■ Taipower turns to solar panels
State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), the nation's biggest electricity generator, plans to spend NT$3.57 billion (US$108 million) installing solar panels as the government aims to reduce dependency on energy imports.
The project, pending the approval of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, will increase Taipower's capacity by 10 megawatts, or 71 times, by 2011, Yu Shang-hsiung (余勝雄), Taipower's development director, said over the telephone yesterday.
Taipower's solar power capacity is 140 kilowatts, Yu said.
■ Nation ranks 19th in survey
The nation's potential competitiveness ranked 19th among the world's 50 major economies last year, up two notches from the previous year to share position with South Korea, the results of a survey released yesterday by the Japan Center for Economic Research showed.
The top tspots went to Hong Kong, Singapore and the US, in that order, while Japan took 12th and China ranked 35th.
Among the eight criteria of the survey, Taiwan ranked the 18th in internationalization, 25th in business efficiency, 16th in education, 18th in financial system, 43rd in government efficiency, seventh in technological development, sixth in social infrastructure and 13th in information technology, the survey said.
■ NT drops against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday,declining NT$0.032 to close at NT$32.970 on turnover of US$941 million.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS