacturers of computers, other electronics and optical products, including semiconductors, in 2021 contributed about 78 percent to the nation’s total R&D expenditure, it said.
Those firms increased spending by 19 percent annually to NT$540.39 billion in 2021, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest chipmaker, boosted R&D spending by about 20 percent to US$4.46 billion from US$3.72 billion in 2020, primarily to develop next-generation chips, the company’s annual reports showed.
Last year, the chipmaker increased spending on R&D efforts to US$5.47 billion, mostly to develop 3-nanometer technology, the company’s annual report released this year said.
The local machine and equipment manufacturing sector replaced the chemical sector to become the second-biggest R&D spender in 2021, the ministry said.
R&D spending by machine and equipment manufacturers made up 2.4 percent of the total, it said, adding that the result was due to uptake of smart manufacturing.
The service sector contributed 7.3 percent to total R&D spending in 2021, it added.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
RSS