August 2, 2000

Taipei - - Taiwan's annual output of opto-electronics products is expected to top 384.4 billion Taiwan dollars in 2000, a 64,58 percent increase over last year, as global production at the same time is anticipated to reach US$ 218 billion, industry experts said at the occasion of a related trade show which just ended in the Taipei World Trade Center.

Taiwan has already become the largest exporter of scanners, CD-ROMs. CD-ROM players, LCDs and LEDs, the non-profit Taiwan Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA) said. This institution, which fosters the nation's optoelectronics industry, said that optoelectronic components, such as displays, input-output devices, optical storage devices, optical fiber communications, lasers are the major product categories of the related industry in Taiwan, which invested 120.8 billion Taiwan dollars in 1999, nearly 2.8 times more that in 1988. Displays and storage devices comprised nearly 91 percent of these Outlays.

As the optoelectronics industry becomes more important to the overall economic developement of the country, moving the industry into the special science-based industrial parks of Taiwan will become a future trend, PIDA predicted. The converging trend of manufacturers in this industry can help form an interrelated system that provides them with better information and business opportunities, the association said.