Strengthening IT Services Through Partnership

Business leaders descend on "Silicon Island" to discuss future of IT services industry

(PRWEB) October 23, 2004 -- Taiwan has long been known as "Silicon Island" for its leading role in the computing and communication industries. Yet, the backbone of these industries remains the IT services industry, which provides the necessary resources for the island's ICT firms.

Gartner Inc. forecast the global IT services market would grow 4.8 percent in 2004, to USD 606 billion. In the same report, delivered in November 2003, Gartner anticipated steady growth through 2007.

In Taiwan, this industry has seen a compound annual growth rate of about 10 percent in recent years, higher than the global growth rate, which is projected at 2.8 percent from 2000 to 2006, according to a report by the Industrial Development and Investment Center (IDIC), a staff agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan.

The Market Intelligence Center, a research institute in Taiwan, forecast Taiwan's IT services market at USD 4.7 billion for 2004, with the largest growth of 12.7 percent occurring in Network Services.

Thus, it is no wonder that many of the industry leaders will join local Taiwanese firms at this year's Taiwan Business Alliance Forum to discuss the future of the industry.

At the 2004 Taiwan Business Alliance Forum, Dr. Jyh-Sheng Ke, President and CEO of the Institute for Information Industry in Taiwan, will head a panel discussion entitled "Differentiation and Innovation in the IT Services Industry."

The government has also stated its own strategic plans for the development of IT services, which will be to focus on "development of the IT services industry through effective integration and division of labor, and enhancement of the value-added of manufacturing industries and strengthening of the competitiveness of strategic service industries, so as to develop Taiwan into a major global supplier of IT services in specific fields."

This consensus to develop the IT services industry is unrivalled. The government of Taiwan, along with the largest names in IT -- both local and foreign -- are forming partnerships to drive industry growth.

Companies including Microsoft, which opened an RFID R&D lab to work with companies such as Lite-On and Quanta; Intel, which developed an R&D center for closer connections with motherboard manufacturers; and IBM, which created an R&D Center for Mobile e-Commerce to develop solutions with notebook manufacturers, have realized the importance of Taiwan in the IT service industry.

These partnerships provide the IT services needed by Taiwanese manufacturers. With this international framework, Taiwan has advanced to become the world's number one producer of motherboards, notebooks, and LCD monitors, while the number two manufacturer of IC products.

To learn more about the latest trends in the Taiwan IT services industry, please join the 2004 Taiwan Business Alliance Forum. The event will take place November 7-10, 2004, at the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) in Taipei, Taiwan. The major activities will include a press conference, business testimonies, keynote speeches, panel discussions on key industries (IT services, IC design, biotechnology), fact-finding & sightseeing tours, and individual investment meetings. The organizers will announce the full speaker roster and panel discussion participants in the following weeks.

For more information on investment in Taiwan, please consult the following website.

Invest in Taiwan
http://investintaiwan.nat.gov.tw

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