The annual Taiwan International Orchid Show held last month in Tainan County has received more than NT$2.4 billion (US$78.7 million) in export orders, a 65 percent increase from last year, Tainan County Commisioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said yesterday.
Su said the show attracted more than 200,000 local and foreign visitors as well as 2,000-plus buyers from 24 countries during its 10-day run which ended on March 17.
Some of the orders for several species or patented species were in the quantity of millions, Su said.
This year, the American Orchid Society, which was asked to send officials to the show to serve as judges, broke a record for the number of orchid plants awarded the highest honors, said Lee Chang-yu (
Lee said that six orchid plants received first class certificates from the US society, breaking the society's record.
The US group usually awards about a dozen such certificates a year.
This year was also the first in which US judges awarded more than four of the top certificates at a single show since its establishment in the 1920s.
Taiwan exported NT$1.84 billion worth of orchids in 2006, a year-on-year increase of 24.1 percent, with butterfly orchids, or phalaenopsis, accounting for NT$1.15 billion of the total, customs statistics show.
Total orchid export orders secured at the orchid show totaled NT$800 million in 2005, NT$1 billion in 2006 and NT$1.5 billion this year, figures compiled by the Tainan County Government show.
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