President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised technology tycoons yesterday he would relax the cap on investment in China as a priority after his inauguration on May 20.
The removal of the cap, usually 40 percent of a company’s net value, would help Taiwanese businesses compete with multinationals in China, boost the nation’s competitiveness globally and encourage businesses to keep their roots in Taiwan, Ma said.
Ma also promised to revise the regulations regarding income tax, inheritance tax and donation tax to create a friendlier investment environment.
“Our goal is to push for low taxes and simple tax policies and to give local businesses enough incentive so that they will continue investing in Taiwan,” Ma said after meeting seven business tycoons in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖).
Ma visited heads of leading technology businesses including Lite-On Group (光寶集團) chairman Song Kung-yuan (宋恭源), Acer chairman Wang Jen-tang (王振堂) and Asustek (華碩電腦) chairman Jonney Shih (施崇堂).
After the two-hour closed door meeting, Ma said that he had often consulted local businesses as Taipei mayor and promised to keep up regular communication with the technology industry after his inauguration.
Song lauded Ma for his sincerity in listening to the opinions of industry leaders and urged him to remove the cap on investment in the Chinese market as soon as possible.
The business leaders also urged Ma to relax regulations for hiring foreign talent, especially from China, and to implement cross-strait direct links soon.
Accompanying Ma to meet the businessmen, economic affairs minister-designate Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) promised to prioritize the removal of the investment cap after he is sworn in.
He also pledged to add a sunset clause to the Statute for Upgrading Industries (促進產業升級條例) by next year that would stipulate when and in what situations tax breaks would be revoked.
Under existing regulations, China-bound investment may not exceed 20 percent of a company’s net assets if those exceed NT$10 billion (US$323.5 million); 30 percent when net assets are between NT$5 billion and NT$10 billion; and 40 percent when net assets are less than NT$5 billion.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,