Taiwanese CEOs upbeat on global growth: survey

Meanwhile, respondents who expect an economic downturn dropped from last year’s 36 per cent to 15 per cent.
According to PwC, the rise in optimism could help boost investors’ confidence in the market, employment, innovation and opportunities for global market expansion. It would also help Taiwanese companies escape the negative circle of cost-reduction, added analysts.
Auditing and consulting firm PwC’s latest annual CEO report was conducted from last November to January, through 1,500 surveys distributed to publicly listed companies across the island and in-depth interviews with 10 corporate leaders.
Though optimistic, Taiwanese CEOs were not blind to potential pitfalls and threats.
Uncertain economic growth (74 per cent), increasing tax burden (71 per cent) and unstable currencies (70 per cent) were ranked as the top three threats perceived by CEOs in Taiwan.
“Taiwanese companies are primarily export-oriented, in which case currencies can largely impact revenues. Companies should focus on building greater strength in risk management for volatile currency, on top of making focused efforts to enter supply chains of major corporate giants,” PwC analysts urged.
Lotus Pharmaceutical Company Chairman Andrew Lin said that a stronger New Taiwanese Dollar may hurt the profitability of Taiwanese export businesses.
“Most Taiwanese businesses pay a lot of attention to currency fluctuations, but even closely monitoring currency cannot rule out the possibility of loss on currency change. The key is to counter risk by using the right methods and discipline,” Lin said.
Globally, the top concerns for CEOs were uncertain economic growth (82 per cent), over-regulation (80 per cent) and the availability of key skills (77 per cent).