The nation's economy remains strong, and the Taiwanese people should be confident about their country, Premier Frank Hsieh (
"The figures say it all. All the statistics indicate growth in Taiwan's business activities, and foreign investments have shown no signs of flagging either," Hsieh said in his opening speech at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.
He said that although a deluge of negative reporting has seriously damaged Taiwan's image in the run-up to the Dec. 3 local elections, foreign investments have not been interrupted.
"Foreign investors don't watch Taiwan's TV talk shows or read our newspapers, since they don't understand [the language]," he said.
"As a result, the negative media coverage of Taiwanese politics did not make them change their mind [about investing in Taiwan,] which is a good thing. Nonetheless, they actually made the right decision," Hsieh said.
He added that since people abroad generally pay no attention to local newspaper coverage or TV talk shows, they have a better perspective on what's really happening in the country.
According to Hsieh, the unemployment rate for last month dropped to a five-year low of 4.07 percent, while 29.89 percent of the nation's stocks, valued at NT$4.3 trillion (US$1288.4 billion), are owned by foreign investors.
"This is a sign that foreign investors are still confident about the economy," Hsieh said.
In addition, the number of foreign visitors has shown no signs of declining, and the premier said he believed even more foreign tourists will visit in the future.
"We just welcomed the millionth Japanese tourist [this year] a few days ago. I believe that was only the beginning," he said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS