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.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS