■ Futures Act revisions passed
Legal revisions to the Futures Transaction Tax Act (期貨交易稅條例) cleared the Legislative Yuan yesterday and are expected to boost futures trading by lowering futures transaction tax rates. The amendments stipulate that all futures trading activities conducted domestically must be levied with a futures trading tax. Tax rates for stock index futures, levied on each trading contract, should be between 0.01 per cent and 0.06 percent. Tax rates set for interest-rate futures, also levied on each trading contract, are between 0.0000125 percent and 0.00025 percent. Tax rates for options contracts and options on futures contracts, levied on each warrant, are set between 0.1 percent and 0.6 percent. Tax rates for other futures trading are set between 0.0000125 percent and 0.06 percent.
■ Electronics orders rise 20%
Foreign electronics companies increased their orders to local manufacturers by nearly 20 percent from last year to US$66.1 billion this year, led mostly by computer and handset vendors, according to government statistics released yesterday.
Last year, foreign orders from companies, including computer brands Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc, reached US$55.2 billion, according to Ministry of Economic Affairs' data.
Aside from computers and mobile phones, liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TV have become the new growth area for orders from foreign firms, the ministry said.
■ AUO may build new China plant
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the world's third-largest liquid-crystal display maker may build its second factory in China to assemble LCD modules to cut costs.
"We're in the very early stages of evaluating a location for a second plant,'' Hsiao Ya-wen (蕭雅文), a public relations executive at the Hsinchu, Taiwan-based company, said yesterday.
AU Optronics and its smaller rival, Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), have already built module factories on the mainland to enjoy cheaper labor costs and be nearer clients such as Taiwanese notebook computer makers that have moved production lines to China. The company has not decided yet on how much it will spend on the factory or when it will be built, Hsiao said. Au Optronics built its first module plant in Suzhou, China, in 2001, she added.
■ Tourists find Taiwan friendly
Taiwan's edge in tourism lies in its "friendly people" and "delicious food," a survey of foreign arrivals released by the Tourism Bureau showed yesterday.
Compared to neighboring countries such as Thailand, Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, foreign tourists think Taiwan's edge lies in its friendly people (34 out of the 100 respondents cited this factor), followed by delicious food (33), consumer prices (16) and good social order (13).
Foreign tourists made 1.65 million visits in the first half of the year, up 18.4 percent from the same period last year. Among them, 650,000 visits were for tourism, 46.14 percent higher than the same period last year.
Tourism revenues in the first six months totaled NT$2.39 billion (US$71.34 million), up 29.6 percent from the same period last year. The overall approval rating of tourism in Taiwan was 84 percent, up 4 percentage points from the same period last year.
■ NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar turned weak against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.009 to close at NT$33.626 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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