Taiwan received over NT$1.2 trillion (US$39.72 billion) worth of private investment last year, amounting to 101.9 percent of the year’s target, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The electronics and IT industry brought in half of the investment total with NT$511.8 billion — or 105.54 percent — of the target set by the government for the sector, government data showed.
Metal and mechanical industries, meanwhile saw NT$300.1 billion invested — 100.05 percent of the government’s target — while consumer goods and chemicals brought in NT$281.4 billion — 100.50 percent of the industry group’s annual target.
Despite exceeding the target, Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) said there is much room for improvement and that he hopes for a “major breakthrough” in trade this year.
The priority for this year will be normalizing and regulating cross-strait trade, he said, driven by a recently signed service trade pact and an under-negotiation trade-in-goods agreement with China.
Given the performance this year, next year’s target will be raised to NT$1.3 trillion: NT$500 billion to electronics and information industries, NT$330 billion to metal and mechanical industries and NT$300 billion to consumer goods and chemical industries.
Meanwhile, the ministry said that Taiwanese investors operating overseas have repatriated NT$181.1 billion (to Taiwan) for investment in 85 projects.
The Department of Investment Services said that investment by foreign business reached NT$10.51 billion, or 100.1 percent of its target.
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
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”