The US-China trade dispute poses a tough challenge for Taiwan, but the government’s quick response has helped turn the threat into an opportunity by facilitating a huge repatriation of Taiwanese capital, the minutes of the central bank’s June 20 meeting released yesterday showed.
Board directors shared the view that the trade friction has hit Taiwanese firms hard and fast, as seen by seven straight months of export declines before June.
Some firms moved high-end manufacturing back to Taiwan, while relocating lower-end production to Southeast Asia, they said.
The government has removed investment hurdles and rolled out incentives to lure Taiwanese capital from China and elsewhere, one director said.
So far this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has approved 98 applications, with investment valued nearly NT$500 billion (US$16.03 billion).
As more products are manufactured locally rather than overseas, the domestic supply chain would grow and flourish, the director said.
Another director said the swelling of capital repatriation also has to do with the adoption by many countries of the Common Reporting Standard to combat tax evasion.
As some returning investment cases involve domestic bank lending, financial authorities should pay attention to how this would affect loanable funds in the local market, the director said.
One director said that last year’s property transactions recovered to 2013 levels, but the number of vacant units has continued to pick up over the past few years.
The pressure to reduce housing vacancies had been building as seen in the lukewarm presale market, the director said.
The recovery in housing prices and transactions looks more like a return to normal instead of a boom in property sales and value, the director said.
Another board director said that construction and mortgage loans have reached seven or eight-year highs, and new or existing home prices have inched up for several quarters in a row.
Commercial properties and industrial land have also seen an upsurge this year aided by returning capital, the director said.
The director called for close monitoring of the real-estate market and potential loan concentration so that regulators can respond quickly, if necessary, before expectations for home price appreciation take hold.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS