Cabinet passes job plan
The Cabinet approved a four-year job creation project aimed at reducing unemployment at a meeting presided over by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday.
The project calls for the creation of an estimated 55,000 job opportunities each year, or about 200,000 jobs in four years, which would eventually contribute to lowering the unemployment rate by 3 percentage points, officials from the Council for Economic Planning and Development said.
The government will provide annual funding of NT$6.6 billion for the project, which will cover 53 sub-programs. These will mainly involve the expansion of cooperation programs between the academic and industrial sectors, expansion of vocational training programs, wage subsidies to business owners to boost job openings and assistance for start-ups and self-employed entrepreneurs, council officials said.
Cathay plans bond issue
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s biggest financial service provider, said yesterday it planned to raise up to NT$20 billion (US$610 million) by issuing corporate bonds to improve its financial structure.
The company plans to use the proceeds to boost its risk-based capital ratio, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Cathay Financial also plans to use part of the funds to subscribe to the share sales of its life insurance arm, Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the statement said.
The board of Cathay Life also approved a NT$15 billion fund-raising plan yesterday. The life insurer plans to sell 300 million preferential shares at NT$50 per share.
HTC posts healthy revenues
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s largest manufacturer of Windows-based smartphones, reported yesterday that revenue last month reached NT$16.04 billion (US$489 million), an increase of 22.4 percent from October last year.
For the first 10 months of the year, HTC’s total revenues hit NT$121.22 billion, a growth a 30.8 percent from the same period last year, the company said in a statement.
Buyback rules loosened
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday it will temporarily scrap the rule that requires brokerages to have posted no losses in their most recent annual and semi-annual financial reports to conduct share buybacks.
The requirement will be scrapped until March 31 next year, in consideration of the current state of the securities market and the nature of brokerage business, the statement said. The waiver applies to brokerages that are listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and over-the-counter market.
Lee Chi-hsien (李啟賢), director-general of the Securities and Futures Bureau, said the move will allow brokerages that had posted profits until this year to conduct share buybacks.
Qisda posts slight sales growth
Qisda Corp (佳世達), a local electronics maker and a spin-off of BenQ Corp (明基), said revenues came in at NT$9.85 billion last month, up 2.3 percent from the previous month but down 11.1 percent from the same month last year.
The company was cautious on fourth-quarter prospects, retaining its projector shipment target of 3.5 million units with average selling price trending downward.
Mobile device shipments are expected to reach 200,000 units, it said.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar continued gaining ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.011 to close at NT$32.819.
A total of US$1.28 billion changed hands in the day’s trading.
EXPANSION: The investment came as ASE in July told investors it would accelerate capacity growth to mitigate supply issues, and would boost spending by 16 percent ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it is investing NT$17.6 billion (US$578.6 million) to build a new advanced chip packaging facility in Kaohsiung to cope with fast-growing demand from artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and automotive applications. The new fab, called K18B, is to commence operation in the first quarter of 2028, offering chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) chip packaging and final testing services, ASE said in a statement. The fab is to create 2,000 new jobs upon its completion, ASE said. A wide spectrum of system-level chip packaging technologies would be available at
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
HEAVYWEIGHT: The TAIEX ended up 382.67 points, with about 280 of those points contributed by TSMC shares alone, which rose 2.56 percent to close at NT$1,400 Shares in Taiwan broke records at the end of yesterday’s session after contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a fresh closing-high amid enthusiasm toward artificial intelligence (AI) development, dealers said. The TAIEX ended up 382.67 points, or 1.45 percent, at the day’s high of 26,761.06. Turnover totaled NT$463.09 billion (US$15.22 billion). “The local main board has repeatedly hit new closing highs in the past few sessions as investors continued to embrace high hopes about AI applications, taking cues from a strong showing in shares of US-based AI chip designer Nvidia Corp,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su
Nvidia Corp’s major server production partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) reported 10.99 percent year-on-year growth in quarterly sales, signaling healthy demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Revenue totaled NT$2.06 trillion (US$67.72 billion) in the last quarter, in line with analysts’ projections, a company statement said. On a quarterly basis, revenue was up 14.47 percent. Hon Hai’s businesses cover four primary product segments: cloud and networking, smart consumer electronics, computing, and components and other products. Last quarter, “cloud and networking products delivered strong growth, components and other products demonstrated significant growth, while smart consumer electronics and computing products slightly declined,” compared with the