Competitive Advantage of Green Technology. Taiwan Ranks 6th Place Globally, and 2nd Place in the Asian Region.

The Swiss Institute for Management Development (IMD) released rankings regarding global green technology competitiveness.  In terms of the green technology capability, Taiwan ranks sixth globally and second in Asia, only behind Japan.  Taiwan is very competitive globally in manufacturing solar cells and LED lights (among others).

This is the first survey conducted by the IMD regarding rankings of green technology competitiveness, a total of 58 nations are being rated in the survey with 10 points as the perfect score.  The survey rated Germany, Japan and Austria as the top three in this category.

Taiwan scored 6.7 (out of 10) and ranks sixth on global green technology competitiveness.  Taiwan beat out other Asian neighbors including Singapore (14), South Korea (15), Hong Kong (31) and China (42), second only to Japan.

The greatest advantage for Taiwan to develop green technology is its solid foundation of ICT industry and the full supplying chain of the industry.  The government is implementing the following programs, namely, the National Science Technology Program – Energy and the Dawning Green Energy Industry Program, these programs call for the spending of NT$30.3 billion and NT$20 billion respectively for expenditures on R&D.  These programs aim to develop key green technology, to nurture green energy industry, to promote private investment, and to lead Taiwan to be one of the leading green technology countries in the world.

Further, according to the data of the Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center (IEK), Taiwan’s production value of solar cells in 2009 was NT$73.4 billion, which accounted for 12.2% of the global production and took the 4th place globally.

The production value of the LED industry in Taiwan is NT$59 billion, which accounts about 25% of the global production value and ranks 2nd place globally, only behind Japan.  This is a clear indication that both the photovoltaic (PV) and LED industries in Taiwan are growing rapidly and are both in the leading positions of the global market.  (2010.07)
/DC