Abstract

Taiwan is also known as the Silicon Valley of the East. The country has made tremendous progress in the past four decades. Taiwan, imports nearly all of its energy, most raw materials and various manufactured goods and agricultural items. Despite these disadvantages, the country has emerged as an economic powerhouse. Taiwan’s educated work force, advanced infrastructure and a highly business friendly environment makes it an excellent place to invest. The Taiwanese model of development has become a case study for many developing countries. Taiwan attracted special attention during the Asian currency crisis of 1997-1999, when countries like South Korea with large diversified conglomerates were affected. Taiwan not only handled the crisis successfully but its economy also showed robust growth. In the past 10 years, privatization and liberalization have gathered momentum. The Taiwanese authorities have been reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers as part of the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Restrictions on financial institutions are gradually being lifted. The Taiwanese industry is being driven by small and medium enterprises. Taiwan is a global leader in hand-held scanners, desktop scanners, mouses, motherboards, monitors, modems and notebooks. While most Taiwanese companies concentrate on contract manufacturing, a few like Giant in the bicycle business, Acer in PCs and BenQ in mobile phones have taken brand building seriously.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

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Keywords

Taiwan, Taiwan's History, Taiwan's Economy, Taiwan's Industry, Taiwan's Foreign Trade, WTO and Taiwan's Relations with China