If the plan to build Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co’s (國光石化) naphtha cracker plant in Taiwan is scrapped, it would have a positive influence on the nation’s economy in the long term, economists said yesterday.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said on Saturday that Kuokuang Petrochemical might seek an alternative location overseas for its proposed plant, after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said on Friday that the government would not support the construction of the company’s project in Changhua County.
GDP growth could fall by 2 percentage points if the plant’s construction in Taiwan is halted because domestic investment momentum could drop without the NT$900 billion (US$31.11 billion) two-phase project, not to mention the economic spin-off effects, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said last week.
However, Gordon Sun (孫明德), deputy director of the macroeconomic forecasting center at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院), said any negative impact on GDP growth could be compensated for with the government’s other -investment projects.
“If Kuokuang Petrochemical’s project is out, the government could come up with projects or construction in other industries and transfer the NT$900 billion investment to them, keeping up the momentum in domestic investment,” Sun said by telephone yesterday.
Furthermore, the ministry’s forecast that 2 percentage points could be shaved off GDP growth would be a long-term effect spread over five to eight years, not just one year, Sun said.
Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源), president of the Polaris Research Institute (寶華綜合經濟研究院), said that any potential withdrawal of Kuokuang Petrochemical’s investment from Taiwan would only have a limited impact on GDP growth.
“External demand could be -impacted if the project is halted, but the benefits for the local natural environment and water quality could offset this negative impact, as the macroeconomics not only include GDP growth, but also the potential negative consequences brought about by the execution of the project,” Liang told the Taipei Times.
Diagee Shaw (蕭代基), president of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (中華經濟研究院), said the potential withdrawal of the project could inspire the government into thinking that the development of the petrochemical industry should focus on quality, not just quantity.
The government is now seeking to develop a value-added petrochemical industry, such as the production of optical coatings and upstream materials for solar energy and LED industries, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) told a media briefing on Saturday.
Sun agreed that Taiwan could develop a high-end petrochemical industry by applying its successful development experience in the development of its semiconductor foundry industry.
“We should let investments in low-value and high-contamination sectors be made overseas, while retaining the value-added sectors here,” Sun said.
The government should also consider transferring the budgeted funds for the Kuokuang project to bio-technology, tourism and other manufacturing industries with value-added components, compensating for any potential dip in GDP growth, should the project be withdrawn, Sun said.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”