Taiwan is expected to allow one-third more Chinese tourists visit the nation next year, local media reported yesterday, ahead of a fresh round of talks between the two sides.
Currently, up to 3,000 Chinese tourists are allowed to visit Taiwan each day, but that quota is expected to be increased to 4,000 from next month to meet strong demand, the Liberty Times reported, citing an unnamed tourism official.
Officials from the Mainland Affairs Council were not immediately available for comment.
Tourism operators welcomed the reported move and called on the government to further relax restrictions.
“The government should raise the daily quota to 5,000,” said Roger Hsu (許高慶), the chief secretary to the Travel Agent Association of Taiwan, which promotes tourism in the nation. Such a level was promised by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) before the 2008 presidential election.
Hsu said Taiwan’s existing tourism facilities such as hotels and buses were more than able cope with a daily quota of that size.
Chinese tourists have made 1.13 million visits to Taiwan so far this year.
Authorities have said tourism grew faster than anywhere else in Asia last year, largely due to the influx of visitors from China.
The report came one day before China’s top negotiator, Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), flies to Taipei for the sixth round of talks since 2008.
Chen, the head of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, is scheduled to hold talks with Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) tomorrow, officials said.
Ties have improved markedly since Ma came to power in 2008, with the two sides resuming routine high-level direct unofficial talks and adopting various measures to boost trade and tourism.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS