■ Tax take falls in February
The nation's total tax revenue last month amounted to NT$54 billion, a decline of NT$17.3 billion, or 24.3 percent, over the same month last year, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement Wednesday. Income tax revenue totaled NT$19.4 billion, a drop of NT$2 billion, or 9.5 percent, from a year ago. This was followed by revenue from commodity taxes which grew NT$2.1 billion, or 14.2 percent,to NT$17 billion, and tobacco and liquor taxes which rose NT$100 million, or 4.1 percent, to NT$3.8 billion. Stock transaction tax revenue amounted to NT$3.9 billion last month, down by NT$6.8 billion, or 63.8 percent, from a year ago. The ministry attributed the huge decline to fewer trading days last month due to the Lunar New Year holidays. The ministry received NT$160.9 billion in tax revenues in the first two months of the year, down by NT$7.7 billion, or 4.6 percent, from the same period last year. The January-February figures accounted for 11.7 percent of the target set for the year, according to the ministry.
■ SMC mulls Japanese machines
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際集成電路) is considering buying manufacturing equipment from Japan amid uncertainty over a planned US$769 million loan to buy American-made machines. The US Export-Import Bank has not approved the loan by several US banks to the Shanghai-based chipmaker to buy chip-making equipment from US suppliers including Applied Materials In, Novellus Systems Inc and KLA-Tencor Corp. The delay came after lobbyists for US-based Micron Technology Inc, the world's No. 2 maker of computer memory chips, argued that the loan would help boost China's chip industry and put Americans out of work. But an anonymous source familiar with the talks told Dow Jones Newswires that the Chinese chipmaker has been in talks since the start of this year with Japanese equipment vendors including Tokyo Electron Ltd.
■ High-speed railway on schedule
Taiwan's high-speed railway is on schedule to be opened on Oct. 31 this year, an official of the Bureau of High Speed Rail under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said Wednesday. Total construction for the 345km railway and facilities, including six stations, is 68.57 percent complete, the official noted. The buildings for the six high-speed rail stations, located in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung, are finished and the interiors are 57.98 percent complete. The actual rail line is 75.16 percent complete, the official said.
■ Singapore takes IT-use lead
Singapore has taken the lead in exploiting information and communication technology, said a study released Wednesday. The United States, first last year, dropped to fifth place. Singapore's rating at the top of the so-called ``networked readiness index'' was based on several factors, including quality of math and science education and low telephone and Internet pricing, said the report, which was released by the World Economic Forum. "Singapore's remarkable performance is a consequence of the government's consistent and continuous efforts" to foster the technology, the report said. The United States' drop "is less due to actual erosion in performance" than to the improvement of other countries, the report said. Iceland, in 10th place last year, moved up to second place. Finland held onto third, and Denmark rose to fourth from fifth.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last