Investments pledged for Taiwan grew about 25 percent this year, showing that the government’s efforts to attract investments from foreign and local firms have paid off, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said on Wednesday.
A total NT$2.24 trillion (US$72.72 billion) in investments were pledged between Jan. 1 and Tuesday, up from NT$1.79 trillion last year, Kung said, citing Ministry of Economic Affairs data.
The amount comes from 227 projects, each valued at more than NT$500 million, the ministry said.
Investments pledged by foreign investors totaled NT$504.90 billion, up 23.29 percent, while locally pledged investments grew 25.5 percent to NT$1.73 trillion, the data showed.
Investment growth picked up this year, Kung said, adding that he expects the trend to continue next year.
Investors paid close attention to the semiconductor sector after the government launched the “five plus two” innovative industries plan to establish Taiwan as an “Asian Silicon Valley,” Kung said.
Investors have gone beyond IC design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, to enter IC production equipment and upstream IC raw materials development, he said.
Investments in the semiconductor industry included a production equipment manufacturing center built by US-based Applied Materials Inc in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) and US Air Products and Chemicals Inc’s industrial gas production site in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), the data showed.
In addition, Taiwanese memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) is investing NT$335 billion to expand its production capacity in southern Taiwan, the data showed.
The “five plus two” industries refer to seven development projects proposed by the government to transform the Taiwan’s economic and industrial structure.
In addition to the Asian Silicon Valley project, the program also refers to biotech-related projects, green energy, smart machinery, the defense industry, innovative agriculture and the circular economy.
Kung said he expects investments in green energy to grow next year as a government push for renewable energy development continues, while tech giants such as Microsoft Corp and Google are expected to pledge investments in Taiwan to establish artificial intelligence and training centers.
The ministry has asked its overseas offices to focus on finding new investments, he added.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai