Trying to slough off a reputation for bureaucracy and bad labor relations, a senior trade representative from France was in town yesterday to put the case that the Eurozone's second-largest economy is now more business-friendly with the aim of doubling the number of Taiwanese firms investing there within five years.
"France has a good image for tourism, quality of life and social welfare, but not such a good image for business," Clara Gaymard, ambassador-at-large for international investment and president of the Invest in France Agency told reporters in Taipei yesterday. "Things are changing ... Generally we are now more favorable to a business-oriented economy."
Gaymard highlighted more than 50 reforms introduced by the pro-enterprise government elected in 2002 that now make it easier for firms to do business in France.
For example, from Jan. 1 this year, expatriates living in France are exempt from taxation on salaries paid from overseas and can deduct social security payments made to their home country from their taxable income in France.
Executives are now guaranteed visa, work and residence permits within three weeks, and the procedure for the entry of families has been streamlined.
Regulations have also been simplified for setting up research and development facilities, and rules have been relaxed for students going to France to study in the fields of economics, science and management. And to promote the arts, the French government will now give a 20-percent tax credit to any film or animation project shot or produced in France and has set up scholarships and positions for foreign artists who chose to create in France.
An official from the largest Taiwanese investor in France welcomed the news yesterday.
"We welcome such moves, and hope that it will help Acer to further expand its market in France," said Henry Wang (
Acer set up a sales and marketing office in Paris 10 years ago and currently employs 30 people there.
"France is one of the major IT markets in Europe," Wang said. "In the third quarter of 2003, Acer was a top-ten PC brand in France, and top 5 for notebooks."
There are currently 50 Taiwan-ese firms with investments in France, French Institute in Taipei head Christophe Grignon said, without putting a dollar figure on the level of investment.
Meanwhile 130 French firms have invested in Taiwan, employing 22,000 people locally, making France the second largest European investor in Taiwan after the UK.
"The majority of French exports to Taiwan are industrial," Grignon said. "France is not just famous for fashion, luxury goods, food and wine. Forty percent of the total is electronic products. Bilateral investment is intense in the information technology [IT] area."
French companies like Alcatel SA sell components to Taiwanese mobile phone producers, and Franco-Italian firm ST Microelectronics sells components for digital cameras and flat screens, he added.
In 2002, ST persuaded local technology giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to come in on a nanotechnology research project with Royal Philips Electronics in its facilities in Crolles near Grenoble in the French Alps to produce chips with transistors measuring just 90 nanometers across.
Twenty TSMC engineers are working on this program, Grignon said. Motorola Inc joined this research project last year.
Nanotechnology -- and semiconductors in general -- is one of the economic drivers the French government is targeting with biotechnology, mirroring the key sectors of the Taiwanese government's "Two Trillion, Two Star" (兩兆雙星) investment plan for the next 10 years.
"The targets of France are the same as Taiwan," Gaymard said.
In the field of biotechnology, a genetic engineering facility called Genopole in Evry, south of Paris, signed a memorandum of understanding with Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Phalanx Biotech Group Inc last July to look into DNA chips.
"Taiwan is already co-operating with France in research and development and we are sure any spin-offs will also co-operate," Grignon said. "We are confident something will come of this agreement this year."
Gaymard scheduled meetings with other local biotech companies yesterday. She did not reveal names as no agreements have been signed yet, but said discussions were ongoing in the areas of pharmaceuticals, agriculture and medical research.
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained