Invest in TaiwanDepartment of Investment Services, MOEA
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Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is a Japanese electronics company which has established itself as one of the world's leading transnational corporations. It was founded in Osaka, Japan in 1918. Founder Konosuke Matsushita is easily the most famous entrepreneur in all Japan. The company began by making light bulb sockets; in 1927 it launched bicycle lights, which bore the trademark "National". In the 1930's Matsushita began production of radios and dry cells. In the 1950's it began a period of technological cooperation with Philips of the Netherlands, established an R&D Center, and began developing overseas markets. In 1959 Matsushita set up a branch office in the United States, and started using the trademark "Panasonic" on its color television sets. It also built its first overseas manufacturing plant in Thailand. Today, Matsushita's overseas business operations can be found on all 4 major continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, with 231 branch offices around the world. Regional operational headquarters have been set up in Beijing, Singapore, New Jersey, London, and various other locations. The Matsushita of the 21st century will adopt "digital media system", "mobile communications", "semiconductor components", "memory chips", and "video display units" as its core development areas, and will also focus on high-value-added services for electrical components and peripherals to form an all-inclusive enterprise-wide strategy.
People in Taiwan understand China better than the rest of the world does; they also understand the rest of the world better than Chinese people do. Taiwan is a bridge between China and the rest of the World.
Matsushita has invested in 5 enterprises in Taiwan. They are Matsushita Electric (Taiwan), Taimatsu Industrial, Panasonic Industrial Sales (Taiwan), Panasonic Taiwan Laboratories, and Panasonic Computer (Taiwan). The Matsushita Group's 2002 business volume in Taiwan totaled NT$66.7 billion.Matsushita Electric (Taiwan) Co., Ltd. was established in October 1962. Capital assets are valued at NT$3.42 billion, and the company has 2,517 employees. 2002 business volume was NT$22.8 billion, with expenditure on R&D accounting for 3% of this.
Panasonic Industrial Sales (Taiwan) was formed in October 1997, and currently has 218 employees. Business volume in 2002 was NT$ 30 billion, and the company ranks 20th among the 500 largest businesses in Taiwan's service sector. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Matsushita Japan, and is responsible for the marketing of factory automation equipment.
Taimastu Industrial Co., Ltd. makes the Lithium batteries used in notebook computers and mobile phones. It has a monthly production capacity of 120,000 to 150,000 sets.
Matsushita Taiwan's main mission in the 1960's and 70's was to supply the Taiwanese market, and to take advantage of the cheap local labor to make export products. After the mid-80's, as the labor cost advantage gradually disappeared, the company began working to transform itself.
The increase in the level and quality of education of Taiwan's labor force ensured that there was a wealth of high-tech talent to move R&D projects forward. Matsushita Taiwan also began to redouble its efforts in cooperative relationships with Taiwan's academic and research institutions, with the aim of developing unique technologies. In addition, Matsushita leveraged mainland China's low production costs to reduce the price of its products. A division of labor was implemented whereby the factories in Taiwan were transformed to take on responsibility for trial production in support of China's volume production. To protect market share in the Taiwanese market and to maintain product quality, some high-end product items are manufactured in Taiwan, or imported from Japan. Medium-priced products are made primarily in Taiwan, with China supplementing the production volume.
In addition, Taiwan has a wealth of managerial talent, and can serve as a bridge between China, Japan, and the rest of the world. Through the implementation of an international division of labor and global business deployment, Taiwan can enhance the support which it provides for Matsushita in the Greater China market.
The government of Taiwan has made R&D and innovation a key element in its national development plan. Specific objectives include attracting multinational businesses to set up regional R&D centers in Taiwan. This plan has been officially underway since 2002, and has seen the establishment of 6 R&D centers by 5 multi-national businesses within a very short period of time. Negotiations are currently underway which should lead to the establishment of several more R&D centers.
Taiwan's strengths with respect to attracting international R&D investment capital include:
The support infrastructure in the up-, mid-, and down-stream segments of the supply chain is very comprehensive in Taiwan. Many of the island's industries hold a leading position in the global rankings. For example, Taiwan is the 4th largest semiconductor manufacturer, behind the United States, Japan, and South Korea, and the 4th largest manufacturer of information technology hardware, behind the United States, Japan, and China. It is second only to South Korea in LCD manufacturing. In addition, Taiwan has many other products that rank number 1 worldwide, such as notebook computers, IC foundry operation, WLAN, etc.
In Taiwan, the percentage of high school students going on to further education is very high; in addition, the island has large numbers of overseas returnees with advanced degrees. There is a large pool of scientific and engineering talent, which has led to the emergence of a large number of hi-tech companies with first-rate engineering project management capabilities. This experience has been successfully duplicated at overseas locations around the world, while at the same time Taiwanese companies have developed sound collaborative relationships with many multi-national businesses.
In addition to the talent supplied by its academic community, Taiwan has also established numerous technology research institutions. In order to promote industrial development, the government has instituted policies designed to set up an industry-wide innovation system. The establishment of an interactive system helps speed up the flow of knowledge between the government and the academic community, and has become the prime driving force behind the growth achieved by Taiwanese industry.
In recent years Taiwan has instituted such laws as the Fundamental Science and Technology Law and Statute for Upgrading Industries for use as basic guidelines in promoting the development of industrial science and technology. In addition, the enactment of the Copyright Law, Patent Law, Trademark Law, Commercial Secrets Law, Plant Variety and Seed Law, and Integrated Circuit Layout Protection Law has given the island some of the best technology legislation and intellectual property rights protection in the world. This gives Taiwan a clear advantage over the new and emerging industrial countries that still lack healthy legal environments of this sort.
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