The National Development Fund (NDF, 國發基金) will establish a joint-venture capital fund with Daiwa SB Investments Ltd to invest in the biotechnology industry, Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said yesterday.
The joint venture will set up a fund of between US$100 million and US$150 million, with the NDF’s investment accounting for 20 percent to 30 percent of the total, Yiin said.
He did not give a timetable for the fund’s establishment.
Yiin visited several Japanese companies — including Daiwa Securities Group Inc, Hitachi Ltd and Sony Corp — last week to seek investment in their operations in Taiwan.
“The trip was for visiting several old friends,” Yiin told reporters yesterday, reflecting his long-term good relationship with the Japanese firms.
Hitachi, Japan’s second-largest electronics manufacturer, is set to spend ¥6.3 trillion (US$80 billion) on components purchases this year, and should send out orders to Taiwanese suppliers by the end of this year.
Yiin said the council would help Hitachi representatives during their trip to Taiwan in the hope of facilitating more cooperation between the Japanese firm and Taiwanese electronics suppliers.
Yiin said Sony had also expressed an interest in building and managing a small-scale dome in Taiwan as a showcase arena, while Rakuten Inc — which has launched a joint venture with President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) — is set to increase its investment in Taiwan.
In related news, Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華國際酒店集團) — the nation’s largest listed hotel operator which owns the Regent brand — has signed a long-term strategic alliance agreement with Rezidor Hotel Group AB, one of the fastest growing hotel groups worldwide.
The company said in a statement that Rezidor would exclusively develop and operate Regent hotels in Russia, the Baltics, the Middle East and Africa, and jointly develop and operate with the company new Regent hotels in the rest of Europe.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last