■ Tax revenues up 50%
Taxes funnelled into the national coffers last month totaled NT$71.1 billion (US$2.14 billion), up by 50.4 percent over the year-earlier level, the Ministry of Finance reported on Tuesday. Tax revenues generated by stock transaction deals reached NT$10.7 billion last month, a monthly high since February 2002 and representing a 2.7-fold rise compared to the previous year's record, which is also a new single-month high since March 2000, ministry officials said. They attributed the big jump in last month's stock transaction taxes to a bullish stock market as a result of recovering business conditions. In addition, land-value increment tax revenue also grew by NT$4.2 billion year-on-year to NT$7.5 billion last month thanks to a government policy that provides a 50 percent cutback in such taxes, income from which hit a record high of NT$10.05 billion last December. The policy of halving the land-value increment tax was originally to have expired in January, but the Legislative Yuan recently decided to extend it for another one year.
■ Cycle show opens in Taipei
The Taipei International Cycle Show opened yesterday at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibi-tion Hall, with a theme of "Think Bicycle, Think Taiwan." The four-day show is the largest of its kind in Asia, with as many as 1,828 booths. It is sponsored by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (外貿協會) and Taiwan Bicycle Exporters Association (台灣區自行車輸出業公會). The sponsors said that the show is the largest ever, with the largest-ever number of foreign exhibitors, including Shimano, Cat Eye, Accell, and Michelin. Local manufacturers such as Giant (捷安特) and Merida (美利達) are also displaying their wares, including tandem, folding, mountain and electric bicycles.
■ TSMC, Qualcomm to collaborate
Qualcomm Inc, the developer of code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) technology, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) announced yesterday they will collaborate on 90 nanometer low-power process for wireless applications has borne fruit. In a statement issued by the California-based Qualcomm, the ompanies said the planned delivery of Qualcomm's new wireless chipsets this year will use TSMC's 90nm low-power process technology. The new technology will greatly reduce mobile application power consumption, improve processor performance and enable the integration of more features onto a single chip, the statement said. TSMC's 90nm technology is deployed in its Fab 12 in Hsinchu, the industry's largest 300mm production facility. The new technology is also expected to be deployed in TSMC's Fab 14 in Tainan when the facility is ramped for production.
■ Hon Hai may sell HK phone unit
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) plans to sell shares in its Hong Kong mobile-phone manufacturing unit to city investors, probably in October, a Chinese-language newspaper said, citing chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘). No details of the issue or the amount the company hopes to raise were disclosed. Separately, Hon Hai Precision's unit InnoLux Display Corp (群創光電) yesterday signed a NT$20 billion syndicated loan with Chiao Tung Bank (交通銀行) and seven other lenders to invest in liquid-crystal-display production plants, the report said.
■ NT weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday turned weak against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.057 to close at NT$33.384 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$844 million.
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
COLLABORATION: Given Taiwan’s key position in global supply chains, the US firm is discussing strategies with local partners and clients to deal with global uncertainties Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday said it is meeting with local ecosystem partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), to discuss strategies, including long-term manufacturing, to navigate uncertainties such as US tariffs, as Taiwan occupies an important position in global supply chains. AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) told reporters that Taiwan is an important part of the chip designer’s ecosystem and she is discussing with partners and customers in Taiwan to forge strong collaborations on different areas during this critical period. AMD has just become the first artificial-intelligence (AI) server chip customer of TSMC to utilize its advanced
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
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