Taiwan and South Korea have long been important trade partners and the so-called “Chaiwan” phenomenon will not necessarily pose a threat to South Korea’s economy, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) chairman Wang Chih-kang (王志剛) said yesterday.
“Since the economies of Taiwan and South Korea are complementary ... and the so-called ‘Chaiwan’ threat felt by South Koreans can be minimized or even eliminated through positive exchanges between Taiwan and South Korea,” Wang said at a press conference after attending the 34th joint meeting between the Taipei-based Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) and the Federation of Korea Industries (FKI).
Wang serves concurrently as chairman of CEICA.
The “Chaiwan” threat, a term coined recently by combining the names of China and Taiwan, refers to a trade threat that is perceived by South Korea and other economies as a result of the closer economic cooperation between China and Taiwan in the past year.
These economies’ fear of being marginalized escalated recently with China’s mass purchase of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors from Taiwan under a project to stimulate domestic demand by encouraging rural residents to buy home electronics such as LCD TV sets, laundry machines and refrigerators.
Cross-strait relations have been improving and several agreements have been reached between the two sides since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to power in May last year.
Since then, China has sent several procurement missions to purchase billions of New Taiwan dollars in goods, especially Taiwan-made LCD monitors.
China’s orders of Taiwan-made LCD monitors has pushed Taiwan into the spot held by South Korea as the top global supplier of LCD monitors.
Wang said China is Taiwan’s largest external market, absorbing 40 percent of its exports, and that it is natural for Taiwan to take advantage of China’s market stimulus measures to expand its market share there.
“I believe that the ‘Chaiwan’ threat to South Korea could be eliminated if both Taiwan and South Korea make better use of their complementary partnership and if they increase economic exchanges between them,” Wang said.
The discussions in the CIECA-FKI meeting mainly focused on the current economic state of the two countries, cross-Taiwan Strait relations and bilateral cooperation in the fields of green energy, information and communications technology and medical tourism, CIECA said.
Since 1967, CIECA and FKI have been taking turns organizing the event to promote bilateral commercial and trade cooperation.
During his stay in Seoul, Wang will also attend the 16th joint meeting between TAITRA and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency today.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six