Taichung to hold beer festival
The Taichung City Government said it is set to kick off an international beer festival on Aug. 23 to Aug. 25, said Deputy Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家旗). The festival is aimed to become a regular tourist attraction much like Munich's Oktoberfest, drawing tourists from home and abroad to spend their vacation in Taichung, Hsiao said. The three-day festival organized by the city government, the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司), and several local trade associations, will take place at the night market on Chunghwa Road in Taichung City, where beers from Taiwan, Japan and Australia, as well as many kinds of delicious food -- most of it for free -- are on offer.
Current account surplus rises
Second quarter current account surplus rose to US$6.06 billion mainly due to a surge in the trade surplus, the central bank said yesterday. The figure was up from US$3.39 billion a year earlier but was down from a revised US$7.28 billion in the previous quarter, the central bank said. The surge in the current account surplus was largely because of the trade surplus of US$5.98 billion for the three months to June, a narrower services deficit and a rise in financial income, it said. The second-quarter financial account hit a record-high net inflow of US$10.67 billion for a single quarter against a net outflow of US$3.28 billion a year earlier.
China-bound investment up
The government approved China-bound investments worth US$1.94 billion in the seven months to July, up 19.6 percent from the same period last year, official data showed yesterday. The Investment Commission, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said it gave the greenlight to 753 China-bound investment applications in the seven months. In July alone, 142 China-bound investment proposals worth a total of US$407.39 million were approved, up 54 percent from a year earlier. In the same month, foreign direct investment in Taiwan fell by half to US$351.6 million. In the seven month period, the commission approved investment to countries other than China worth US$1.83 billion, down 34.1 percent from the same period last year. It also rubber stamped US$1.84 billion worth of inbound investment during the same period, down 47.4 percent.
Firms to list in Shanghai
Taiwanese companies are expected to be listed on China's Shanghai A-shares index by the end of this year at the earliest, sources familiar with the situation said yesterday. Taiwanese companies, including Ho Tung Chemical (和桐化學) and the Walsin Lihwa Group (華新麗華), have submitted applications with China's State Council to be listed on the Shanghai A-shares index, which was originally open only to China's domestic companies. The prospective listing will be conducive to capital acquisition for Taiwan companies maintaining business operations in China who until now still have obvious difficulties to easy access to capital and funds from within China. Currently, only one Taiwan company has been listed on any of China's stock markets. Tsann Kuen Enterprise (燦坤) is listed on Shenzhen's B-shares index.
NT dollar loses more ground
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued to lose ground against its US counterpart on the Taipei foreign exchange market in line with a weaker yen. The unit dropped NT$0.015 to close at NT$34.000. The turnover was US$566 million, up from the previous day's US$342 million.
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