The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said its energy policy remains unchanged, after business groups expressed concern about the risk of unstable electricity supplies.
The ministry’s main target to increase the proportion of thermal power to 80 percent of the nation’s total power supply would stay the same, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told the legislature in Taipei.
Under the nuclear-free homeland policy, the government aims to raise the contribution of renewable energy to 20 percent of the nation’s electricity supply, increase gas-fired power to half and reduce coal-fired power to 30 percent by 2025.
While the goal remains unchanged, the ministry would consider adjusting the proportion of gas-fired power and coal-fired power to reflect people’s concerns, Shen said.
Asked if the development of “green” energy resources would lead to electricity price hikes, Shen said that adjustments of utility rates should be reasonable and competitive, compared with neighboring nations.
Shen’s remarks came after newly appointed Chinese National Federation of Industries (全國工業總會) chairman William Wong (王文淵) earlier in the day said that the government’s initiatives to phase out nuclear power by 2025 might put pressure on economic development, with tight energy supply posing a major risk.
Wong, chairman of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), also did not agree with the government’s attempt to replace coal-fired power with natural gas, saying that energy diversification is a global trend to ensure stable power supply.
It is not difficult for the government to find a solution to the so-called “five shortages,” such as shortages of water and skilled labor in the industrial sector, he added.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day