Taiwan's Hon Hai to hire 5,000 engineers in two years

Taiwan’s tech giant Hon Hai plans to boost its research and development capabilities at its headquarters, with founder Terry Gou saying up to 5,000 engineers will be hired in two years, local media reported Sunday.

Gou on Saturday unveiled his vision outside Taipei city while stumping for a politician campaigning for a local election next month, the Commercial Times and Economic Daily News reported.

“We hope to recruit the best talents from the world to Tucheng,” he said.

“We plan to increase the number of engineers by 5,000 in two years and by 10,000 in five years.”

Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn in China, is the world’s largest computer components manufacturer and assembles products for Apple — including the iPhone — as well as Sony and Nokia.

It has 1.4 million employees in 14 countries. In China alone it employs about one million workers, roughly half of them based at its main facility in the southern city of Shenzhen.

Hon Hai’s net profit in the three months to June totalled Tw$20.19 billion ($672 million), up almost 19 percent from a year ago.

But with Apple diversifying its supply chains, Hon Hai has been branching out into other businesses, including providing 4G telecom services in Taiwan and investing in a South Korean information technology services provider.