Vietnam investment improves
Foreign investment into Vietnam more than tripled to US$31.6 billion this half from the same period a year earlier, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said.
The increase in inflows “has demonstrated foreign investors’ confidence in Vietnam’s economy and investment environment,” a report by the ministry’s Foreign Investment Agency said.
The amount is a record, said Hanoi-based Mai Thi Thu, one of three deputy heads of the agency.
Vietnam’s economy expanded 8.5 percent last year, the fastest pace in more than a decade. The government expects economic growth of 7 percent this year because it has raised interest rates three times to slow inflation.
The majority of foreign investment in the first half was in industrial and construction projects, the report said. Taiwan was the biggest among the 31 countries that invested in Vietnam, with 64 projects worth $8.2 billion, it said.
China Southern raises prices
China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空), the largest in China, and other Chinese carriers will raise ticket surcharges on domestic flights by as much as 50 percent to help cover rising fuel costs.
The levy on journeys of more than 800km will climb to 150 yuan (US$21.90) from 100 yuan, starting today, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and National Development and Reform Commission said yesterday on a government Web site. The fee on shorter flights will rise to 80 yuan from 60 yuan.
The increases follow a 25 percent rise in domestic jet-fuel prices introduced on June 20 as part of a wider Chinese drive to cut energy use and cool economic growth.
MOF approves appointment
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) yesterday approved the appointments of Duan Wei (韋伯韜), former director-general of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, as chairman of the state-run Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司), while its vice president Hsu An-hsuen (徐安旋) was promoted to president, a press statement said.
Meanwhile, Financial Supervisory Commission Vice Chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) is likely to be tapped to head the Bank of Taiwan (台銀) as its chair, replacing outgoing chairman Tsai Jer-shyong (蔡哲雄), local media reported yesterday.
Once the budget of state-owned Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控) is approved in the legislature, Chang will also be promoted to chair the parent company while doubling as the subsidiary bank’s chairwoman, the Chinese-language Economic Daily reported.
The report also said that incumbent Deputy Minister of Finance Liu Teng-cheng (劉燈城) may be appointed to head the Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), replacing chairman Hsu Teh-nan (�?n).
TSMC boss upbeat on stocks
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) was upbeat yesterday about the TAIEX.
“Fundamentals are good even though short-term momentum is worrying,” Chang said yesterday after attending a Straits Exchange Foundation board meeting.
He urged investors to remain calm, saying inflationary pressure would gradually ease and the rise in oil prices would slow down, while the current credit crisis would gradually bottom out.
But he disapproved of the government’s measures to bolster the TAIEX, which he said were usually ineffective.
NT dollar strengthens
The NT dollar yesterday firmed by NT$0.034 to close at NT$30.354 against the greenback on turnover of US$1.067 billion.
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