■ Survey targets job creation
Fifty-four percent of respondents to a recent survey are aware of a government job creation project, according to results released yesterday by the Research, Develop-ment and Evaluation Commission. Out of those 616 respondents who said they knew about the project, 61 percent said they thought the year-old project is helping employment among the underprivileged, compared with 28 percent who said it is not helpful. Fifty-nine percent also said the project is helping to solve unemployment among the middle-aged and elderly, compared with 33 percent who said it is not helpful. Sixty percent of respondents said that the project should continue, while 19 percent said it should be stopped; however, while 44 percent said they are satisfied with the government's implementation of the project, 34 percent said they are not satisfied. The government launched the project last year, appropriating NT$20 billion (US$595.23 million) to provide temporary jobs for one year. An estimated 90,000 people have benefited from the project.
■ Acer extends buyback plan
Acer Inc will continue to buy back its own shares in the next two to three years to increase the value of its stock, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, quoting company president Wang Jen-tang (王振堂). The share buyback aims to cut the company's paid-in capital to NT$16 billion (US$475 million) from the current NT20.5 billion, the newspaper quoted Wang as saying. Acer, the country's third-largest computer company by market value, last month said it planned to spend as much as NT$600 million to buy back and cancel 10 million shares at between NT$29.10 and NT$60 a share starting May 17. This followed a similar buyback plan that started May 12.
■ AU gets major loan package
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world's No.3 flat screen maker, yesterday received NT$60 billion in syndicated loans from 13 local lenders led by the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行). The funds will be used to build next-generation plants in Taichung. AU's bank loan is the latest fund-raising project by local thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel makers since Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd's (中華映管) NT$38 billion syndicated loan was granted in mid-May. Taiwanese LCD makers are expected to spend US$11.3 billion on new equipment, according to market researcher DisplaySearch's tally in April.
■ Lin defends listing policy
Mainland-based Taiwan companies will not yet be listed on the local stock market, but this will not affect the government's resolve to make Taiwan a world financial hub, Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) said yesterday. Taiwan-funded companies in China can list on the domestic stock market as long as they meet government requirements, but the thorny issue is how to properly oversee the offshore investments that are made with funds collected from Taiwan.
■ NT dollar down again
The New Taiwan dollar had its third losing week as foreign fund managers sold Taiwanese equities that helped drag the currency down, dealers said. The NT dollar slid NT$0.074, or 0.5 percent, to close at NT$33.785 against the US dollar on the Taipei foreign exchange market yesterday. Turnover was US$592 million. Money managers abroad dumped a net US$392 million of Taiwan's equities in the 10 sessions through Wednesday, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange statistics.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last