TAXATION
Revenue growth surges
Tax revenue in the first two months of this year saw its largest increase for the period since 1999, on the back of rising revenue from business income and tobacco and alcohol taxes, as well as customs duties, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday last week. Overall tax revenue from January to last month totaled NT$203.6 billion (US$6.95 billion), up NT$3.2 billion, or 1.6 percent, from a year earlier, the ministry said in a report. Last month alone, tax revenue fell NT$11.9 billion, or 17.5 percent, to NT$56.1 billion from a year earlier due to the effects of the Lunar New Year holiday.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Reserves up by US$997m
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves last month increased by US$997 million from a month earlier to US$456.72 billion, the central bank reported on Monday last week. Meanwhile, holdings of Taiwanese stocks, bonds and local currency-denominated deposits by foreign investors were down US$16.9 billion from a month earlier at US$409.2 billion. The foreign-held assets were equivalent to about 90 percent of the nation’s foreign reserves, down from the record 94 percent in January, reflecting a weaker local equity market in the month, the bank said.
FINTECH
Taiwan, Poland sign MOU
Taiwan and Poland have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote cooperation in the development of financial technology, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Tuesday last week. The agreement covers cooperation in a wide range of areas, including the establishment of an information-sharing system and an innovative enterprises referral mechanism between the two sides, the commission said.
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
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
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