Business environment to soar
The nation's business environment will improve dramatically over the next five years, according to a report from UK-based research body, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
By looking at 70 factors across 10 categories that affect the opportunities for, and hindrances to, the conduct of business, EIU compiles a score for the quality and attractiveness of the business environment in 60 countries.
Taiwan is currently ranked 21, but will move up to 17 by year end 2007, moving past Austria, Norway, Spain and Chile, the report says. Canada will move up from fourth place to take the crown as the most-competitive nation from the US, which will drop to fifth place.
"This is the result of the US' increased exposure to geopolitical risk, major imbalances in the economy, and weakening public finances," the report said.
Only two other Asian countries will be more competitive than Taiwan by 2007, Singapore and Hong Kong in seventh and eighth place. South Korea will rank 25 and Japan 27.
Multilateral negotiations better
Taiwan's representative to the WTO said Tuesday at a meeting of the Trade Negotiation Council that the country is in favor of the multilateral trade-negotiation system being promoted under the framework of the WTO.
Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章) said that every member of the WTO will benefit from the system if it is properly implemented.
The system is especially valuable in promoting free trade at a time when the global economy is in recession.
Yen also explained the government's positions on certain issues regarding the WTO's agenda and he said that new members of the organization should be given a grace period to lower tariffs on imports of non-agricultural products.
He also said that the draft formula for tariff reduction being studied by the WTO could unfairly force low-tariff countries to sacrifice more than other countries.
Yu lauds Taiwan's advantages
Premier Yu Shyi-kun claimed yesterday that Taiwan is the best place to set up a global logistics base because of its location, strong manufacturing ability and free financial environment.
Yu made the remarks when he attended the anniversary of the transshipment center of FedEx at CKS International Airport.
He said the nation has spared no efforts in promoting itself as an operations bases, adding that the "Challenge 2008" six-year national development plan unveiled last year envisioned attracting 200 major enterprises to set up global operations bases here, with 1,000 enterprises setting up regional operations bases here by 2011.
Yu said that to achieve the goal, the government has five development strategies, which he listed as the establishment of free-trade harbor zones, tax incentives, coordination of seaports and airports, barrier-free customs clearance service and computerization of the industry operations.
Rail laying begins today
Work to lay the rails of the Taiwan High-Speed Railway will begin today, an official of the Taiwan High-Speed Railway Co (台灣高鐵) said yesterday.
The official said that the construction work for the 345km railway between Taipei and Kaohsiung is proceeding on schedule.
Test runs on the high speed railway are scheduled to begin next summer, with the line expected to become commercially operational in October 2005.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday turned weak against its US counterpart, falling NT$0.046 to close at NT$34.410 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$422 million.
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
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