■ TAIEX falls 1.3%
Share prices closed 1.3 percent lower yesterday, with investors unsettled by the latest hardline Chinese remarks over any push by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) towards independence, dealers said. The TAIEX lost 84.62 points at 6,460.01, on turnover of NT$87.27 billion (US$2.69 billion). The financial sector was down 2.09 percent and electronics lost 1.34 percent. "The market came down sharply as a sell-off in financials picked up steam towards the close," said Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) manager Daniel Tseng (曾建詮). Given forecasts by some foreign institutions of a further correction to 6,000 points, the heavily weighted tech stocks saw steep losses, he said. "The market may or may not go that low but there is no denying most market participants believe shares are more likely to come down further rather than go up any time soon."
■ Science council lists priorities
Nanotechnology, telecommunications and biotechnology will become the government's priorities in scientific development, National Science Council Minister Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday. "We have a lot of nanotechnological researchers in Taiwan now, but we need breakthroughs to build our own technological edge rather than following others' footsteps in this field," Chen said. Telecommunications, including Internet and wireless communications, will have bright prospects in light of the government's "e-Taiwan" program which utilizes the Internet to speed up government operations, Chen said. The council is working on a program to store hospitals' case histories, including patients' test results, in a databank accessible to hospitals throughout the country. In the field of biotechnology, Chen said the focus should be the study of genomes and the development of genetic diagnosis.
■ Inbound investment rises
Inbound investment totaled US$4.23 billion last year, up 7 percent from 2004, according to statistics released yesterday by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics. Investment from the Caribbean topped the list of inbound investments at US$1.09 billion, posting a year-on-year growth of 22 percent, followed by the US at US$800 million and Japan at US$720 million, the statistics indicate. The government approved US$8.45 billion worth of outbound investments last year, which represented a year-on-year decrease of 18.1 percent. China remained the top destination for Taiwanese investment last year, attracting a total of US$6.01 billion, down 18.1 percent from 2004's level.
■ Seoul seeks chip talks
South Korea said yesterday that it had sought consultations with Japan over a dispute about computer chip tariffs, the first step in possibly bringing the case to the WTO for settlement. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement that South Korea sent a letter to Japan via its representative in Geneva seeking the bilateral consultations. Japan said in January it would slap import duties of 27.2 percent on DRAM chips made by Hynix Semiconductor in retaliation for alleged government subsidies. The tariff is the first Japan has imposed to counter alleged subsidies by a foreign government and the first such duties on high-tech products.
■ NT dollar gains
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart yesterday, rising NT$0.066 to close at NT$32.434 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$851 million.
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