MediaTek CEO lauded
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) chairman Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介) has been chosen by the Harvard Business Review as one of the world’s 100 best CEOs in its 2013 ranking of the long-term performances of global business leaders.
In its January-February issue for next year, the magazine ranked Tsai 83rd on the list that was topped by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Tsai was the only Taiwanese entrepreneur on the list.
Since founding MediaTek in May 1997 to make chips for CD/DVD devices, Tsai has turned the fabless semiconductor company into one of the world’s biggest designers and vendors of digital television and handset chips.
According to market research firm iSuppli, MediaTek’s global revenues are expected to reach US$3.47 billion this year, up by 4.9 percent from the previous year. That would make the Hsinchu-based company the world’s 17th largest semiconductor company, according to iSuppli.
The company’s capitalization has also grown to US$15 billion under Tsai’s leadership, according to the Harvard Business Review.
Property speculator indicted
Taipei prosecutors indicted one of the nation’s biggest property speculators and his wife on Saturday for evading taxes related to nearly 2,000 real estate transactions.
Huang Yung-yi (黃勇義) and his wife, Kuo Chih-fen (郭枝芬), were charged with violating the Tax Collection Act (稅捐稽徵法) and forging documents in evading NT$2 billion (US$68.8 million) in taxes related to property sales in Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市) by using proxies, according to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.
Prosecutors said Huang and Kuo bought and sold 1,919 homes and shops worth NT$26.4 billion between 2003 and last year in the names of 51 family members and friends to avoid paying sales tax and corporate and personal income taxes.
Prosecutors uncovered Huang’s scheme last year after discovering that he sold a large number of homes and shops in prime areas in Taipei, mostly in Da-an (大安), Xinyi (信義) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts, and in New Taipei City under the names of others.
Government proposes ‘T-shares’
The government has proposed listing “T-shares” in Taiwan, but the initiative is unlikely to begin next year as financial authorities will need time to prepare for the new financial product, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said on Friday.
“T-shares” refer to companies incorporated in China, such as those that are wholly or partly owned by Chinese investors and those which are owned by Taiwanese investors operating on the other side of Taiwan Strait.
The TWSE said T-share listings will require cross-strait negotiations between financial authorities. The central bank and the Mainland Affairs Council will also have to make their stances known before the plan can proceed, while the TWSE is also in the process of studying a feasible trading mechanism that will allow the listing plan to be implemented smoothly, according to the exchange.
Office workers desire extra jobs
Unhappy and unsatisfied with their current salaries or hoping to build professional skills, the vast majority of the nation’s office workers want to take on a second job, according to the results of an online survey presented on Saturday.
In the survey conducted by 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行) between Dec. 6 and Thursday, 93 percent of the office workers polled said they wanted a second job.
Among those looking to moonlight, 53.54 percent said it was because their “regular salary was inadequate.”
In addition, 51.52 percent said they wanted a part-time job to build savings.
A total of 24.75 percent said they wanted to learn professional skills in their field.
Respondents were allowed to choose more than one reason in answering the multiple choice question.
The job bank’s spokeswoman, Charlene Chang (張旭嵐), said the survey showed the lower respondents’ salaries, the more they wanted to moonlight.
A total of 1,070 valid samples were collected.
The survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.99 percentage points, according to the Taipei-based company.
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
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