TAIPEI, Taiwan, February 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- Companies in Taiwan Have Large Stakes in Markets for PCs, LCDs, Semiconductors and Mobile Phones; Branded Businesses and Manufacturing Operations Are Becoming More Distinct

Taiwan's information and communications technology (ICT) companies play a key role in the global supply chain for electronics products. Taiwanese companies account for about three-quarters of the world's production of PCs and half of the world's liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). In addition, Taiwan makes about a quarter of the world's semiconductors and about a fifth of the world's mobile phones.

Taiwan has a population of 23 million and a land area of only 36,260 square kilometers, less than half of a percent of the 9.6 million square kilometers of land in China. Yet the well-educated, industrious people of Taiwan have helped to carve out a huge niche in the global ICT industry.

The close physical proximity of companies in Taiwan has led to the formation of industrial clusters that offer distinct advantages, making Taiwan an excellent one-stop shop for procurement, design support and rapid commercialization of product ideas.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a renowned British think tank, last year announced the results of a global study of IT industry competitiveness. Based on the study, Taiwan's IT industry rose to second place from sixth place in the previous year out of a total of 66 nations included in the study. The report noted that Taiwan's rise in the rankings owed mainly to its strong performance in RD, particularly regarding patented technology.

The Taiwan ICT industry has grown to a size that has resulted in substantial diversification, and many large companies have separated manufacturing units from branded operations in order to allow greater specialization in both of these areas.

One example of this is Acer Inc., which in the last five years has grown to become the world's third-largest PC maker by market share. The company no longer does manufacturing in house and spun off its production units into separate companies including Wistron Corporation. Wistron now does manufacturing for a wide range of companies including some of the best known brands in the notebook computer business. Many other companies in Taiwan are taking the same direction.

ASUSTek Computer Inc., owner of the ASUS brand, has become familiar to many around the world as the creator of the Eee PC, a small laptop computer with excellent internet connectivity that is affordable to a larger group of the world's people. ASUSTek last year spun off some of its manufacturing operations into a separate company called Pegatron Corp.

D-Link Corp., one of the world's largest network equipment companies, several years ago spun off its manufacturing arm as Alpha Networks Inc. and focused on building the D-Link brand.

To promote the Taiwan's industry, the government has made the development of branding the key task for raising the competitiveness of Taiwan's economy. There are two ultimate goals of the Branding Taiwan programme. The first is integrating resources to assist the establishment of brands and create a favourable environment for development. The second is to aid Taiwan enterprises in brand development and increase the value of Taiwan's international brands.

Taiwan companies are also among the world's leaders in products that save energy and reduce carbon emissions. These include companies making light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar cells, both of which were among the fastest growing segments in Taiwan's ICT industry last year.

Taiwan has the world's second largest LED industry with about a quarter of the world market. LEDs reduce energy consumption by emitting light from a chip rather than an incandescent filament in a light bulb or charged gases in a fluorescent light tube. LEDs use about a tenth of the energy of an incandescent bulb and can last a decade or longer. They also produce almost no heat, thereby reducing fire potential. LEDs are poised to take a larger portion of the multi-billion dollar market away from light bulbs and tubes as the new technology becomes more mature and manufacturing costs fall.

Taiwan's LED makers include Arima Optoelectronics Corp., Bright LED Electronics Corp., Epistar Corp., Everlight Electronic Co., Formosa Epitaxy, Genesis Photonics Inc., Harvatek, I-Chiun Precision, Ligitek, Opto Tech and Unity Opto Technology Co.

Likewise, solar cells, which generate electricity from sunlight, have become more important as nations around the world try to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions.

Taiwan's solar cell companies include Motech Industrial Inc., Gintech Energy Corp., E-Ton Solar Tech, Sino-American Silicon Products Inc. Sinonar Corp. and Green Energy Technology.

Please visit http://www.taiwantrade.com.tw or http://www.brandingtaiwan.org for more information.

Acer Inc. http://www.acer.com/worldwide/selection.html Wistron Corp. http://www.wistron.com.tw/ ASUSTek Computer Inc. http://www.asus.com Pegatron Corp. http://www.pegatroncorp.com/en/index.htm D-Link Corp. http://www.dlink.com/ Alpha Networks Inc. http://www.alphanetworks.com/ Opto Tech Corp. http://www.opto.com.tw/about_who.aspx Arima Optoelectronics Corp. http://www.aocepi.com.tw/html/ Bright LED Electronics Corp. http://www.brtled.com/ Epistar Corp. http://www.brtled.com/ Everlight Electronic Co. http://www.everlight.com/normal.php?id=90 Formosa Epitaxy http://www.forepi.com.tw/pages/about_company.htm Genesis Photonics Inc. http://www.g-photonics.com/ Harvatek http://www.harvatek.com/eng/index.php I-Chiun Precision http://www.i-chiun.com.tw/ Ligitek http://www.ligitek.com/ Unity Opto Technology Co. http://www.unityopto.com.tw/ Motech Industrial Inc. http://www.motechind.com/ Gintech Energy Corp. http://www.gintechenergy.com/ E-Ton Solar Tech http://www.e-tonsolar.com/ Sino-American Silicon Products Inc. http://www.saswafer.com/index/index_tw.aspx Sinonar Corp. http://www.sinonar.com.tw/ Green Energy Technology http://www.getinc.com.tw/

Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA)

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) was founded in 1970 to promote Taiwan's foreign trade and competitiveness in world markets. Over the past 39 years, TAITRA has played a key role in the development of the Taiwan economy. TAITRA is jointly sponsored by the government and commercial associations and is viewed by all as the business gateway to Taiwan for the international business community.

Contact: CeBIT TAITRA Michelle WU Tel: +49-151-5171-2942 Hall 20 / Stand C02 at Hannover Messe Taiwan GolinHarris Alan Patterson Tel: +886-2-2722-5369, ext 165 Email: zpatterson@golinharris.com

CeBIT TAITRA: Michelle WU, +49-151-5171-2942 ; Taiwan, GolinHarris: Alan Patterson, +886-2-2722-5369, ext 165, zpatterson@golinharris.com