Funds managed by the Ministry of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Funds earned NT$20.9 billion (US$641.14 million) in October, bringing this year’s gains to NT$93.91 billion as of the end of October, a report by the bureau showed yesterday.
The funds were valued at NT$6.8814 trillion and saw a 14.96 percent return rate for the first 10 months of the year, the bureau said in its latest fund performance report.
The funds include the Labor Pension Fund, valued at NT$4.5106 trillion with a 14.59 return rate, the Labor Retirement Fund (NT$1.047 trillion, 17.92 percent), the Labor Insurance Fund (NT$1.096 trillion, 16.64 percent) and the Employment Insurance Fund (NT$172.4 billion, 3.42 percent).
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Time
The funds also comprise the Labor Occupational Accident Insurance Fund (NT$36.5 billion, 1.40 percent) and the Arrear Wage Payment Fund (NT$19.4 billion, 11.64 percent).
The bureau also reviewed the performance of the financial markets, saying that US retail sales were solid in September, as were non-farm payroll reports and the non-manufacturing index.
However, Taiwan’s financial market performance in October was relatively weak, apart from the relatively solid stock market, it said.
The Ministry of Labor said that varied interest rate policies, uneven growth, the development of artificial intelligence-related industries, the new US government’s fiscal policy and geopolitical conflicts could lead to uncertainty in the global financial market.
In a historic first, Taiwanese officials participated in this year’s Riga Strategic Communications Dialogue in Latvia from Wednesday to Friday last week, which debuted a breakout session focused on Taiwan The event organizer, the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, displayed Taiwan’s national flag and the officials’ formal titles on their Web site. Taiwanese attendees included National Security Council (NSC) Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and deputy head of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, Chiang Ya-chi (江雅綺). In addition to the session discussing Taiwan titled “Taiwan: Navigating Strategic Communication in a Tense Environment,” the dialogue also included sessions
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Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),