The government should respond cautiously to the passage of China's "anti-secession" law as far as the nation's economy is concerned, pundits said yesterday.
Market watchers said it will be hard to forecast developments in the local stock and currency markets until after China's reaction to a planned demonstration by Taiwan on March 26 is known.
The Democratic Progressive Party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and pro-independence groups plan to launch a rally on March 26 to protest the passage of China's law. President Chen Shui-bian (
Taiwan's economy has become increasingly dependent on China in the recent years, with the country becoming Taiwan's largest trading partner last year. Bilateral trade across the Taiwan Strait, including transactions made through Hong Kong, reached US$82.61 billion last year, a 32.27 percent jump from the previous year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The ministry approved US$6.94 billion of Taiwanese investment in China last year, but with about 2 million Taiwanese people doing business in China now, it is estimated that the real China-bound investment figure far exceeds official statistics.
"The law will not stop Taiwanese businesspeople from doing business in the lucrative Chinese market, but the short-term impact on the financial market is unpredictable," Steve Lin (林祖嘉), an economics professor at National Chengchi University, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) also expressed concern over the law, suggesting the government carefully review high-tech investment projects in China.
"It is reasonable to do so in terms of national security and industry competitiveness," CEPD vice chairman Thomas Yeh (
Chu Yun-peng (朱雲鵬), head of National Central University's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, suggested the government respond carefully.
"If the government reacts to the issue irrationally, the political storm will further negatively impact the nation's financial markets and economic development," Chu said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by