■ Investment
Private-sector target raised
The government aims to boost the value of new private-sector investment to NT$1.01 trillion (US$30.69 billion) this year, up 11.44 percent from last year, Ministry of Economic Affairs officials said on Friday. Last year, there were 1,689 new private-sector investment projects with a total value of NT$927.62 billion, which exceeded the government's target of NT$903.2 billion, ministry officials said. Investment projects worth a total of NT$936.21 billion were completed last year, which also exceeded the target of NT$700 billion, the officials said. Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said that new private-sector investment was expected this year in the semiconductor, flat-panel display, chemical, metal manufacturing and logistics industries.
■ Trade fairs
Local firms visit Paperworld
A total of 197 Taiwanese companies are taking part in Paperworld 2007, a leading international fair for stationery and office equipment held in Frankfurt, Germany, from Jan. 24-28, a Taiwan External Trade Development Council spokesman said yesterday. According to the spokesman, the organizer of Paperworld 2007 expects some 100,000 visitors from 70 countries and some 80,000 professional buyers to be drawn to the event. Among non-EU countries, Taiwan has the second-highest number of companies participating in the international fair, behind only China, which has 365 companies taking part.
■ Clothing
Firms ditch EU suppliers
European clothing firms are ditching their local suppliers and are opting more and more for cheaper imports from Asia, especially China, according to a French study released on Friday. Around 75 percent of clothes bought by the firms come from outside the EU, with 64 percent from Asia and 36 percent from China alone, the study from the Lille-based French Fashion Institute said. Evelyne Chaballier, one of the report's authors, said that after import tariffs were scrapped on clothes from Asia in 2005 there was an initial spike in the amount of textiles sourced there. This "slide towards Asia" has continued ever since and is set to last on into next year, Chaballier said.
■ Internet
Fox subpoenas YouTube
YouTube said on Friday that it received a subpoena from Twentieth Century Fox demanding it reveal who posted unaired episodes of 24 and The Simpsons on the video-sharing Web site. Fox wants YouTube to disclose enough information for it to figure out who uploaded the shows and "stop this infringing activity," according to an excerpt of the subpoena posted online. In May of last year, before being bought by Google in a US$1.65 billion stock deal, YouTube went along with a Paramount Pictures demand that it reveal who posted a 12-minute clip from the show Twin Towers.
■ Retail
Wal-Mart exploring Japan
US retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc will explore more opportunities for corporate acquisitions in Japan, vice chairman Michael Duke said in an interview published yesterday. Duke, who oversees Wal-Mart's international operations, welcomed Japan's recent deregulation allowing foreign companies to use their local subsidiaries to acquire Japanese firms through stock swaps, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
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