US high-tech giant Intel Corp said yesterday it had agreed to open a research center in South Korea, the world's leading high-speed broadband market. \nThe agreement was reached at a meeting here between Patrick Gelsinger, Intel's senior vice president and chief technology officer, and Yim Chu-jwan, president of the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, a joint statement said. \nIt highlights a new push by global high-tech giants into South Korea, which has the world's highest broadband penetration rate at 73 percent and the world's fastest mobile phone network. \nIBM Corp, the world's largest computer company, agreed last year to open a research and development center in South Korea to develop software for mobile communications. \nIntel said its research center in Seoul will focus on "advanced wireless communications technology, high-quality media coding and next generation platforms for content distribution and consumption. \n"Digital technology and the rapid expansion of digital content is changing how people experience entertainment and personal content within the home," Gelsinger said in the statement. \nIntel gave no figures for its new South Korea investment saying only that the research lab would hire 20 people by the end of this year. \nFor this year, Intel set its capital spending budget at US$3.6 billion to US$4.0 billion. \nSouth Korea's Information and Communication vice minister Kim Chang-gon said six international companies, including IBM, are expected to set up research labs in South Korea this year. \n"Our goal is to make a cluster of world-class research centers here ... we plan to attract six research and development centers, four in the first half and two in the second," he said. \nSouth Korea's once-booming high-tech industry led by mobile operators has been struggling to tide over a period of slow growth, competition and weak consumption caused by an economic downturn. \nFinance and Economy Minister Lee Hun-jai promised last week to take steps aimed at raising the proportion of foreign direct investment from 9.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2002 to 14 percent by 2010.
SCHEDULE: The delegation is due to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen this morning and witness the signing of an MOU on bilateral health cooperation in the afternoon US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar yesterday arrived in Taipei aboard a US government plane at the head of a delegation that is the highest-level visit by a US official since Washington switched diplomatic recognition to China in 1979. Azar’s flight landed at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) at 4:48pm, nearly one hour earlier than scheduled, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The apron where it landed is reserved for military aircraft, the Songshan Air Force Base Command said. The members of Azar’s delegation included HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, HHS Chief of Staff Brian
CHINESE FIGHTERS: Beijing marked the US Cabinet member’s visit by briefly sending two warplanes across the median line of the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday met with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar in the highest-level official meeting between the two nations since 1979. “It is a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from [US] President [Donald] Trump to Taiwan,” Azar said during the open portion of his courtesy call to the Presidential Office, which was streamed live online before Tsai and Azar held a closed-door meeting. “Taiwan’s response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent,
ALEX AZAR: The first visit by a head of the Department of Health and Human Services would strictly observe the CECC’s special regulations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar is to lead a delegation to Taiwan — the highest-level visit by a US Cabinet official since the two sides cut formal relations in 1979. The plan was announced yesterday morning by the US Department of Health and Human Services and confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Beijing has expressed its concerns to Washington, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said later yesterday. Taiwan and the US only issued statements saying that the visit would happen “in the coming days.” MOFA said that due to security concerns, it would
‘CROSS-STRAIT CONSIDERATIONS’: Groups said that the Ministry of Education’s policies excluded Chinese and students should not be blocked over political issues The Taiwan International Student Movement yesterday said it would protest today outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei against a policy that excludes some Chinese students from returning to Taiwan amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Since June 17, the ministry has allowed foreign students from 19 “low risk” and “medium-low risk” countries and regions to enter Taiwan. On July 22, it announced that it was relaxing restrictions to include students from all countries and regions who are graduating this semester and on Wednesday it further expanded entry to students enrolled in degree programs. A letter sent by the ministry on Wednesday to universities did
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