In response to the Economic Development Advisory Conference (經發會) panel's proposed tax-reduction measures last week, Formosa Plastic Group Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Economic Development Advisory Conference Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) said yesterday that the Ministry of Finance should take a stand on taxes.
"Finance ministry officials should have the courage to make specific responses to those tax proposals," Wang said. While almost all industry and business representatives called for a tax cut during recent panel meetings, Wang is the only heavyweight industry leader to oppose lowering taxes.
Wang reasoned that the government is already running a large deficit and a reduction in taxes would do little to help the sluggish domestic economy. He said that finance ministry officials must have the courage, based on their professional expertise, to make a clear and specific response on the issue.
With regards to the government's "no haste, be patient" (戒急用忍) policy, Wang said, "I never understood what the so-called `no haste, be patient' policy really meant. `No haste, be patient' has been a policy of mind control by the big bosses over the small potatoes. I cannot see the point of such a policy. I was quite pleased when I heard that President Chen Shui-bian (
Wang said that the conference has so far been quite successful. The solution for the current economic problems is the opening of the three-links with China and expanding commercial ventures on the mainland, he said.
Tseng Chu-wei (
"The conference has consolidated a number of proposals," Tseng said. "The discussions, however, seem to lack professionalism. To be effective, the administration should set up a task force to convert those opinions into policy. A mechanism is required to consolidate hundreds of opinions into a coherent economic policy."
The investment panel alone has made 138 proposals that reached consensus.
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