NEC to Order US$3B Outsourced Items from Taiwan This Year

Taipei, March 28, 2008 (CENS)-After procuring an estimated US$3 billion worth of products from Taiwanese contract suppliers in fiscal 2007 ending this month, NEC of Japan will again spend as much on subcontracted items from Taiwan this year, a top executive at NEC Taiwan said recently.

NEC Taiwan General Manager Makoto Kubota said NEC's procurement emphasis in Taiwan will shift to WiMAX components, broadband equipment and networking gadgets for notebook computers to keep up with shifting global trend.

NEC has been the No.2 Japanese contract buyer of Taiwan-made products in terms of procurement volume, next only to Sony. Recently, NEC opened a WiMAX research and development facility in Taiwan as backup center of its global WiMAX operation.

Kubota pointed out that his company opened the center in Taiwan in light of Taiwan's leading position in WiMAX industry. The center will develop products including systems, end-side equipment and base stations.

NEC Taiwan has introduced products including personal computers, servers, gateway servers for digital-home equipment in cooperation with some 10 Taiwanese manufacturers including Quanta Computer, Micro Star International and Mitac International.

Kubota estimated his company's sales to increase around 30% throughout this year partly thanks to its winning an NT$1 billion (US$33 million at US$1:NT$30) contract from the Bureau of Labor Insurance of the Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs and Criminal Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Interior. The company's sales were NT$5 billion (US$166 million).

He added that his company's operation in Taiwan will place equal emphasis on sales of information-technology hardware and system integration beginning next month, as well as target as key revenue sources government organizations, finance, logistics, communications and manufacturing sectors this year.

Kubota said his company plans to introduce NEC's system integration technology for hotels to Taiwan, with such system-integration technology already installed in over half of Japanese hotels. He noted that Taiwan's 7-11 chain has set up a system-integration system based on NEC's framework.