Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (
"With a solid foundation and vigorous private enterprises, I have confidence in Taiwan's economic development," Chen said at the inauguration ceremony.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who supervised the handover, praised Chen's international trade experience, including his efforts toward Taiwan's accession to the WTO, and his leadership in inking free-trade agreements (FTAs).
Chen began his government service with a job at the Bureau of Foreign Trade in 1973 and built up a substantial record in international trade.
As a ministry veteran, Chen would not need an orientation period, Su said.
Steve Chen is the sixth economic minister in President Chen Shui-bian's (
With Steve Chen taking over the top job at the ministry, his former job as political vice minister will be filled by administrative Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (
No replacement has yet been named for Shih's old post, but the position may be filled by Department of Industrial Technology Director-General Huang Chung-chiou (黃重球), according to a report in the Chinese-language media yesterday.
Despite Steve Chen's optimism about the nation's economy, he faces a bumpy road, given Taiwan's current economic woes.
A report released by the Council for Economic Planning and Development last month said business indicators showed signs of a slowdown.
After 10 straight months of "green" light status, the monitoring indicators flashed a "yellow-blue" light in June, indicating a deceleration in major economic activities, the report said.
Increases in the consumer price index (CPI) will be another headache for the new minister, as the government tries to keep the CPI below 2 percent even though gasoline and utility prices need to be adjusted given the huge losses reported by state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC,
Although Formosa Petrochemical Corp's (
Another thorny issue that Steve Chen faces is cross-strait trade policy, including the long-awaited lifting of the ban on investing in IC design, IC packaging and testing, and 12-inch wafer fabs in China.
The government agreed to allow local semiconductor companies to build a total of three 8-inch wafer factories producing chips using the less advanced 0.25-micron processing technology in China by the end of last year.
While Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) set up one factory in Shanghai in 2004, the applications of Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) and ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) for factories in China have yet to be approved.
Officials said in March that the ministry would resume reviewing applications, but the companies may have to cool their heels a while longer, given the expected fallout in cross-strait relations from Chad switching its diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing last weekend.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
RSS