Challenges for the Taiwan IT Industry in Transition

Dr. Chintay Shih

Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Stanford; Special Advisor and former President, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan

In recent years, the IT industry in Taiwan has been confronting the challenges of declining profit

margins and a shortage of engineers. One logical solution is to take advantage of the abundant supply

of engineers and lower labor cost in China. Beginning in the early 1990s, Taiwan?s IT industry started

to move offshore to mainland China, and has become the major Taiwanese investor in mainland China

today. However, rising unemployment and declining economic growth in Taiwan prompt many debates

over government policy for controlling outward investment to mainland China. The real challenge now

is how fast Taiwan?s IT industry will transform from OEM-oriented manufacturing to R&D, design, and

high value-added product manufacturing.

Dr. Shih will discuss the current status of the IT industry in Taiwan, how the Taiwan IT industry is coping with the challenges, and what the government is doing to help the industry transform into an innovation-based industry.

Dr. Chintay Shih is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford, as well as current Special Advisor

and former President of Taiwan?s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). He serves as Science

and Technology Advisor of Taiwan?s Executive Yuan, a member of the Science & Technology Advisory

Committee of President?s Office, chairman of the Asia Pacific Intellectual Property Association, and

managing director of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronics Manufacturer?s Association. Dr. Shih is a

member of the Board of Directors for TSMC and Vanguard Semiconductor. Honored as a fellow of the

IEEE in 1992, Dr. Shih also received the Engineering Medal of the Chinese Institute of Engineering in

1995 and the First Medal of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2003. Dr. Shih served as the president of

the Chinese Institute of Engineers between 1998 and 2000 and the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor

Industry Association from 1996 to 2000. He holds a B.S. from National Taiwan University, a M.S. from

Stanford (1985), and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Hosted by the Stanford Project on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at APARC.