The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said that it has set aside NT$265 million (US$8.74 million) to help restaurants and retailers transform digitally as they face a decline in business due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Funded by a NT$20.49 billion special government budget to provide support to the sectors of the economy that have been affected by the pandemic, the aid would be divided into two parts, the ministry said.
Restaurants would receive a bigger share, the ministry said, adding that the main focus would be on helping them launch food delivery services.
“Consumers have opted to stay home to prevent the coronavirus from spreading,” Department of Commerce Deputy Director-General Chen Mi-shun (陳秘順) told a media briefing in Taipei.
As a majority of restaurants do not have experience in food delivery, the ministry would help them reach agreements with delivery service providers, Chen said.
The aid program would also include assistance in more complex marketing services, such as creating online menus and taking photographs, the ministry added.
Each restaurant contracting local delivery service providers for the first time would be eligible for a maximum of NT$15,000 in subsidies, which would be given directly to service providers, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the remaining NT$100 million would be given to 1,000 retailers looking to sell their products via online channels, it said.
Retailers would be allowed up to NT$100,000 to subsidize the establishment of online sources of income through e-commerce platforms, which would help facilitate the process, the ministry said, adding that the sum would be given directly to e-commerce operators.
The ministry yesterday began accepting applications from local delivery service providers and e-commerce operators.
The final list of service providers and operators approved by the ministry would be published by Friday next week, it added.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
RSS