The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday approved another four Taiwanese companies’ applications to join a three-year government program aimed at boosting investment in the country.
Ninety-three applications have been approved since the program was launched in January, bringing with them investments totaling NT$452 billion (US$14.56 billion) and more than 42,100 job opportunities.
“I believe we can reach a goal of NT$500 billion in investments by the end of the year,” InvesTaiwan Service Center spokesman William Tang (湯偉民) told the Taipei Times by telephone, adding that a number of companies are still waiting for their applications to be reviewed.
Audio electronics maker Merry Electronics Co (美律), which produces 98 percent of its products in China and exports about 42 percent of them to the US, plans to invest NT$2.2 billion by setting up a research and development center at the Taichung Industrial Park (台中工業區) to avoid US tariffs, the ministry said on its Web site.
The company plans to offer 553 jobs, the ministry said.
The nation’s leading industrial papermaker Cheng Loong Corp (正隆紙業), which focuses on supplying shoe boxes for Nike Inc, as well as packaging material for Apple Inc, plans to relocate part of its production from China to Taiwan due to the ongoing US-China trade conflict and China’s ban on solid waste, the ministry said.
Cheng Loong plans to invest more than NT$2 billion by setting up a new plant in Kaohsiung’s Yanchao District (燕巢) and recruiting 35 people, it said.
The Kinpo Group’s (金仁寶集團) Acbel Polytech Inc (康舒科技), a power supply provider, plans to invest NT$2.5 billion by increasing the development and production of its high-end products at its headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) and hiring 1,300 people, the ministry said.
An unnamed optical equipment manufacturer plans to invest NT$1 billion in central Taiwan by setting up a new plant and purchasing machinery, it said, adding that the company plans to offer a few hundred jobs.
In related news, the ministry yesterday approved an unnamed industrial bakery’s application to join a similar government program targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The bakery is to invest NT$198 million by establishing a smart factory and automated production lines in Taichung’s Shengang District (神岡) and recruiting 47 professionals, the ministry said.
“Our current goal is to reach NT$25 billion in investments by the end of 2021, and create at least 2,000 local job opportunities,” Tang said, adding that more than 10 SMEs have shown an interest in the new program.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six