Amidst increasing calls by business leaders and opposition parties to expand trade ties with China, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday that the best way to maintain Taiwan's national security is to make the country's economy much more internationalized.
"Only when Taiwan's economy becomes more internationalized will the country gain more concrete security assurances," Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (
"The `no haste, be patient' policy once provided Taiwan with a stable and safe environment for economic development. But as Taiwan's industries lose their competitive edge because of surging costs, they are relocating to China. The country needs to find a new economic development guideline ... even though preserving national security is still important," Lin said.
Lin said the slowdown in the domestic economy is being exacerbated by a global slump in the technology sector. But he cautioned local businessmen "not to put all their eggs in one basket."
The ministry yesterday announced a new five-year industrial development plan with the aim of shaping the country into a high value-added manufacturing center.
The plan will help the manufacturing sector to produce capital and technology-intensive products such as integrated circuits and LCD displays, as well as other innovative, customer-tailored products such as semiconductors, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said.
"Though it will not solve Taiwan's economic slump in the short term, the plan is an attempt to fortify the nation's long-term manufacturing competitiveness," Yin said.
The ministry will also complete work on support systems such as R&D, transshipment facilities, venture capital businesses, supply-chain management and financial services to support the future high value-added manufacturing sector, Yin said.
The ministry's proposals come after a number of foreign experts from around the world have made similar suggestions regarding Taiwan's economy.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”