Annual production volume of the nation's digital content sector is expected to surge to NT$600 billion (US$18.6 billion) by the end of 2010, up 66.25 percent from NT$360.9 billion last year, boosted by an educational cooperation agreement with Sony, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry signed a memorandum yesterday with Japanese video game company Sony Computer Entertainment Inc -- the world's leading producer of video games -- in a bid to help train digital content industry professionals in Taiwan.
"The ministry expects the cooperative training program to help stimulate the nation's digital content sector and expects annual production volume to hit NT$600 billion in 2010, with 30 percent in export sales," Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said at a media briefing.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Sony Computer Entertainment banked hopes on expansion in Taiwan last month with the opening of a new subsidiary, Sony Computer Entertainment Taiwan Ltd. Sony's Taiwan operations had previously been run under its Hong Kong subsidiary, Minister-without-portfolio Lin Feng-ching (
"The success of the video game Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail, which Sony Computer Entertainment developed together with domestic companies last year, proved that Taiwan possesses the technical competence," Lin said.
Tetsuhiko Yasuda, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Asia, said yesterday that the educational program would launch in September, but declined to provide the names of the cooperating institutions.
Sony Computer Entertainment produces the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PSP (PlayStation Portable) and PlayStation 3 consoles.
The company is one of 87 firms -- including Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技) and Softstar Entertainment Inc (大宇資訊) -- operating 609 booths at the five-day Taipei Game Show, which opened yesterday at Exhibition Hall I of the Taipei World Trade Center.
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
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