The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said Malaysia has agreed to allow Taiwan's insurance companies to set up representative offices in the country.
The agreement was reached during a Tuesday meeting between Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) and Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz in Kuala Lumpur, according to a statement released by the ministry.
The representative offices would only be permitted to collect information and conduct market surveys to better understand Malaysian markets. The ministry statement failed to clarify if or when insurers would be allowed to conduct business there.
In addition, Taiwan-based reinsurance companies will also be able to set up branches in Malaysia, the ministry said.
Leading a delegation consisting of officials and business leaders, Lin arrived in Penang, Malaysia, on Sunday and left for Thailand yesterday as part of a mission to promote Taiwanese investments in all SouthEast Asian countries other than China. The trip was also scheduled to include talks on free trade after China signed an agreement on Nov. 4 with the 10 ASEAN members, including Malaysia and Thailand, to set up a free-trade zone by 2010.
Minister Lin, however, had little luck with the free-trade talks because Malaysia refused to talk with Taiwan independently and instead referred Lin to the ASEAN Secretariat, according to the ministry.
Taiwan, fearing economic marginalization by China, is working hard to sign Free Trade Agreements with ASEAN countries.
So far, Taiwan's efforts to muster interest in trade pacts have failed after Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Thailand and Malaysia have reportedly delayed talks with Taiwan -- after pressure from China.
Pundits in Taiwan yesterday also poured cold water on the economic minister's efforts, saying that the chances for ASEAN countries to sign a free-trade pact with Taiwan are low given China's political interference.
"Taiwan may not succeed in its efforts because these countries -- disadvantaged politically and militarily -- may be attracted to China's large market and surrender to China's political will," Wu Chung-chi (吳忠吉), an economics professor from National Taiwan University, told the Taipei Times yesterday.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by