The stable development of Taiwan’s economic ties with China is good news for the region and could make it easier for Taiwan and the ASEAN to sign a free trade agreement (FTA), an Indonesian academic said yesterday.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, the program and research director at Indonesian think tank The Habibie Center, said she hoped improved China-ASEAN and China-Taiwan relations would ease Beijing’s opposition to stronger economic relations between Taiwan and ASEAN.
Anwar would not comment directly on the potential impact of a proposed cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) on free trade deals between Taiwan and other countries because she was not familiar with the ECFA. But she said “the possibility always exists” for a free trade pact between Taiwan and ASEAN.
‘NOT POLITICAL’
“Taiwan is a member of the WTO and APEC. An FTA is an economic issue, not a political one, that depends on the two parties’ interests,” she said. “I don’t see any serious obstacles.”
Anwar was speaking in an interview with CNA in Bogor, where the center held a forum on “Taiwan-Indonesian Dialogue” on Monday and Tuesday along with the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Jakarta, Taiwan’s de facto embassy. It was the second event jointly organized by the two organizations since 2007.
Participants were divided into four groups to discuss political, economic, social and cultural, and non-traditional security issues.
Huang Kwei-bo (黃奎博), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Research and Planning Committee, said at the forum’s closing session that it was meaningful for the two sides to be able to work out joint strategies to resolve regional challenges facing both countries.
CIVIL EXCHANGES
As civil exchanges can be helpful in achieving the goal, the two nations would begin bilateral cooperation and exchanges based on the conclusions of the dialogue, Huang added.
REPORT
The Habibie Center said a complete report of the conclusions will be published next month, which will be presented to the Indonesian government and congress as a policy reference.
Although Taiwan and Indonesia do not have diplomatic ties, economic ties are growing. Taiwan’s customs statistics show bilateral trade grew at an annual rate of 25.51 percent last year to reach US$10.92 billion.
Indonesia is the ninth-largest source of Taiwan’s imports and Taiwan’s 14th-largest export market.
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
The battle for artificial intelligence supremacy hinges on microchips, but the semiconductor sector that produces them has a dirty secret: It is a major source of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. Global chip sales surged more than 19 percent to about US$628 billion last year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which forecasts double-digit growth again this year. That is adding urgency to reducing the effects of “forever chemicals” — which are also used to make firefighting foam, nonstick pans, raincoats and other everyday items — as are regulators in the US and Europe who are beginning to
RSS