Taiwan Land Development Corp (TLDC, 台灣土地開發) yesterday said it is to strengthen promotions of presale retirement communities nationwide, as they might benefit from the idle funds civil servants and public-school teachers use to generate preferential interest incomes.
The government and state-owned Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) allow civil servants, public-school teachers and military service personnel to draw preferential interest rates of 18 percent on their savings, which are valued at NT$463.42 billion (US$15.27 billion).
The funds might shift to other forms of investment after pension rule revisions aimed at removing the privilege take effect next year, TLDC chairman Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生) said.
“Our projects in different parts of the nation might prove attractive asset allocation destinations in light of their designs to allow buyers a healthy style of living,” Chiu said after a shareholders’ meeting.
The Taipei-based firm is developing communities in Kinmen County, Hsinchu, Hualien and Nantou that feature cultural and religious elements, up-to-date technology and environmentally friendly designs, Chiu said.
The nation’s rapidly aging population offers huge opportunities and TLDC is tapping the market, the former media tycoon said.
To enhance the firm’s corporate governance, shareholders yesterday approved the election of former minister of the interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源), former minister of finance Christine Liu (劉憶如) and former minister without portfolio Chu Yun-peng (朱雲鵬), as independent board directors.
With a civil engineering and water management background, Lee said he aims to help TLDC develop projects that can absorb precipitation through permeable pavements, rain gardens and wetlands, or reuse the water for irrigation, parks or even for drinking.
People in China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan have expressed interest in living in Taiwan after retirement, lending support to the local property market if the government would ease residency thresholds, he said.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
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