Taiwan suggests suffering IT vendors try China, Africa and India
Cebit o9 Taiwan's IT cheerleader-in-chief claimed today the country's IT sector should come through the current financial crisis unscathed, if it can wean itself away from the cash-strapped consumers of the US and Europe.
Peter Huang, executive vice president of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, admitted the country's status as the IT workshop of the world hasn't protected it from the economic downturn. The country had been expecting ten per cent growth in the sector last year. In the event, it was 3.6 per cent, and that positive figure masked a 24.7 per cent plunge in the fourth quarter.
That's the kind of (negative) growth rates you'd expect from a car manufacturer or major bank, not the world's leading IT exporter. Representatives of companies including Asus, Genius and Aiptek, there as part of a beauty parade of Taiwanese IT vendors hosted by Huang, all used the phrase “tsunami” to describe the current economic crash.
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