As part of efforts to double tourist arrivals, the Cabinet is considering allowing foreign tourists to receive their tax rebates directly at department stores instead of at airports upon departure.
According to the government's original measures formulated in October 2003, foreign tourists who spend NT$3,000 or more in the same shop with a tax-return shopping (TRS) logo and take the goods out of the country within 30 days will be eligible for the tax rebate at the airport upon departure.
But at a Cabinet meeting held over the weekend, the Tourism Bureau suggested the simplification of these measures to boost tourism, said Council for Economic Planning and Development Vice Chairman Thomas Yeh (
The Ministry of Finance is planning to include local specialty products, such as ceramics, wooden sculptures, tea and marble items, in the tax-rebate list, Yeh said.
He said foreign tourists would be able to enjoy a 5 percent tax rebate as long as their purchases exceed NT$3,000.
The ministry is also considering reducing the minimum capitalization to open a duty-free store from NT$100 million to NT$50 million, and the minimum amount to open a distribution center from NT$300 million to NT$200 million, Yeh said.
The ministry will complete its revision of the relevant measures within two months, he said.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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