Taiwan should look to the 10 Southeast Asian nations that comprise ASEAN for future “investments, talent cultivation and cooperation,” Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said at a forum promoting Taiwan-ASEAN relations yesterday.
Wang was joined by heads of other government departments for a review of the government’s New Southbound Policy, which President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) initiated after her inauguration in 2016.
“Looking back, we seized the moment at exactly the right time,” Wang said.
As global supply chains are rapidly transforming amid US-China trade tensions, Taiwanese companies have doubled down on their strategic investments in ASEAN member states, Wang said.
According to preliminary trade figures released by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, Taiwan’s exports to ASEAN reached US$45.78 billion in the first eight months of this year, up 35.5 percent year-on-year.
“Trade will not be the only kind of relationship between Taiwan and the ASEAN countries in the future; the nurturing and exchange of talented people will be a tremendously important aspect, and will pave the way for increased cooperation on a nation-to-nation basis,” Wang said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is in talks with the National Development Council (NDC), the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor about how to move forward on Taiwan-ASEAN ties, she said.
“There is a lot to think about as Taiwan stands up to the challenge of globalization,” Wang said. “There may be surprising new directions for the New Southbound Policy in the works.”
NDC Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said at the forum that Taiwan’s businesses and industries would take a different tack when approaching their ASEAN investments.
“In the 1980s, Taiwanese companies were forced to leave Taiwan due to costs, but 2016 was a watershed year when they returned, with their investments, to Taiwan,” Kung said. “Now when they extend their reach to other nations, they are doing so strategically and deliberately.”
“As China becomes more conservative and closed off, and the ASEAN countries plus India become more open, the choice is clear,” he 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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last