A customs mutual assistance agreement between Taiwan and India took effect yesterday, which may help boost clearance efficiency and trade safety between the two countries, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said.
The agreement was signed in New Delhi on July 12 by Taipei Economic and Cultural Center representative in New Delhi Philip Ong (翁文祺) and director-general of the India-Taipei Association Pradeep Rawat, after being negotiated for more than two years.
“The agreement anticipates the two countries’ closer economic and trade relations in the future, and will benefit the nation’s customs supervisors and local companies’ clearance efficiency,” Deputy Minister of Finance Hwang Ding-fang (黃定方) told a media briefing yesterday.
The signing of the agreement on customs mutual assistance may provide a source of law for further two-way authentication of authorized economic operators (AEO), the ministry said.
It also has a positive influence on Taiwan’s signing of other economic and trade agreements with India in the future, Huang said, adding that he has joined three meetings discussing a taxation agreement between the two countries.
India is the fourth country to sign a customs mutual assistance agreement with Taiwan. An agreement with the US was signed in 2001, with the Philippines in 2004 and with Israel in 2009, ministry data showed.
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
SPECULATION: The central bank cut the loan-to-value ratio for mortgages on second homes by 10 percent and denied grace periods to prevent a real-estate bubble The central bank’s board members in September agreed to tighten lending terms to induce a soft landing in the housing market, although some raised doubts that they would achieve the intended effect, the meeting’s minutes released yesterday showed. The central bank on Sept. 18 introduced harsher loan restrictions for mortgages across Taiwan in the hope of curbing housing speculation and hoarding that could create a bubble and threaten the financial system’s stability. Toward the aim, it cut the loan-to-value ratio by 10 percent for second and subsequent home mortgages and denied grace periods for first mortgages if applicants already owned other residential
SPECIALIZIATION: OpenAI is designing a new type of semiconductor with Broadcom that would run artificial intelligence software and respond to user requests OpenAI is working with Broadcom Inc to develop a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip specifically focused on running AI models after they have been trained, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The AI start-up and chipmaker are also consulting with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest chip contract manufacturer, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. OpenAI has been planning a custom chip and working on such uses for the technology for about a year, but the discussions are still at an early stage, the sources said. OpenAI declined
RAPID GROWTH: MediaTek said that it expects revenue from its flagship smartphone chip to grow by 70 percent, driven by demand for artificial intelligence applications Smartphone chip designer Media-Tek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said that it would perform better than the seasonal pattern with revenue forecast to grow 2 percent quarterly, thanks to robust demand for its new flagship smartphone chip that enables PC-like artificial intelligence (AI) features on phones. The strong demand for the new Dimensity 9400 chip this year prompted MediaTek to raise its flagship smartphone chip revenue growth to 70 percent year-on-year, up from of an earlier estimate of 50 percent growth. “For the fourth quarter, the strong ramp of Dimensity 9400 is expected to offset the lower seasonal demand for the mainstream