Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Chairwoman Christina Liu (劉憶如) said yesterday that escalating tensions between the two Koreas could have a negative effect on Taiwan and that the government would be hard pressed to fulfill its “6-3-3” pledge by 2012.
“In my opinion, [the tensions between] South Korea and North Korea will have the most impact on Taiwan’s economy in the short term given our geographical proximity and robust trade interaction,” Liu said in her first appearance as council chief at a question-and-and-answer session in the legislature.
Liu was responding to questions by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) on which international risks posed the greatest threat to Taiwan: tensions in the Korean Peninsula, the eurozone debt crisis, an Asian asset bubble or Western countries’ fragile economic recovery.
Liu said that if tensions between the two Koreas continued to escalate, it would have a negative impact on Taiwan’s economic development as international investors might withdraw from Asian markets, sending local stock and currency markets tumbling.
“There is no denying that when Asia encounters a problem — it doesn’t matter which country it is — international funds normally pull out [of the regional market],” Liu said.
She said the local stock market was very sensitive to global disturbances and Taiwan was an “unwitting victim” of the Korean crisis, referring to local stocks nose-diving on Monday.
However, Liu said that as Taiwan and South Korea are in neck-and-neck competition in the DRAM, LED and flat-panel industries, a silver lining in the Korean crisis was that a share of the foreign direct investment that was intended for South Korea could be diverted to Taiwan.
Liu also told lawmakers that except for economic growth likely expanding by 6 percent this year, it would be difficult to lower unemployment to below 3 percent and to raise annual per capita income to US$30,000 by 2012.
She was referring to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “6-3-3” campaign pledge to achieve annual GDP growth of 6 percent, annual per capita income of US$30,000 and to lower unemployment rate to below 3 percent during his term in office.
“Based on the current situation, I think it would be hard to achieve the ‘6-3-3’ goal by 2012,” Liu said, blaming the global financial crunch in 2008 that took its toll on the nation’s economy.
“No one had expected an outbreak of the financial crisis when the economic policy was made,” she said.
Calling on the government to remain prudent in dealing with structural unemployment, Liu said the council would strive to lower the jobless rate, which hit 5.39 percent last month, to below 5 percent by the end of this year.
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
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Pegatron Corp (和碩), an iPhone assembler for Apple Inc, is to spend NT$5.64 billion (US$186.82 million) to acquire HTC Corp’s (宏達電) factories in Taoyuan and invest NT$578.57 million in its India subsidiary to expand manufacturing capacity, after its board approved the plans on Wednesday. The Taoyuan factories would expand production of consumer electronics, and communication and computing devices, while the India investment would boost production of communications devices and possibly automotive electronics later, a Pegatron official told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. Pegatron expects to complete the Taoyuan factory transaction in the third quarter, said the official, who declined to be
RSS