Taiwan's CEOs are Optimistic About Economy, Cites Pandemic Efforts: KPMG in Taiwan

A majority of Taiwan's CEO expressed optimism regarding the economy, citing Taiwan's favorable pandemic response as the primary factor, revealed a survey conducted by KPMG in Taiwan.

The survey suggested that CEOs felt the business models had borne innovative results in the past few years. The 56% of CEO's optimism is much higher than the regional average of Asia Pacific CEOs (47%) and global CEOs at an average of 45%.

KPMG in Taiwan Chairman Winston Yu named two factors buoying the optimism in Taiwan: the first being the government's strong anti-pandemic efforts, and the second being innovative results from past business models were bearing fruit. Even if the pandemic outbreak disrupted global economies, these lucrative business models could stave off severe disruption to these companies' profits - 38% of surveyed CEOs believe their companies will profit more than last year. In comparison, 22% were confident they would not lose profits.

The survey also indicated five high-risk concerns shared among Taiwan's top business leaders: Jus soli risks, emerging or disruptive technologies, supply chain disruptions, talent drain, and operational risks. Many CEOs reported greater concerns towards disrupted production chains and talent drain in the post-pandemic survey.

Yu pointed out that enterprises must recalibrate its human resource demands. The outbreak's disruption of talent mobility and acquisition could have far-reaching consequences on par with brain-drain impacts. With China as the "world's factory" in the past 20 years, more leaders consider a diverse supply base rather than focusing all of its manufacturing in one region as the outbreak upended contemporary business models. To avoid future disrupted production chains, more and more enterprises are considering localized production to shorten delivery time.

With teleworking becoming more vital and popular in the post-pandemic era, 40% of surveyed CEOs in Taiwan acknowledge that the outbreak has hastened industries' digitalization. At least 50% of surveyed leaders are willing to invest in new technologies in the upcoming year.