Google announced it will expand its office space in Taiwan with a new complex in Banqiao District, New Taipei City. The space will be in Taipei Far Eastern Telecom Park, about a 20-minute drive away from its offices in Taipei 101. The current number in Taiwan has been up to 2000. Taiwan has been its biggest Asian engineering hub.
The complex will also play an important role in Google’s Intelligent Taiwan project, which it announced in May 2018. Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers.
Taiwan is underestimated in the innovation power. For decades, the economy in Taiwan was at the forefront of innovation, buoyed by companies who invested heavily in laptop and smartphone production and design. Although Taiwan is now grappling with an uncertain economic future, it is still a grant innovation hub that should not be ignored.
Mass media and information firm Thomson Reuters Corp. listed the world’s 100 leading technology companies in 2018. Taiwan has 13 companies named among it, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) ranked seventh, making it the only Asian company among the top 10.
According to the list, 45 percent of the top 100 tech companies are headquartered in the United States. Japan and Taiwan are tied for second place with 13 companies each, followed by India with five of its tech leaders on the list.
Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy that is driven largely by industrial manufacturing, and especially exports of electronics, machinery, and petrochemicals.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Taiwan was worth 579.30 billion US dollars in 2017. The GDP value of Taiwan represents 0.93 percent of the world economy. GDP in Taiwan averaged 289.62 USD Billion from 1980 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 579.30 USD Billion in 2017 and a record low of 42.30 USD Billion in 1980.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Taiwan expanded 0.37 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 over the previous quarter. GDP Growth Rate in Taiwan averaged 1.26 percent from 1981 until 2018.
Taiwan ranked 5th in the world for human capital development. The study surveyed 196 countries over a 26 year period (1990 -2016) and ranked them according to the following criteria, “Expected years lived, Functional health status, Educational attainment, and Learning.”
Source: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) at the University of Washington, IKMResearch,2016
What’s more, there are more than 160 universities in Taiwan.16 universities in Taiwan are ranked in the QS World University Rankings 2018, and as many as 35 universities are featured in the QS Asia University Rankings 2018.
However, Taiwan is also facing the brain drain in the competition with other Asia economies. The Straits Times reported in 2017 that 20,000 to 30,000 Taiwanese leave the country each year. Some reports put the number of Taiwan workers in China mainland at 400,000.
Taiwan has announced an ambitious plan for the country to become an Asian Silicon Valley, with funding allocation of up to $11.3 billion New Taiwan dollars ($350 million USD) for targeted investments in new internet infrastructure and aggressive talent recruitment.
