Current investment measures and regulations are enough to regulate Chinese investment and there is no need to turn them into formal laws, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) said yesterday.
The Measures Governing Investment Permit to the People of the Mainland Area (大陸地區人民來台投資許可辦法) are administrative decrees, but are still stricter than the Statute for Investment by Foreign Nationals (外國人投資條例), Shih said at a hearing at the legislature.
Existing regulations can safeguard national security, he said, adding that the status quo should be maintained for the sake of administrative efficiency.
Opposition lawmakers appeared unconvinced and proposed codifying the measures into law as has been done with other investment statutes.
Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said China has changed its strategic plan toward Taiwan from “attacking” to “buying,” and he said a law on Chinese investment is needed so that it would be subject to legislative supervision.
At present, Chinese investment is only regulated by administrative agencies, without legislative oversight.
Ker said the mechanism used to screen investments must be strengthened and he advocated drafting specific clauses listing the sectors in which Chinese investors are not permitted to invest.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) told the hearing that the opposition’s proposal would create an even more unfriendly environment toward Chinese investment in Taiwan.
Taiwan has opened its market to Chinese investment since 2009, but only drawn US$311 million in investment, government statistics show.
Wang said the government is moving toward a fourth phase of deregulation and liberalization of Chinese investments. It will make sure the relaxation does not result in a monopoly, hurt Taiwan’s economy, society and culture, or threaten the country’s national security and financial stability, he said.
A strict screening process will be maintained on individual investment projects, he said.
Wang said a task force under the Ministry of Economic Affairs is working on the details of the fourth phase of deregulation, which will be made public after the work is completed.
After three phases of liberalization over the past four years, Chinese capital has gained access to 97 percent of the business categories in Taiwan’s manufacturing sector, 51 percent of the service sector and 51 percent of the public infrastructure construction industry.
In his Double Ten National Day address President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised to eliminate investment barriers.
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
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
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