Commissioned by the World Bank, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) surveyed 189 economies to assess business environments, having released such results recently showing that the average tax rate of global enterprises had fallen to 44.3% in 2013 from 2004’s 53.4%, due to easing taxation by many nations.

Seemingly impervious to seasonal factors, Taiwan’s top two branded PC vendors, Asustek Computer Inc. and Acer Inc., both saw rosy performance in February. Driven by its hot-selling Transformer Book T100 laptop and increasingly strong sales in China, Asustek raked in NT$36.613 billion in consolid

At the Light + Building 2014 lighting trade show, slated for Mar. 30 through Apr. 4 at the Frankfurt Exhibition Center in Germany, a total of 71 Taiwanese manufacturers will show off their advantages in LED manufacturing and R&D. Among the prominent Taiwanese exhibitors will be the ADATA Technol

Dampened by slowdown in the local optoelectronic and electronic industries, Taichung Export Processing Zone (EPZ) saw its revenue generated by resident enterprises drop 16% year-on-year (YoY) to only NT$79.7 billion (US$2.88 billion) last year, according to the its administration. Of the 45 resi

Taiwan saw its foreign exchange reserves hit the third consecutive monthly record high of US$417.978 billion in February, making it the world’s fourth largest holder of forex reserves, next to China, Japan and Russia, according to the central bank. The bank attributes the rise in forex reserves

By STEVE CHUANG Taiwan exhibitors came home from Saudi PPPP 2014 (the 12th International Trade Exhibition for Printing & Packaging Technologies and the 12th International Plastics & Petrochemicals Trade Fair) with multiple orders in hand for their high performance and quality plastic processing ma

Kian Shen Corp., a Taiwanese original equipment (OE) vehicle-frame supplier with operations in Taiwan and China, recently said that it expects lucrative return on investment this year, as its Chinese venture Guangzhou NTN, an OE supplier of drive shafts, bearings, constant velocity (CV) joints etc.

The Hsinchu Science Park (HSP), the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP), and the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP), all overseen by the National Science Council (NSC), had combined revenue of NT$2.19 trillion (US$73 billion) in 2013, surging 9.2% from 2012 to hit new high, according to NSC. Th

Taiwan’s financial account witnessed a net outflow of US$41.16 billion in 2013, the highest on record and breaking US$40 billion for the first time, according to the statistics released by the central bank. In the same year Taiwan’s current account registered a surplus of US$57.38 billion, also

Taiwanese suppliers of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels are expected to benefit from Sony of Japan's decision to lower TV-panel outsourcing rate from Samsung of Korean to 35% this year, from 48.5% in 2013, according to industry sources. AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), a maj

Miyanach (Taiwan) Ind. Co., Ltd. is an ISO9001 and CE-certified manufacturer specializing in development and production of portable magnetic drills, and a wide range of tungsten carbide tipped hole saws and annular cutters. Since its inception in 1985 in Changhua County, central Taiwan, the comp

Asustek Computer Inc.’s branded operation saw revenue hit record high of NT$421.3 billion (US$14 billion) last year after spinning it off from its contract-manufacturing service in 2011. Its after-tax net income for 2013 was NT$21.4 billion (US$715 million), or NT$28.9 per diluted share, down 4%

Revenues for this January showed unevenness among Taiwan’s LED makers, with some gaining and others losing from the previous month. Companies that posted gains include Lextar Electronics Corp., Unity Opto Technology Co., Ltd., Genesis Photonics Inc., Edison Opto Corp., and Formosa Epitaxy I

Global shipments of large-sized (larger than 10-inch) thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels totaled 64.07 million units in January, down 13% month-on-month (MoM), with most makers' shipments having dropped except Samsung, BOE OT, and Sharp, according to WitsView. LCD TV pa

Last year Taiwan’s credit card spending hit a record high of NT$1.91 trillion (US$63.67 billion), with monthly spending averaging at NT$135 billion (US$4.5 billion) and annual per-card spending of NT$50,000 (US$1,667), according to statistics released by the Banking Bureau of the Financial Supervis

Taiwan’s 39 domestic banks raked in pretax profits of NT$257.6 billion (US$8.59 billion) in 2013 for the fourth consecutive yearly record high, according to the statistics released by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). Of the banks, 13 saw profits exceed NT$10 billion (US$333.33 million

Thanks to the highest year-on-year (YoY) growth since 2009 in December, passenger-car registrations in European Union (EU) finally contracted by 1.7% in 2013, compared to a 1.0% increase of commercial vehicles, according to ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers' Association) With a 13.3% incre

Thanks to increased shipments to group affiliates, Yulon Motor Co., a major auto assembler in Taiwan and the flagship firm of the group, recently announced lucrative operation results for January, including monthly revenue of NT$11.51 billion (US$383.5 million), up 16.8% month-on-month (MoM) and 33

With the global steel market gradually on the mend, Taiwan-based China Steel Corp. (CSC), the largest steelmaker on the island by size, scored pretax profits of NT$23.207 billion, or about NT$1.5 per share, for 2013 to meet market expectations, according to the firm’s latest financial statement.

After experiencing a disappointing year in 2013 in attracting private investment, the Taiwanese government targets drawing a new goal of NT$1.3 trillion in private domestic investment this year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). MOEA reported that last year Taiwan’s actual pr

Chairman of the Hon Hai Group, Terry Guo, has mapped out several ambitious goals for the group, including boosting the group’s annual consolidated revenue to NT$10 trillion (US$333.3 billion) in five years, breaking the group into 12 subgroups, and developing strong presence in Indonesia and German

Driven by its hot-selling T100 Transformer Book laptop, Asus shipped some five million notebook PCs in Q4, 2013, outstripping its Taiwanese counterpart, Acer, to be the world’s fourth-largest brand, according to the statistics released by WitsView Technology Corp., a Taiwan-headquartered market re

Thanks to increasing orders from major clients, Makalot Industrial Co., Ltd., Taiwan’s leading garment maker, raked in combined revenues of NT$17.91 billion (US$597 million) in 2013, up 12.9% from the year before, and saw profits jump 13.9% to a record NT$1.637 billion (US$54.57 million). Earnings

The year 2013 was challenging for most Taiwanese enterprises, which seemed to have been left behind by the simmering American and Japanese stock markets, with Taiwan’s economic growth having reached only around 2% to lag behind those of most of Asian countries; but it remained a busy year for China

The global notebook PC industry may have stabilized from a persistent downturn seen in the past quarters, as global shipments rebounded 4.1% in Q4, 2013 compared to a quarter ago, or a milder-than-expected drop of only 5.9%, according to the latest report by Digitimes Research, a Taiwan-based infor

While Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. saw its revenue increase to 29% of the total by Taiwan’s top-10 LED packagers in 2013 from 2012’s 24%, Epistar Corp. meanwhile racked up 53% of total revenue by the island’s top-10 LED chipmakers from around 46%, according to the nonprofit Photonics Industry &

To reach the goal of attracting nine million tourists this year, the Tourism Bureau has recently mapped out three approaches: negotiating with Chinese authorities to allow residents of more cities to come to the island as free independent travelers (FIT), raising the ceiling of Chinese FITs allowe

Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co. Ltd., often reported as the world's largest EMS (electronics manufacturing services) provider based in Taiwan, recently announced consolidated revenue of NT$3.95 trillion (US$131.67 billion) in 2013, a record high in company history and a 1.25% increase from the previous

ADATA Lighting, the LED lighting arm of memory-module maker ADATA Technology Co., Ltd., predicts its 2014 revenue to quadruple or quintuple from 2013 to above NT$1 billion (US$33.3 million) mostly thanks to sharp increase in orders from overseas and Taiwan. According to ADATA Technology Chairman

Hotai Motor Co. Ltd., Taiwanese agent of Toyota and Lexus and a long-time leading car dealer by market share on the island, recently announced consolidated revenue of NT$146.6 billion (US$4.89 billion) in 2013, up 6.17% from the previous year and a record high in company history, also targeting a n