Taiwanese patent approvals rise
A total of 5,938 patent application cases filed by Taiwanese institutions or individuals in the US were approved in 2004, making Taiwan the fourth largest recipient of US patents during the year, a government agency said yesterday.
The figure marked an increase of 10 from the 5,928 cases registered in 2003, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics reported.
Taiwan ranked behind the US, Japan and Germany in both 2003 and 2004 in terms of acquisition of US patents. In 2004 Taiwan was one notch ahead of South Korea.
S American trade visit planned
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) is organizing a trade delegation to help domestic manufacturers tap South American markets, a council official announced yesterday.
The delegation is scheduled to visit Venezuela, Peru and Colombia on March 11-27 to explore trade opportunities in those countries, seen as major members of the Andean Group.
With a combined population of nearly 95 million, the three nations are Taiwan's leading trade partners in South America, the official said, adding that Taiwan's exports to the three markets amounted to US$374 million in 2004.
ATM card number rises
People in Taiwan owned 5.7 ATM cards on average as of the end of last November, up more than 10 times from the level in 1991, when each person owned only 0.5 ATM cards on average, according to a report released yesterday by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
Taiwan had around 24,000 ATMs as of the end of November, up 13.2 percent from the year-earlier period. The figure represented 1,055 ATMs per 1 million people, compared with 150 ATMs per 1 million people in 1991, the report said.
Local financial institutions had issued 130 million ATM cards as of the end of November, an increase of 17.5 percent from the same period in 2004. A total of 73.37 million of the cards were in circulation, accounting for 56.5 percent of the cards issued.
No need for forensic accounting
The Financial Supervisory Com-mission (FSC) on Monday downplayed Premier Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) proposal to have forensic accountants look into Taiwan investors' records in China, saying that it was studying the feasibility of having professional accountants audit companies with "unusual occurrences" in China.
To allay fears within the business community, the commission issued a press release to clarify that it was not targeting companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in its plan to hire accountants to audit the financial reports of shareholding companies, banking institutions, securities firms and insurance firms.
These accountants will have tasks different from that of "forensic accountants," who specialize in investigating tax and other fraud, and who provide an accounting analysis suitable to the court, according to the FSC.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar fell after Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) announced he would resign yesterday. The NT dollar shed NT$0.072 to close at NT$31.999 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
"There will be a short-term negative effect on the Taiwan dollar as people start to speculate who the next premier will be and how that will affect economic reform," said Lo Chung, a currency trader at Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行).
"The bigger factor for the Taiwan dollar is still the yen's performance against the US dollar," Lo said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last