The government will increase its island development fund by 20 percent to NT$1.2 billion (US$37.3 million) for next year to promote a low-carbon economy on the nation’s outlying islands, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said yesterday.
The outlying islands refer to Penghu (澎湖), Kinmen (金門), Matsu (馬祖), Orchid Island (蘭嶼), Green Island (綠島) and Siaoliouciou (小琉球).
“Because these islands are small, it is easier to promote [a] low-carbon [economy] there,” Alexander Wang (王志輝), a director at the CEPD’s urban and housing development department, said by telephone.
Wang said Kinmen and Penghu would receive around NT$300 million each, and NT$200 million would be given to Matsu. Siaoliouciou will obtain NT$80 million and Green Island and Orchid Island will receive NT$60 million each.
The CEPD said that the local governments of the islands had been directed to submit proposals on their strategies and plans to promote a low carbon economy to the Cabinet for review in April. The proposals have since received ministerial approval.
“All offshore development projects will be focused on the promotion of low-carbon emissions next year,” Wang said, adding that Green Island will be built as a “green and recreational island” and Siaoliouciou as a “model low-carbon emissions island.”
The government will develop low-carbon energy resources, green transportation, ecological tourism and low-carbon communities in Siaoliouciou, hoping to enhance the island’s unique characteristics, the CEPD said.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
RSS