President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋).
This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said.
The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy and strengthened its pull on major global investors, with the volume of foreign investment rising to US$11.25 billion last year, she said, adding that the average annual foreign investment volume in Taiwan was US$10.3 billion between 2016 and last year, up from US$5.36 billion between 2008 and 2015.
The surge in foreign investment shows that the nation has further cemented its position in global supply chains and raised its profile on the world stage, Tsai said.
The president thanked Google for contributing to the government’s “Smart Taiwan” initiative, including efforts to upgrade the information technology sector, increase the application of smart technology in industries and scale up Taiwan’s digital economy.
Google has demonstrated corporate social responsibility by providing educational resources to rural schools and joining the National Institute of Cyber Security in the fight against fake news and cyberattacks, Tsai said.
It has been 11 years since Google established its first regional-level data center in the nation and it is currently building four undersea cables to connect Taiwan to the world, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said.
This is to establish Taiwan as a key nexus through which global digital data would flow, bolstering the nation’s competitiveness and importance to the international community, he said.
Google opened its first Taiwan office in 2006 and has presided over the continuous growth of its Taiwanese team since then, Google vice president of hardware Elmer Peng (彭昱鈞) said.
The tech giant’s team in Taiwan, which is 20 times larger than its size 10 years ago, now recruits workers from more than 30 countries and regions around the world, Peng said.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
RSS