Country Overview: Taiwan

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the target group’s thinking instead of changing the views. It is more used by competitive, profit-driven companies instead of non-profit organizations or government own companies. On the other hand, a two-way symmetrical communication focuses on mutual understanding instead of one-way persuasion. It emphasizes negotiation and the willingness to adapt and make compromises. Also, it is more used in non-profit organizations or government own companies.

Two-way symmetrical communication is used during crisis management or internal communication.

The chapter has pointed out the implementation of corporate communication where there are some method corporate communication officers is able to reflect on their workload and adjust their communication method towards their audience.

2.2. Country Overview: Taiwan

Taiwan, which is officially called The Republic of China is located in Asia. The main island of Taiwan is geographically located between the southeastern coast of Asia and the East Asian islands which are separately distributed among the western Pacific. To the north lie Japan and the Ryukyu Islands; to the south are the Philippine Islands; to the west faces Mainland China. The main island of Taiwan is long and narrow. It stretches from north to south. The main island’s total land area is around 36 thousand square kilometers.

Figure 4 Taiwan Geographical location (Taroko National Park Headquarters, 2020)

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Taiwan has a population of around 23 million people which includes different ethnicities.

A little over 95% of people in Taiwan are Han Chinese which consists of three main groups:

Hoklo, Hakka, and mainland Chinese while there are 2.3% of Austronesian Taiwanese aboriginals. With different ethnicities, the official language in Taiwan is Mandarin. Taiwan’s GDP in 2018 is 589.39 Billion US dollars, which is US$25,026 per capita.

Figure 5 Taiwan’s GDP from 2007~2017.

The 2018 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) composition by sector is 63% in industry, 35% in services, and 2% in agriculture. The study will show the evolution of Taiwan’s economy is the below chapter: Taiwan economic landscape.

Figure 6 Taiwan’s GDP composition by sector 2018 2%

63%

35%

TAIWAN GDP COMPOSITION BY SECTOR 2018

Agriculture Industry Services

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2.2.1. Taiwan Economic Landscape

Taiwan is the 7th largest economy in Asia. Taiwan’s economic development was accelerated when the Japanese colonized. Not only does tea grade which started under Qing dynasty governance continue to prosper, but also the local farming start planting rice and sugar cane. In the latter years of Japanese colonization, fertilizer and textile manufacturing acted as an outstanding role in improving the living standards of Taiwanese. However, the average local family is still living in poverty as a great deal of revenue was turned in to the settlers. After World War II, the Japanese surrendered to the Republic of China (ROC) which took ownership of Japanese capital, both public and private, which is the majority of the island’s capital and land ownerships.

The ROC government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, agriculture production and stable economy was the government’s main focus during the post-war period. The policy was designed to stabilize the citizens basic needs: agriculture is the soil of industry, so industry facilitates agriculture ( 以 農 業 培 養 工 業 ， 以 工 業 發 展 農 業 ). As the society was still recovering from World War II, Taiwan government also limited importing with high import tax to protect Taiwan’s local industry such as textile manufacturing, plastic industry, electronic engineering, food processing…… and help them prosper with limited foreign threats, which later on transform into the main exporting industries in the 1960s.

During the 1960’s, the developed countries such as the US were seeking lower labor cost possibilities, and Taiwan at the moment also has established its internal industry basis.

Taiwan government decided to lower down the import barrier and encourage enterprises to export products. Moreover, they lower down tax policy in order to attract foreign investment to Taiwan as well as established Export Process Zone (加工出口區) in Taichung and Kaohsiung.

In 1963, Taiwan has its first trade surplus for exporting consumer electronics, textile, plastic goods, mainly light industry, and reserves foreign exchange. During this era, Taiwan has transformed from an agricultural society to an industrial society.

The 1973 oil crisis occurred, which has stroked the petroleum pricing and rock the global economy. Due to the rising cost of raw material, the product cost has gone higher as well as Taiwan announced to leave United Nations has lower the willingness of foreign enterprises

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investing. The global economy was under recession while Taiwan president of the executive court, Mr. Chiang Ching-kuo announced Ten Major Construction Projects (十大建設), which focuses on heavy industry, chemical industry and construction within the country, such as railway electrification, airport, harbors, highways……etc. It also lowered down the dependency Taiwan’s economy to foreign investment.

As the outbreak of the second oil crisis in 1979, the Taiwan government redirect its focus on less oil-consuming and more value-added industries such as mechanic, electronic, engineering, and transportation. In 1980, the Taiwan government established Hsinchu Science Park to encourage capital intensive and high technology industries such as DRAM, IC ODM……etc. Taiwan was then known as one of the Four Asian Tigers (亞洲四小龍), which also refers to South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong.

Taiwan’s economy has risen during 1970~1990 which jointly raised the wages. Taiwan used to be the kingdom of manufacturing children’s toys and umbrella. However, the rise in wages has led the labor-intensive works flowed to China or South-east Asia. The main industry in Taiwan has transformed into information technology industries (IT industries). In 1993, information technology products such as invigilator, motherboard, and image scanner manufacturing from Taiwan owns more than 50% of the world market share and No. 1 in the

Ten Major Construction memorial postage stamp (國一歷史下第三次題庫_{, 2016)} Figure 7: Ten Major Construction memorial postage stamp (國一歷史下第三次題庫_{, 2016)}

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world. Taiwan became an important role in the value chain of the worlds high technology industry (Council for Economic Planning and Development, 2013).

With the 2001 dot-com bubble (internet bubble) and 911 attack, 2003 SARS-CoV and 2008 financial crisis, the growth of Taiwan’s economy (GDP) has slowed down to 3.4% per year. Taiwan was then suffering in unemployment.

Figure 8 Taiwan Unemployment Rate