Hon Hai Reconsidering All Investment Projects in Taiwan

Taipei, July 22, 2010 (CENS)--In view of the stern criticism leveled by some local people following the outbreak of a litany of suicidal incidents at the Shenzhen plant of Hon Hai Group, Terry Guo, chairman of the group, is reconsidering all investment projects in Taiwan, revealed Huang Chiu-lien, chief financial officer of Hon Hai yesterday (July 21).

Huang noted that Guo, as well as other Hon Hai staffers, has been disappointed by the criticism of some scholars labeling the company "shame of Taiwan" and "sweatshop," suspecting that those persons are forcing him to leave Taiwan.

As a result, Hon Hai is reviewing all of its investment plans in Taiwan, mainly for the production of next-generation products, according to Huang.

Shih Yen-shiang, economics minister, remarked yesterday that it's extremely inappropriate to label Hon Hai a shame of Taiwan, in view of its tremendous contribution to Taiwan, adding that "those criticisms are a shame of Taiwan themselves."

Ting Chi-an, spokesperson of Hon Hai, pointed out that Terry Guo has been staying at the Shenzhen and other Chinese factories since May 27, in order to oversee the establishment of a comprehensive network to prevent the occurrence of suicidal incidents, which is a major engineering task covering both hardware and software, such as safety nets at various buildings, caring network for employees, and the stationing of psychiatrists.

Hon Hai has announced a number of major investment projects in Taiwan in recent years, most of which have been staying at planning or preparation stage, except the BOT (build-operate-transfer) project for Taipei Information Park. The progress, for instance, has been quite slow for the plan to build an R&D building and a cloud-computing center in Kaohsiung Software Park.