Taiwan’s economy outperformed major regional rivals between 2019 and 2022, helped by the government’s introduction of policy measures to attract capital repatriation, improve infrastructure, assist strategic sectors and facilitate industrial upgrades, the National Development Council (NDC) said in a statement yesterday.
The council’s remarks came in response to the campaign office for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), which held a news conference earlier criticizing the nation’s economy as “poor and lagging behind.”
In the statement, the council said Taiwan led the pack during the period by measure of GDP growth among the four Asian Tigers, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. All four economies have been fueled by export-led growth and rapid industrialization since the 1960s.
Photo: Wu Hsin-tien, Taipei Times
In addition, the TAIEX last year put up a stronger showing than the Hong Kong bourse, which has been hit hard by capital outflows, the council said. By contrast, the local bourse reported massive capital inflows in November and last month, consistent with recovery expectations on the part of global funds for technology products, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Taiwan in 2022 became the world’s 21st-largest economy with annual per capita income surpassing US$30,000, making it the 10th-best performer among nations with a population of more than 21 million and the second-strongest judging by purchasing power parity, the council said.
The government lent support by rolling out the Invest Taiwan program that allowed local firms based in China to shift manufacturing facilities home with favorable investment terms to dodge the US-China trade disputes, it said.
Further, the government provided aid to the “five plus two” industries that help advance policy initiatives regarding an “Asian Silicon Valley,” biomedical technology, green energy, robotics, defense and aviation, innovative agriculture and a circular economy, the council said.
In addition, the government poured money into infrastructure projects to help narrow development gaps in the north, central and south of Taiwan, it said.
Taiwan also fared well during the COVID-19 pandemic as manufacturers maintained normal operations and supplied the world’s smartphones, tablets, wearables, TVs and cars, the council said.
Over the past eight years, Taiwan’s GDP growth averaged 3.1 percent, better than Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong, it said.
The same period saw cumulated foreign investment amounting to NT$2.49 trillion (US$80.32 billion) with foreign direct investment in 2022 climbing to a 15-year high of US$13.3 billion, it added.
The income gaps between households are widening because family sizes have grown smaller, weighing on their overall income, as Taiwan’s population ages rapidly, the council said.
However, Taiwan’s Gini coefficient, a globally used measure of income inequality, was 0.277 in 2021, milder than 0.333 in South Korea, 0.386 in Singapore and 0.382 in China, it said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS