Taiwan and Brunei on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote a halal economy between the nations.
The document, titled the MOU on Syariah Compliance Products, Development and Trade, was signed by Pengiran Haris Duraman, chairman of the Brunei Darussalam BIMP-EAGA Business Council (BD BEBC), and witnessed by Taiwan Representative to Brunei Andrew Lee (李憲章).
The document next heads to Taipei to be signed by an official at the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), the other signatory of the MOU.
The BIMP-EAGA refers to the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area, which covers 80 million people. It was launched in 1994 in Davao City, the Philippines, to promote subregional economic cooperation.
The MOU was a result of 10 months of discussion initiated by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei and the BD BEBC, Lee said.
“It will serve as a catalyst and platform for connectivity and cooperation, and to explore opportunities in creating a new supply chain linking Taiwan and Brunei and the global Muslim markets,” Lee said.
The MOU aims to foster cooperation in the halal industry, reduce technical barriers to trade and facilitate bilateral relations between Taiwan and Brunei, particularly with respect to halal export development and promotional programs, Lee said.
It also focuses on investment opportunities in the halal economy and possible joint ventures in the halal value chain between Taiwan and Brunei, he added.
Brunei is well positioned to bridge the gap with Europe, the Middle East, South America and Taiwan in the halal industry, which is a global economic driver encompassing 1.9 billion Muslims, Lee said.
Taiwanese-made halal-certified foods were displayed outside the MOU-signing event as part of the representative office’s effort to showcase Taiwan’s efforts to break into the global halal food market, he said.
France cannot afford to ignore the third credit-rating reduction in less than a year, French Minister of Finance Roland Lescure said. “Three agencies have downgraded us and we can’t ignore this cloud,” he told Franceinfo on Saturday, speaking just hours after S&P lowered his country’s credit rating to “A+” from “AA-” in an unscheduled move. “Fundamentally, it’s an additional cloud to a weather forecast that was already pretty gray. It’s a call for lucidity and responsibility,” he said, adding that this is “a call to be serious.” The credit assessor’s move means France has lost its double-A rating at two of the
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
RSS