The Cabinet yesterday approved an amendment to the Act for the Establishment and Management of Free Ports (自由貿易港區設置管理條例) that would grant foreign companies income tax exemption, in a bid to attract multinational logistics enterprises.
Draft article 29 of the amendment states that a foreign enterprise or its branch registered in the country, which — by itself or entrusting a company in the free port — engages in storage or simple reprocessing and makes delivery of the foreign company’s products to customers abroad shall be exempted from business income tax.
If the products are sold to customers domestically, the company will be taxed business income tax when its domestic sales accounts for less than 10 percent of aggregate sales.
The amendment suggested lowering the minimum number of Aboriginal laborers that companies in free ports are required to hire from 5 percent of total staff to 1 percent.
It stipulated that the government would provide various subsidies to businesses whose Aboriginal laborers made up between 1 percent and 3 percent of its work force.
“The revisions will help remove obstacles impeding multinational companies from investing in the country’s free ports,” said Yin Cheng-peng (尹承蓬), the head of the Department of Navigation and Aviation under the Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC).
Also approved at the Cabinet meeting was a draft bill designed to set up a state-owned company to manage the Taoyuan International Airport Zone, a planned free trade zone near the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport where businesses will enjoy preferential taxes and fewer labor restrictions.
Lee Lung-wen (李龍文), director-general of the MOTC’s Civil Aviation Administration, said that the government would put NT$28 billion (US$829.7 million) into the company that will have a staff of about 462.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
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