The government is assessing the feasibility of renewing an economic cooperation agreement with Indonesia to foster bilateral trade and investment, as part of efforts to push the New Southbound Policy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
A feasibility assessment, which began at the end of last year, is expected to be completed later this year, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said before the opening ceremony of the Taiwan Expo in Jakarta.
“An assessment was finished in 2012, but things have changed [over the past few years]. We have to take into account the present situation,” Wang told reporters.
The government plans to renew a bilateral investment agreement with Indonesia aimed at protecting investment in each other’s territory.
Taiwanese companies last year invested a total of US$397 million in Indonesia, a 166 percent jump from US$149 million in 2016, government data showed.
The ministry said it is to begin studying the details of a renewal after it acquires an English-language bilateral investment agreement template drafted by the Indonesian government, but did not provide a timetable.
Renewal of the agreement with Indonesia would mark another step in Taiwan’s strengthening of economic ties with Southeast Asian nations, after a bilateral investment agreement with the Philippines was renewed in December last year.
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) yesterday opened the Taiwan Expo in Jakarta, with the aim of helping Taiwanese firms explore “southbound” opportunities in the world’s fourth-largest country by population.
The government-backed trade promotion agency last year launched the Taiwan Expo project, which targets markets including Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
“We held our first-ever Taiwan Expo in Southeast Asia here [Jakarta] last year and that was a big success,” TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said, adding that the matchmaking event generated US$49.25 million in orders.
For this year’s exhibition, TAITRA invited 230 Taiwanese companies from 10 industries, including machinery, home appliances, cosmetics and food and beverage.
TAITRA has also set up new pavilions for digital commerce and bubble tea, in a bid to expand Taiwan’s presence in Indonesian markets.
Taiwan, whose e-commerce market reached US$34.2 billion in sales last year, is likely to duplicate its success in Indonesia, TAITRA said.
The business-to-business Taiwan Expo runs until tomorrow at the Jakarta Convention Center, showcasing more than 4,500 products and services provided by Taiwanese firms.
The three-day event is expected to attract more visitors than last year’s 18,188 people, TAITRA said.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
RSS