Foreign direct investment (FDI) approved by the government in the first eight months of this year totaled US$5.72 billion on the back of foreign companies investing in Taiwan’s offshore wind power industry, the Investment Commission said yesterday.
However, the figure represented a 12.29 percent annual decline due to a high comparison base last year, when US-based DRAM maker Micron Technology Inc raised its investment in its subsidiary in Taiwan, the commission said.
Denmark-based Orsted and Macquarie Corporate Holdings last month secured approval to invest NT$17 billion (US$583 million) and NT$6.2 billion respectively in the nation’s offshore wind energy industry to push up the monthly total to US$1.3 billion, commission data showed.
In the first eight months, approved FDI from the countries covered by the government’s New Southbound Policy fell 65.13 percent from a year earlier to US$275 million also due to a high comparison base, the commission said.
In contrast, approved investments from China in the period rose 54.2 percent from a year earlier to US$118 million as several China-based tech companies secured permits to move funds to Taiwan, it said.
Approved outbound investments over the period rose 39.52 percent from a year earlier to US$6.31 billion, which largely reflected an approval for multi-layer ceramic capacitor maker Yageo Corp (國巨) to acquire its US counterpart Kemet Corp for US$1.36 billion, the commission said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last