The nation’s economy will benefit significantly from cross-strait weekend charter flights and the influx of Chinese tourists, but the economic effects may come at a slower pace than expected, a local economist said yesterday.
“The positive effects might kick in around the latter half of 2009,” said Wea Chi-lin (魏啟林), a professor at the College of Management at National Taiwan University.
Addressing a seminar hosted by the Asia Pacific Industrial Analysis Association (APIAA), Wea said the weekend direct charter flights beginning today were not regular flights and would therefore be more symbolically significant than anything, but would lead to more substantial changes down the road.
“The significance is that Taiwan will join the logistical network of the Asia-Pacific region by offering international businesses direct access to explore the huge Chinese market,” Wea said.
He said that in the past Taiwan had been ignored by some international investors because of the lack of cross-strait links.
As of today, 36 cross-strait charter flights will operate each weekend.
But Wea said the full benefits of cross-strait air links would not materialize until regular scheduled flights were introduced.
“Arrangements for regular cross-strait flights are expected to be completed by the latter half of 2009 to bring real benefits to Taiwan’s economy,” said Wea, who is also the chairman of Paradigm Asset Management Co.
As for the influx of tourists from China, Wea said the number of tourists expected this year depended on further negotiations between Taiwan and China.
More than 700 Chinese tourists are expected to arrive today in 25 tour groups.
The government initially estimated that opening Taiwan to 3,000 tourists from China per day would boost economic growth by 0.48 percent this year.
However, China has since limited the number of tourists to 1,000 per day.
“But the increased number of tourists could cause problems that could drive up social costs significantly,” Wea said.
For example, new diseases could be introduced into Taiwan, he said.
“The government needs to develop precautionary measures to deal with these potential problems,” he said.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
NOT OVERLY PESSIMISTIC: While consumer electronics demand remains volatile, MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai said that tariffs would have limited effect on the company Chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said revenue this quarter would contract by 4 percent sequentially in the worst-case scenario on softer smartphone demand. Revenue is expected to be between NT$147.2 billion and NT$159.4 billion (US$4.6 billion-US$4.98 billion), compared with NT$153.31 billion last quarter, the company said. MediaTek said demand for smartphone chips would be flat or slide sequentially this quarter, while demand for smart devices and power chips would go up. Mobile phone chips made up 56 percent of the company’s total revenue last quarter. Gross margin of 46 to 49 percent is forecast for this quarter, compared with 48.1 percent last
RSS