Feb. 02, 2001

The NEC group of Japan expects its procurement from Taiwan will climb to NT$40 billion in 2001, up from the NT$ 30 billion in 2000, representing about 50% of NEC''s top ten global IPOs ( international procurement offices ).

Industry sources said that NEC would mainly purchase IT, communication and semiconductor products from Taiwan in 2001. Among them, notebook PC products will account for about 50%, making it the largest single procurement item this year.

Meanwhile, the procurement of Taiwan made WCDMA ( wideband code division multiple access ) mobile phones will become another major procurement item of NEC in the future.

Over the past few years, Taiwan has become an important overseas procurement center. NEC expects to place most of its orders with Taiwan's major IT manufacturers such as Arima, Tatung, Acer, Mitac and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Japan's competitiveness ranking sinks to new low

In related news, Japan's over-regulated economy plunged to 16th place last year down from place 3 in 1990 in potential competitiveness ranking of 31 OECD and Asian nations in a study by the Japan Center for Economic Research.

Japan's small number of highly educated graduates and the low level of technology infrastructure meant that Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are all better equipped than Japan to seize the information technology revolution, the study revealed. It placed the U.S.A. in the first place in the world, Singapore in the second, and Hong Kong in fifth. China ranked 27th, while the Philippines landed on the bottom with 31st .

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