A majority of local corporate managers support calls for the establishment of a legislative task force to supervise the government’s undergoing negotiations with China, a survey found yesterday.
The poll conducted via e-mail by the Chinese Professional Management Association (企業經理協進會) showed that 62 percent of 317 respondents thought a legislative task force was necessary to check and balance progress in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s cross-strait negotiations, although as many as 85 percent said they backed a proposal to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).
More than 80 percent of respondents believed an ECFA would give the local economy a boost and pave the way for Taiwan to sign free-trade agreements with other economies, according to the survey
Although the poll showed that as many as 44 percent of respondents were pan-blue supporters, only 50 percent expressed confidence in the KMT government’s ability to maintain cross-strait peace. Only about 3 percent of respondents said they were pan-green supporters.
Another 33 percent said the nation’s sovereignty had been undermined by the 12 agreements signed between the two governments, the survey said. More than 20 percent of this number said China’s refusal to recognize Taiwanese sovereignty, the government’s pro-China policies and its weak stance on cross-strait negotiations had harmed the nation.
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GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
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