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TAIEX jumps on rate cut

Taiwanese shares closed up 1.51 percent yesterday, led by Wall Street's overnight rally after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates, dealers said.

The weighted index was up 121.53 points at 8,179.35 after moving between 8,142.73 and 8,233.47 on turnover of NT$122.62 billion (US$3.99 billion).

Risers led decliners 1,158 to 818, with 391 issues unchanged, as 15 stocks ended limit-up and 19 limit-down.

While the market ended higher, profit-taking emerging in late trade undercut an early upswing, dealers said.

Shih Jun-ji to head institute

Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉), a former chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, is tapped to head a business research institute that is a collaboration between the private sector and the government, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday.

Shih is also a research fellow at Academia Sinica.

The ministry-backed business research institute is being established to function as a research and development center in a bid to strengthen business model and competitiveness, said Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆), adding that the institute will be based in Taipei.

Service sector has accounted for over 70 percent of all industries in this country in terms of production output.

But the service sector's competitiveness still has room for further improvement compared with that in other developed countries, Chen said.

The government has earmarked an annual budget of NT$100 million (US$3.24 million) to fund the business research institute until 2010.

The institute has raised a total of NT$230 million fund, with 44.33 percent of that coming from the government and the remainder from the private sector.

CIER recycling computers

Local research house Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) has been helping to recycle used PCs and fix them for needy children over the past 10 years.

This year, the CIER aims to donate 10,000 second-hand PCs to students in remote areas and children from disadvantaged families, according to a statement released yesterday.

The government agency has been promoting this program for 10 years, giving away an average of 3,800 PCs per year, the research house said.

For additional information, call 0800-212-688.

The program will operate until the end of the year.

Exports to SE Asia increase

Taiwanese exports to Southeast Asia continued to increase during the first two months of this year, with the region remaining the second-most important overseas market for Taiwanese products after China and Hong Kong, according to a Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) report yesterday.

For January and last month, 15.6 percent of exports were shipped to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand, it said.

The ratio of exports compares with 39.4 percent to China and Hong Kong, 11.8 percent to the US, 11.2 percent to Europe, 6.4 percent to Japan and 3.7 percent to South Korea, according to the tallies.

Last year, the Southeast Asian nations figure reached 14.5 percent, exceeding the 13 percent for exports to the US, officials said.

NT dollar strengthens

The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.027 to close at NT$30.720.

A total of US$1.31 billion changed hands in the day's trading.
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