A stimulus voucher program and coupon packages introduced by the Executive Yuan and other government agencies to bolster the economy have nearly tripled business revenue, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Ministry officials presented the figures in a report to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) at a weekly meeting of the Executive Yuan.
Su was told that the NT$65.055 billion (US$2.25 billion) spent for the Executive Yuan to issue the Triple Stimulus Vouchers and for agencies to issue coupons generated an estimated NT$179 billion in business revenue, boosting the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Council of Agriculture, the Sports Administration, the Ministry of Culture and the Hakka Affairs Council issued their own coupons.
To boost consumer spending, people were encouraged to buy NT$3,000 of vouchers for NT$1,000.
Regardless of age or income level, all 23 million Taiwanese, as well as 150,000 foreign and Chinese spouses holding residency permits, were eligible to purchase paper or electronic vouchers.
As of Tuesday, 22.89 million people had bought the vouchers, or 96 percent of those eligible, Small and Medium Enterprise Administration Director-General Ho Chin-tsang (何晉滄) told reporters after the meeting.
About 21.09 million people selected the paper stimulus vouchers, while 1.8 million chose electronic vouchers, with only 910,000 people still needing to collect their stimulus vouchers, Ho said.
The buying spree triggered by the vouchers has been reflected in business revenue and government tax income, as seen by the growth in July retail sales, ending a five-month contraction, he said.
Taiwan’s retail sales in August and last month set historical single-month highs, as did the restaurant and beverage sector last month, Ho added.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS