Savo Klimovski, president of Macedonia's assembly, said yesterday a planned joint investment project between the European country and Taiwan would strengthen economic and political links between the two.
But a leading Taiwanese diplomat cast doubt on the success of the economic cooperation, saying -- often in blunt words -- that Macedonia's banking system and government regulations were cumbersome and would discourage Taiwanese investment.
Earlier this month, Taiwan and Macedonia agreed to establish a US$110 million export processing zone on the outskirts of the capital Skopje. The project -- to be funded largely by an unspecified amount of Taiwanese capital -- will be "decisive in terms of the success of the economic and political links between the two countries," Klimovski said.
Klimovski, who was speaking at the first-ever economic forum between the two nations in Taipei yesterday, also said he hoped Taiwan would encourage private sector investment in his country, which he described as a "gateway to the European market."
But Taiwanese Ambassador-at-large Loh I-cheng (
Since accepting the Ministry of Economic Affair's (
The major obstacle, Loh said, "is the utter lack of understanding of how international trade is conducted."
He cited the example of one Taiwan businessman whose letter of credit was refused. Instead, the businessman was asked by his Macedonian partners to pay in cash.
And if Taiwan businessmen manage to get their money into the country, it costs a fortune to get it out, Loh said. Macedonian banks charge transfer fees of 1.3 percent of the total amount to be moved, meaning transfers of large sums of money would result in fees amounting in the tens of thousands of US dollars.
In addition to these disincentives, the relatively high cost of labor due to high taxes made Macedonia less competitive compared to other developing nations, such as Indonesia, Vietnam and China.
"It is necessary for Macedonia to modernize its banking system and streamline its administrative procedures," Loh said. "Unless we take a realistic, pragmatic attitude towards promoting economic cooperation ... then talk will remain talk."
Klimovski attempted to dispel the concerns, saying change was on the way within the next few months.
"Macedonia will adopt important legislation, making way for thorough reform of the banking and taxation systems and completing the process of privatization," he said. "[T]he basic premises will be put in place for the functioning of a new economic system in our country."
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day