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    In the early 1970s, electronics was targeted by the government and people of Taiwan as a strategic technology and was heavily promoted through various policies. Since then, Taiwan's electronics industry has achieved outstanding success. At present, the electronics industry, especially the semiconductor and the information products sectors, is characterized by rapid growth and continued high potential.

    This book investigates the past performance, current status, and future development of Taiwan's electronics industry. The information is based on the authors first-hand assessment of over 100 electronics companies in Taiwan, academic studies of Taiwan's electronics, computers, and semiconductor industries, and Chinese language sources including information obtained from Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, Institute of Industrial Technology Research, and Institute for the Information Industry.

    This book is for readers interested in the historical development, current status, and future growth of Taiwan's electronics industry. Researchers and policy makers who need to know more about the role of central government in promoting "strategic" industries and in assisting national science and technology development in an Asian Newly Industrialized Country will find this book useful. This book also provides engineers with information about the current and potential capabilities of Taiwan's electronics technology. In addition, this book provides corporate business planners and managers in the electronics and other industries the information needed to comprehend the industry structure, general strategies, specific product market focus, and current performance of Taiwan's dynamic electronics industry. This information will be helpful for making decisions to form joint ventures and strategic alliances with Taiwanese manufacturers. Data about specific information products, communication products and electronics companies can be found in the Appendixes.

    This book consists of nine chapters and begins with a brief overview of Taiwan's geography, demographics and languages, government structure, educational policy, and labor force. (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 discusses Taiwan’s present economic condition, public finance and industry status, the national goal of becoming the Asia-Pacific Regional Operations Center, as well as the general history of economic development and philosophy of economic policy. Government policies to promote the development of science and technology are addressed in Chapter 3, which includes an examination of the dynamic interrelationships among Taiwan's central government, research institutes, universities, and private industries, as well as the role of the science park in national technology development. The recent progress in building the National Information Infrastructure is also discussed in this chapter.

    The subsequent chapters - the main body of the book - focus on the Taiwanese electronics industry. Chapter 4 presents the historical development of Taiwan's electronics industry, addressing issues such as government policy in assisting the formation and growth of the computer and semiconductor industries. In addition, the growing trends of Taiwanese firms in forming industrial groups and strategic technical alliances with foreign multinational corporations are examined. Chapter 5 surveys the current technical status and global market share of Taiwan's computers, communications, and consumer electronics segments of the electronics industry. Chapter 6 describes Taiwan's domestic technological infrastructure and the product status as well as market potential of the electronic parts and components industrial segment. Semiconductor products including microprocessors, chipsets, computer memory, application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), discrete components, opto-electronics, and multiple chip modules (MCM). Current development of flat panel display technology is discussed in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 analyzes the current structure, strategy, and performance of Taiwan's electronics industry. A group of top 250 Taiwanese electronics companies was studied to evaluate the industry financial performance in 1995. This book concludes with an assessment of the current development and future directions of Taiwan's electronics industry (Chapter 9).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    This effort was supported in part through the MANTECH program grant No. 60NANB500060 administered out of NIST.

    Many people have supplied us with technical information and other resource materials, and we are extremely grateful to them. These people include Dr. Linjun Wu of Taiwan's Institute of International Relations, Dr. Gang Shyy of the National Central University, Dr. Cher-Min Fong of the National Sun Yat-Sen University, George Lin of the CompuTech Services, Inc., James E. Beverly of MIS International, Fei-Fei Huang of the China Productivity Center, and Fang Ju Wu of the Industrial Technology and Research Institute who arranged use the library resources at ITRI.

    We would also like to express our appreciation to Joanyuan Lee who provided research assistance and helped in the preparation of the manuscript, and Bill Huang for making some of the tables and figures.

    Chung-Shing Lee is especially indebted to the George Washington University faculty members Dr. Lee Burke, Dr. Nicholas S. Vonortas, and academic mentor and friend, Dr. Lan Xue, for their teaching and advising. In addition, employer Dr. Edward J. Heiden, senior Vice President Dr. John Pisarkiewicz, Jr., and colleague Stephen C. McGonegal provided time to enable work on this book to proceed without interruption. Finally, Chung-Shing Lee dedicates this book to his parents, Wen-Chen Lee and Yun-Chu Lee, whose sacrifices and support made this book possible.

Preface

Chapter 1 General Information
               1.1 Geography
               1.2 Demorgaphics and Language
               1.3 Government Structure
               1.4 Educational Policy
               1.5 Labor Force

Chapter 2 Economic Development
               2.1 Historical Overview of Economic Development
               2.2 Philosophy of Econoimc Policy
               2.3 Current Economic Conditions
               2.4 Public Spending and Financial System
               2.5 Asian-Pacific Regional Operations

Chapter 3 Science and Technology Development
               3.1 Science and Technology Policy
               3.2 R&D Expenditures
               3.3 Fiscal Policy to promote S&T Development
               3.4 Government-Sponsored Research Institutions and Universities
               3.5 The Impact of Globalization
               3.6 The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in Technology Development
               3.7 Science Park and Technology Development
               3.8 National Information Infrastructure

Chapter 4 The Development of the Electronics Industry
               4.1 The Growth of the information Electronics Industry
               4.2 The Development of the Semiconductor Industry
               4.3 Summary of the Development of Taiwan's Semiconductor Industry
               4.4 The Formation of Strategic Alliances and Industrial Groups

Chapter 5 Current Status of the Electronics Industry
               5.1 Information Electronics
               5.2 Communications
               5.3 Consumer Electronics

Chapter 6 Semiconductor Market Focus
               6.1 Overview
               6.2 Infrastructure
               6.3 Microprocessor
               6.4 PC Chipsets
               6.5 DRAM/SRAM
               6.6 Non-Volatile Memory
               6.7 ASIC
               6.8 Discrete Components
               6.9 Multi-Chip Modules

Chapter 7 Flat Panel Display
               7.1 Industry Overview
               7.2 LCD Technology Development in Taiwan
               7.3 Major Domestic Manufacturers
               7.4 Product Market Outlook

Chapter 8 Industrial Structure and Performance
               8.1 Industry Structure
               8.2 Industry Financial Performance
               8.3 Industry Classification and Competitive Strategies

Chapter 9 Current and Future Directions
               9.1 Taiwan's Information Electronics Industry
               9.2 Prospects for the Taiwan's
               9.3 Taiwan's Electronics Conponents Industry
               9.4 Training and Education
               9.5 R&D Support
               9.6 Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park
               9.7 Reversed Brain Drain
               9.8 Final Assessment

List of Acronyms

References

Index