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.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong