Taiwan needs immediate action to further liberalize and create a more foreign-investment-friendly environment in order to avoid losing its competitive edge against strong regional rivals, the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (ECCT) warned yesterday.
"Taiwan is on the verge of risking regional and global competitiveness unless the government reacts quickly by liberalizing the economy," ECCT chairman Dirk Sanger told a press conference yesterday.
The ECCT, which represents over 350 European firms and 600 individuals in Taiwan, yesterday released its 2005-2006 Position Papers.
This annual report, this year titled "Keep Taiwan Dynamic and Relevant," aims to voice overseas companies' concerns and recommendations on the investment environment.
The ECCT identified four key issues of concern in this year's report. They are overregulation in industries like the automotive, logistics, retail, telecommunications and banking; slow progress in cross-strait business normalization like import bans on 2,400 goods from China; incompliance of WTO agreements like Taiwan's pending accession to the Government Procurement Agreement; and the slow move in developing the service industry, like slow progress in carrying out the free-ports plan and the zoning limitations on the retail business.
The import bans have caused foreign companies estimated extra costs or a loss of US$100 million per year and the figure could be rising as more companies choose to manufacture goods and parts in China, the chamber's vice chairman Ralf Sheller said.
The import ban has also driven Tesco Stores (Taiwan) Co to quit the local market earlier this month as this measure had hampered the retailer's operations, according to Shane Neal, co-chair of the ECCT's retail committee.
He said that overregulation on acquiring land had also largely slowed down Tesco's expansion here as the retailer opened only six outlets here in seven years, far slower than its normal pace in other countries.
Also, excessive operational restrictions and a continued lack of direct cargo links between Taiwan and China have dulled the outlook for Taiwan's free trade zones which were established to attract international logistic companies, while some of the world's largest logistic operators had announced that they're setting up regional-operation centers in Hong Kong and China instead, Shellers said.
In China, where foreign investors also suffered because of overregulation, Chinese authorities have offered clearer deregulation roadmaps and acted more decisively to make changes, he said.
In response, Hu Sheng-cheng (
The government has removed 75 items from the import-ban list to meet foreign companies' needs and is currently engaged in negotiations with its Chinese counterparts on the opening-up of direct flights for both passengers and cargo, Hu said.
The Cabinet is now seriously considering allowing the exchange of Chinese yuan in Taiwan, which could materialize early next year, after successful trials on the offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu, the official said.
A string of possible relaxations to simplify the process for Chinese professionals to come to Taiwan and to allow foreign internships is under way as well, Hu said.
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
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the