Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) was confident yesterday that the government’s measures to combat unemployment would produce better results in the next two or three months.
Liu promised the government would work to keep this year’s unemployment situation “within acceptable limits.”
The unemployment rate soared to 5.03 percent last December, hitting the highest level since October 2003 and marking the first time in five years that the monthly jobless rate topped 5 percent.
The average unemployment rate for last year was 4.14 percent, a four-year high.
Liu addressed the issue during a meeting with personnel officials, during which he urged government employees to do their jobs to the best of their ability to put themselves over the top.
Liu said the government might be a bit optimistic by forecasting that GDP would shrink only by 2.97 percent this year, but he said the forecast was not based on “blind optimism.”
Liu said he was confident of the government’s ability to get things done, pointing to growth in government investment in the fourth quarter of last year and the fact that 53 percent of the government’s stimulus package to boost domestic demand has been implemented over the past five months.
He said the recent drop in bank lending does not mean a failure of the government’s policy to encourage banks to provide financing to healthy businesses, but reflects a fall in demand.
He noted that Taiwanese exports had fallen by NT$200 billion due to the drop in global market demand.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS