Taiwan outranks neighbors
Taiwan's economic freedom was classified as the 27th best among some 160 countries around the world by the 2003 Index of Econo-mic Freedom compiled by the Heritage Foundation.
Hong Kong was listed as the best area in terms of economic freedom, followed by Singapore. Luxemburg and New Zealand were tied in the third place, followed by Ireland in fifth. Denmark, Estonia and the US were tied in sixth place, while Australia and the UK were tied in ninth place.
In Asia, Taiwan's rating was ahead of Japan's 35th position, South Korea's 52nd place and China's 127th.
The annual classification is based on the evaluations of 10 factors, including trade policy, fis-cal burden of government, government intervention in the economy, monetary policy, capital flow and foreign investment, banking and finance, wages and prices, property rights, regulations and the black market.
SinoPac halts merger talks
SinoPac Holdings (建華金控), which has the second-highest percentage of overseas shareholders among Taiwanese lenders, said it suspended merger talks with China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控).
"We are not pulling out," said SinoPac Spokeswoman Lee Meiling (李玫玲). "We just suspended the talks on the possible merger with China Development until its senior management reshuffle is settled."
The suspension of talks may add pressure on China Development Financial, which was criticized by the government for not providing written details of the allegations against Liu at its special board meeting on Wednesday.
Winbond revives plant plan
Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), the nation's biggest maker of memory chips for mobile phones and other hand-held devices, said it has revived plans to build a factory that may be worth as much as US$1 billion.
The company said it will build a factory that makes 12-inch silicon wafers, which more than double the number of chips that can be cut from standard 8-inch wafers and help pare production costs by as much as 30 percent.
The company, which has been shifting away from production of computer-memory chips to so-called flash-memory chips for mobile phones, shelved earlier plans for a 12-inch plant during a record slump in the chip industry that started in 2000.
"The plant will be used to make flash-memory chips," said Winbond spokeswoman Sabrina Wu, responding to a local newspaper report that said the company may invest NT$35 billion (US$1 billion) for the factory.
No timetable or budget has been set for the project, she said.
Winbond plans to start construction as early as next year in Taichung, the paper said.
Mexican trade ties improving
Edmundo Arceo, director general of the Mexican Trade Services in Taipei, said yesterday that he sees a good opportunity for Mexico and Taiwan to improve trade relations.
He said that Taiwan investors have already invested US$91.9 million in Mexico's electronics and textiles industries, and that his country can serve as a springboard for development of trade relations between Taiwan and Latin American countries once the free trade area of the Americas (FTAA) is established in January 2005.
Arceo also said that a group of Mexican entrepreneurs will visit Taipei in October.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.021 to close at NT$34.593 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$360 million.
Agencies
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