Twelve local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and six overseas Taiwanese businesses yesterday received National Awards for their outstanding performance from the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday.
Among the 12 winning SMEs were Sheh Fung Screws Co (世豐螺絲廠公司), Hightech Electronic Products Tech Co (東林科技) and Tung Yu Hydraulic Machinery Co (東繁油壓機械).
During his opening remarks, Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) vowed that the government would provide SME credit guarantees of up to NT$6 billion (US$184.2 million) next year while boosting loans to SMEs to NT$300 billion a year, which is equivalent to one-tenth of the nation’s total NT$3 trillion loan balance.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday lauded the resilience of domestic SMEs, which he called a pillar to social stability.
Ma said, that there were 1.24 million SMEs in Taiwan, which account for 98 percent of all businesses here and take up 77 percent of the nation’s labor force.
He also reiterated confidence in the economy, saying the nation’s fundamentals were sound despite the global financial turbulence.
Taiwan has US$250 billion in foreign reserves and more than US$12,000 in GDP per capita, which lags only behind Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia.
The six overseas award-winning companies are Dental Implant Institute (美國拉斯維加植牙醫學中心), Asian Legend Inc (味香村連鎖飲食企業集團), Lightel Technologies Inc (萊特爾科技), Dallas/Fort Worth Technology Inc (美國達福科技), Chiu-Nichi Agro Resources Phil, Inc (綠源農業資源) and Telamon Corp (德利盟).
ASML Holding NV and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have ways to disable the world’s most sophisticated chipmaking machines in the event that China invades Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said. Officials from the US government have privately expressed concerns to both their Dutch and Taiwanese counterparts about what happens if Chinese aggression escalates into an attack on the nation responsible for producing the vast majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors, two of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ASML reassured officials about its ability to remotely disable the machines when the Dutch government met with the company
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday held a ceremony to celebrate the arrival of the first equipment tools for phase 3 expansion at its Fab12i in Singapore. UMC, the second largest pure play wafer foundry operator in Taiwan, called the equipment move-in a new milestone for its production in Singapore with guests including representatives from Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), Jurong Town Council (JTC), the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) as well as its construction partners, major equipment and material vendors. In February 2022, UMC announced plans to invest US$5 billion in the phase 3 expansion of its Fab12i, or Fab12i P3,
RETALIATION: Beijing is investigating Taiwan, the EU, the US and Japan for dumping, following probes of its market, as well as tariff hikes on its imports The Chinese Ministry of Commerce yesterday said it had launched a dumping investigation into imports of an important engineering chemical from Taiwan, the EU, the US and Japan. It would probe imports of polyoxymethylene copolymer, a thermoplastic used in many precision parts used in phones, auto parts and medical equipment, the Chinese commerce ministry said. The ministry is reviewing materials provided by six Chinese companies that applied for assistance on behalf of the industry on April 22, it said. The probe will target polyformaldehyde copolymer imported from suppliers in the EU, the US, Taiwan and Japan last year, and will assess any damage
RETALIATORY: The threat of levies comes as the EU is about to announce the results of its probe into China’s EV subsidies, which might result in it imposing its own tariffs China has signaled it is ready to unleash tariffs as high as 25 percent on imported vehicles with large engines, as trade tensions escalate with the US and EU. The China Chamber of Commerce to the EU said in a statement on X that it was informed about the potential move by “insiders.” The levies would affect European and US automakers and have a “significant” impact on relations with the EU, it said. Beijing is ramping up threats of retaliation as a deadline looms for the EU to announce the results of its probe into China’s electric vehicle (EV) subsidies. The bloc