Investment in Taiwan’s biotech sector hit a record high last year, reflecting a booming market, Ernst & Young said in a report on global biotech development released on Friday.
In the report, the multinational accounting firm said investment in Taiwan’s biotech sector last year rose 14.6 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.1 billion (US$1.04 billion) and further growth in the sector could be expected.
PROGRESS
Kim Chang (張嵐菁), chief operating officer of the assurance division and head of the life sciences division at Ernst & Young Taiwan, said the local sector, backed by a government campaign to promote biotechnology development, is making significant progress.
As an example, Chang cited an action plan initiated by the Cabinet in 2009 as being particularly helpful in developing an environment in which the local biotech sector could grow through a sizable infusion of venture capital.
According to a document released by the Cabinet, NT$10 billion in venture capital is expected to be invested in the biotechnology sector and should generate NT$1 trillion in output value over five years.
INTEGRATION
Chang said that along with the venture capital, the action plan’s incubation center is expected to help integrate government and academic resources devoted to the field.
According to the report, Taiwan has gained the upper hand in biotechnology development because of its long-term commercial ties with the US and Japan, which have advanced biotechnology knowledge.
CHINA TIES
In addition, Taiwan has close business ties with China, paving the way for the country to enter the huge Chinese market, the report said.
In China’s growing biotechnology sector, a total of 33 companies launched initial public offerings to raise US$5.9 billion last year, up more than 47 percent from a year earlier, the report said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last