GOVERNMENT
Tax changes to be submitted
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said yesterday that the ministry might submit the revised version of the luxury tax to the legislature next month at the earliest. The new legislative session will formally open on Sept. 17. “We are collecting opinions from various aspects and analyzing necessary coordinated measures for revising the luxury tax,” Chang said.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Exchange reserves rise
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves increased by US$270 million last month from July, bringing total reserves to US$409.39 billion, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday. The central bank said the slight increase in foreign exchange reserves last month was the result of the depreciation of the euro and other currencies against the US dollar, which was less than returns from the bank’s management of its reserves.
INDUSTRY
AIDC strikes deal with GE
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空) yesterday said a new contract with engine maker GE Aviation could create NT$2 billion (US$67.19 million) in sales for the company. The state-run company said the contract signed on Thursday would allow it to produce airplane engine model CFM56 over the next four years. Over the past 15 years, AIDC has received up to NT$3.5 billion in orders from GE Aviation.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure