Panel and financial service industries will not be included in the second round of negotiations on a proposed economic pact with China, government officials said yesterday. Taipei and Beijing officials are meeting in Dasi (大溪), Taoyuan County today for the two-day round of formal negotiations on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).
“It isn’t as urgent for the panel industry to be included in the early harvest list as other industries. It won’t be included in this round of talks,” Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said in response to reporters’ questions yesterday.
Financial Supervisory Commission Vice Chairwoman Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠) yesterday said that her commission had been informed on Monday that cross-strait financial services would not be included in the negotiations either.
“We are aware that the negotiations on cross-strait market access for the financial sector will not be on the agenda of the ECFA talks,” Lee told a routine media briefing.
She said she could not offer an explanation, saying the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Mainland Affairs Council made the decision.
The two sides of the Taiwan Strait will discuss their early harvest lists, under which specific industries will be the first to enjoy lower or zero tariffs.
Machinery, textiles, petrochemicals, as well as automobiles and related components will be included on Taiwan’s list, Shih said.
“However, we still can’t confirm the list until both sides voice their respective requests and views in the second round of negotiations,” he said, expressing confidence that an ECFA would be signed by June before being sent to the legislature for approval.
He said there would be at least two more rounds of formal negotiations between the two sides before June.
The minister assured the public that the negotiations’ outcome would be transparent so people can better understand the issues.
Meanwhile, Shih said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should cooperate to pass a proposed bill on promoting innovative industries (促進產業創新條例).
“The [base of the] Taiwanese economy is transforming from manufacturing to services. Innovation is critical to the transition and we call for harmonious negotiations to pass the bill as soon as possible,” he said, adding that the prospects for Taiwan’s economy, employment and company investments would be enhanced if the bill were implemented.
He rebutted DPP accusations that small and medium businesses are not favored in the proposed statute, saying that the bill in fact applies to “all companies in all sectors regardless of size.”
As long as these companies take initiatives to conduct research and development and personnel development, they are eligible to apply for tax cuts, he said.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts