■ China investment at US$80bn
Investment by Taiwanese businessmen in China amounts to US$80 billion, much higher than the figures claimed by the authorities in either Taiwan or China, a monthly magazine reported Friday.
The Taipei-based Fortune China (投資中國) reports in its current issue that private Taiwanese investment in China had exceeded US$80 billion as of July 2003.
The magazine conducted a poll of officials from Taiwan affairs offices in 31 Chinese provinces and cities. Currently, the number of Taiwan-financed companies operating in China totals about 68,100, according to a magazine spokeswoman.
The magazine is scheduled to sponsor an academic workshop on Jan. 5 to analyze Taiwanese businesses in China, as well as their business prospects there.
■ `Triangle trade' on the rise
"Triangle trade," a practice whereby companies take orders in Taiwan but import or export goods from places outside Taiwan, hit a record NT$1.04 trillion (US$30.62 billion) in 2001, according to the latest business census conducted by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
A total of 7,840 companies in Taiwan, or 0.8 percent of the country's firms, engage in triangle trade. Among them, 6,219 firms, or 79.3 percent, were wholesale traders and 1,621, or 20.7 percent, were manufacturing firms.
This form of trade is most common among big business, with 77.2 percent of its practitioners employing more than 100 people and 78.7 percent of such companies recording annual revenue above NT$1 billion (US$29.44 million), according to the census.
The practice is also more common among non-conventional industries, knowledge-intensive industries and information and electronics industries. Revenue from such trade accounts for a bigger share of its practitioners' total revenue in those three categories of industries than in conventional industries.
■ China Airlines to offer Internet
China Airlines Co (華航) has signed a letter of intent with Connexion, a Boeing affiliate, to start providing Internet service to passengers on international flights at the end of 2004, the airline said Friday.
The nation's largest airline said it will install Internet service on its long-haul flights between Taipei and Europe as well as Taipei and North America.
The service will allow passengers to browse the Internet or send e-mail on their laptop computers with wireless network cards on China Airlines flights.
China Airlines will become the nation's first airline to introduce in-flight mobile connectivity.
Connexion is a mobile information services provider that brings Internet, data and entertainment connectivity to travelers.
■ Government to sell steel shares
The government plans to unload its 23-percent share in China Steel Corp (中鋼) this year. The first batch of shares will be sold as early as April, following an overseas share sale last October, the Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) said at a press conference yesterday.
The government raised NT$27.7 billion (US$815 million) from its sale of a 10.6 percent stake in China Steel in October. The government sold 52.4 million global depositary receipts, each worth 20 locally traded shares, at US$15.56 apiece.
■ NT dollar higher
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.002 to close at NT$33.976 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
RSS