Although nearly half of the workers who retired last year received a pension of less than NT$500,000, up to three-quarters of the total said they were not worried about coping financially with retirement, a survey conducted by Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) Insurance (匯豐保險) showed yesterday.
The HSBC survey, conducted in cooperation with the University of Oxford’s Oxford Institute of Ageing, also showed that Taiwan has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. With people living longer nowadays, the institute estimated that older people would outnumber young people in Asia by 2045.
“It is now time for people to start thinking and preparing for their later life and retirement, because in 20 years’ time, Taiwan will become a much more older country,” Sarah Harper, a professor at the institute, told a press conference yesterday.
Moreover, the institute estimated that 1 billion people over the next 20 years would be vulnerable to falling into poverty unless they prepare for their retirement.
The survey cited savings as the main source, at about 78 percent, of financial income during retirement for both pre-retirement and post-retirement groups.
It also showed that personal wealth was the most important source of retirement income in Taiwan., with family and the government serving as the second most important source for pre-retirement and post-retirement groups respectively.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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