The Ministry of Economic Affairs has prepared a plan under which nearly NT$5.5 billion (US$175 million) would be spent assisting local factories in making high-quality, reasonably priced consumer products for sales to emerging markets, a trade official said yesterday.
The ministry briefed the Executive Yuan about the plan at a weekly meeting a day earlier, saying that it was initiated in an effort to explore the vast middle-class markets in emerging markets such as China, India and Indonesia.
The rise of middle-class consumers in these emerging markets has spurred consumption of premium and easily affordable products in the post-financial crisis era, Bureau of Foreign Trade chief secretary Chiang Wen-juo (江文若) said.
She said that in the first three months of this year, “our general exports grew by 52.2 percent on average, but exports to most emerging countries showed a rise of over 60 percent.”
“This shows that demand is very high in these countries,” Chiang said in an interview with Radio Taiwan International.
The official said that the middle class in many emerging countries is now a group of strong consumers who, although unable to afford the high-priced products that some European and US customers consume, nevertheless desire consumer items that give the impression of luxury, but at modest prices.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said in Thursday’s Cabinet meeting that emerging economic entities have begun to push global economic growth.
As an export-reliant country, Taiwan should target these markets in an effort to boost overseas sales of its high-quality, but fairly priced information communication products, he said after the ministry briefing.
Under the three-year plan, a budget will be allocated to help local businesses create 40 innovative products that are internationally competitive in terms of quality and price, establish five new international or regional brands and increase Taiwan’s exports to emerging countries by 30 percent before the end of 2012, the ministry said.
Efforts will also be made to promote Taiwan’s high-quality consumer products overseas through strategies that include building an international online shopping mall, organizing trade fairs in emerging markets such as China, India and Vietnam, and opening special zones at various business exhibitions held in Taipei to allow foreign buyers to source creative Taiwanese products, the ministry said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
RSS