Taiwan's leading IT, electronics makers cut local workforce

Taipei, July 22, 2005 (CENS)--Leading makers of information technology and electronics products in Taiwan employee, are actively cutting their domestic workforce in line with their increased operations in mainland China.

Until the end of April, industry sources said, the employee numbers of Quanta Computer Inc., Compal Electronics Inc., and BenQ Corp. decreased by over 30%. Asustek Computer Inc., the world's largest motherboard supplier, also saw a sharp decline in workforce in Taiwan due to the relocation of its production to a plant campus in Shanghai.

Asustek plans to close its plant in northern Taiwan's Taoyuan, and most of the original employees will be dispatched to Shanghai.

Informed sources said that some one third of Asustek's employees, or about 3,000, will stay at the firm's headquarters in Taiwan. Currently, Asustek's total employment on the island is around 10,000.

Asustek, in fact, is the latest among the top-five IT and electronics makers in Taiwan to launch big-scale exodus of production to mainland China. But the increasingly fierce competition in the global notebook PC and computer-system market forced Asustek to expand operations in the mainland.

Of the top-five makers, the only exception is Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd., the world's largest maker of barebone PCs, connectors and game consoles. The number of the firm's employees increased due to its Ambit Microsystems Corp., a maker of thin-film electronic devices.

The number of employees at Quanta was 5,317 in 2003, but has decreased to less than 3,000; that of Compal was 5,400 in 2003 and dropped to 3,000 at the end of April this year. BenQ's employee number also declined to 3,700 from 3,500 during the same period.

Most of the said top-five IT and electronic makers stressed that the decreasing domestic workforce doesn't mean their declining willingness to invest in Taiwan. Quanta, for example, will continue recruiting R&D talents in Taiwan and the company's new R&D center in northern Taiwan's Linko will be set up late this year.