Government targets conventions
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said yesterday that the government would improve Taiwan’s convention and exhibition facilities to develop the nation into a regional convention and exhibition hub.
Shih said the convention and exhibition industry is symbolic of national progress, and Taiwan would compete with Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai in this respect.
With Taiwan becoming a major hub in the East Asian region following the normalization of cross-strait relations and the launch of direct air and shipping links with China, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has listed the convention and exhibition business as one of the nation’s strategic industries, Shih said.
In line with this policy, the second phase of the Nangang Exhibition Hall project will begin soon and the tender process for the Kaohsiung convention and exhibition center project is also underway, he said.
Samsung, Acer team with AT&T
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and Acer Inc (宏碁) are teaming up with US telecoms giant AT&T Inc to introduce low-priced netbook computers for the holiday shopping season.
AT&T said the Samsung Go and Acer Aspire One, both of which run Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 7, will cost US$199 after a mail-in rebate and with the purchase of a two-year AT&T data service contract.
Taiwanese firms like HK
Taiwanese companies have set up a total of 138 regional offices in Hong Kong as of June 1 — the world’s fourth-biggest in terms of presence after their US counterparts at 526, Japanese companies at 447 and UK companies at 213, showed the latest statistics from InvestHK, a department under the territory’s Foreign Direct Investment.
Nineteen Taiwanese companies have located their regional headquarters in Hong Kong, while another 154 companies have set up local offices there, the investment service department said in a press statement on Monday.
“It showed that Taiwan companies have already globalized and connected to the world economy,” the statement said.
It said that in total Hong Kong was home to 1,252 regional headquarters, 2,328 regional offices and 2,817 local offices to companies from around the world.
Despite a 3.3 percent year-on-year drop in the number of regional offices of foreign companies, the headcount of employees hired by these companies grew from 109 last year to 114, InvestHK director-general Simon Galpin said in the statement.
Semiconductors to advance
Global semiconductor sales will probably rise more than expected next year, said chip industry association WSTS Inc, and may return to pre-recession levels, research firm Gartner Inc said.
Chip sales may increase 12.2 percent to US$246.9 billion next year, beating a June estimate of 7.3 percent growth, WSTS said in a statement. Gartner predicts worldwide semiconductor revenue will advance 13 percent to US$255 billion next year, the same level as in last year, a release from the research firm showed.
WSTS predicts semiconductor revenue will fall 11.5 percent to US$220.1 billion this year, while Gartner forecasts an 11.4 drop to US$226 billion. Memory-chip sales may rise 18.6 percent to US$50.9 billion next year, WSTS said.
“The revenue forecast for the commodity memory market — DRAM and NAND flash — has improved because of the stronger demand outlook, which means that pricing has strengthened more than previously forecast,” Bryan Lewis, a research vice president at Gartner, said in the statement.
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