Ministry of Finance officials promised yesterday to study the possibility of auctioning off unclaimed consumer vouchers.
National Treasury Agency Director-General Hwang Ding-fang (黃定方) told the legislature’s Finance Committee he would speak to the Council for Economic Planning and Development about auctioning NT$500 million (US$15.3 million) in unclaimed vouchers.
Hwang promised to study the idea after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said the move could spare the ministry the trouble of destroying the vouchers and help boost consumption.
Lu said it cost NT$10 each to print the vouchers and he suggested the ministry use the money it would save by not destroying them to help disadvantaged people.
Hwang said Lu’s suggestion was creative but the ministry was only responsible for printing and cashing the vouchers.
The ministry is required to destroy unclaimed vouchers, which expire at the end of September.
Lu Wei-chin (呂衛青), deputy director-general of the agency, said the ministry would have to coordinate an auction with the CEPD because the vouchers fall under the council’s jurisdiction.
The council is scheduled to release a preliminary report on the impact of the vouchers on the economy later this month.
The government printed a total of NT$85.7 billion in vouchers, and many businesses launched special promotions to encourage consumers to spend the vouchers at their premises.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last