Ministry seeks to reassure companies in Nicaragua
Ministry seeks to reassure companies in NicaraguaTRANSITION PERIOD: With the Central American nation switching recognition to China, the ministry said it would help firms expand into markets such as ParaguayBy Lu YI-hsuan and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday sought to reassure Taiwanese businesses with operations in Nicaragua that their interests would be protected after the Central American nation last month severed relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing. Isaac Chiu, Deputy Director-General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Cooperation and Economic Affairs, speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Nicaragua is one of the largest importers of Taiwanese fishery products, while Taiwan is Nicaragua’s largest market in Asia, Ministry of Economic Affairs data show. The foreign ministry made the remarks in condemnation of Beijing’s “shock” at Slovenia’s plan to open reciprocal representative offices with Taiwan. “The fact that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a free and democratic nation has already won the respect of the world,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a regular news conference in Taipei.
Source:Taipei Times
January 20, 2022 22:08 UTC
EU to unveil plan to fund chip production next month
EU to unveil plan to fund chip production next monthBloombergThe EU is to publish early next month proposed legislation to make the continent a leader in chip production, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced yesterday. The European Chips Act would further adapt state aid rules “under a set of strict conditions,” the head of the EU’s executive arm said during a virtual address at the World Economic Forum. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Jan. 7. Photo: ReutersThe EU wants to become more involved in chip production, with a target of producing 20 percent of global semiconductor value by 2030, up from 10 percent. Currently, the EU is a world leader on chip research and production equipment, but lags behind in producing chips, particularly state-of-the-art versions.
Source:Taipei Times
January 20, 2022 20:29 UTC
Foreign investment falls 18.24%
Foreign investment falls 18.24%Staff writer, with CNAForeign direct investment (FDI) fell 18.24 percent to US$7.48 billion last year from a year earlier as COVID-19 spread worldwide, the Investment Commission said yesterday. The number of approved applications from foreign investors fell 20.68 percent year-on-year to 2,711, it said. Foreign investment is mainly in financial services and insurance, wholesale and retail trade, real-estate activities, information and communication technologies (ICT), and electronic parts and components manufacturing, the commission said. The commission attributed the sharp decline in FDI to a continued worldwide rise in COVID-19 cases that affected foreign investors’ policies toward direct investment in Taiwan. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s approved foreign-bound investments rose 6.73 percent last year from a year earlier to US$1.26 billion, the commission said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 20, 2022 20:29 UTC
High Court overrules death sentence for convicted murderer
High Court overrules death sentence for convicted murdererStaff writer, with CNAThe Taiwan High Court yesterday overturned Wang Ping-hua’s (王秉華) death sentence for fatally stabbing a man and sentenced him to life in prison. Convicted murderer Wang Ping-hua is escorted by security officers at the Taiwan High Court yesterday. Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei TimesAfter the murder, Wang’s then-wife notified authorities and convinced her husband to turn himself in. High Court spokeswoman Lien Yu-chun (連育群) said that the district court had ruled that Wang’s surrender had been on the behest of his wife, and was therefore passive and not voluntary. As a result, Wang did not qualify for a lighter sentence, as the statute of self-surrender did not apply to his actions.
Source:Taipei Times
January 20, 2022 04:01 UTC
EU letter slams China over Lithuania
EU letter slams China over LithuaniaLAWMAKERS RALLY: Beijing’s unlegislated actions breach international and WTO trade rules, and affect the basic principles of the EU single market, the letter saidBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterA group of 41 EU lawmakers on Tuesday condemned China for its political and economic coercion of Lithuania, and called on leaders of the bloc to demonstrate solidarity with Vilnius. The letter was initiated by Slovakian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Miriam Lexmann, who is cochair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. “We, the undersigned members of the European Parliament, resolutely condemn political and economic coercion of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) against Lithuania,” the letter said. A list shows European Parliament members’ signatures to a letter, initiated by Slovakian Member of the European Parliament Miriam Lexmann, condemning China over its political and economic coercion against Lithuania. Separately, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Eva-Maria Liimets on Monday also voiced her country’s solidarity with Lithuania.
Source:Taipei Times
January 20, 2022 01:09 UTC
Gogoro’s ‘game changer’ battery swapping goes global
“Honestly, if it weren’t for battery swapping — which, by the way, is even faster than filling up at a gas station — I wouldn’t use an electric bike,” the marketing executive said. Gogoro Inc founder and chief executive officer Horace Luke is pictured in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Taipei on Friday last week. Photo: Sam Yeh, AFPIt costs about 10 percent more than buying gasoline each month, he said. Global sales of e-scooters are estimated to have topped 25 million units in 2020, or 35 percent of total sales of two-wheeled vehicles, BloombergNEF said. “I think battery swapping was a real game changer and is a real game changer,” Luke said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 20, 2022 00:59 UTC
A big thank you
Siltronic casts doubt on GlobalWafers’ takeover bidSiltronic AG cast doubt on a planned US$5.3 billion takeover by GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), saying the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action’s feedback so far was opaque and offered no clear resolution on how to win approval for the deal. During recent discussions, the companies did not receive any information as to whether and under which conditions a clearance for the takeover might be issued, the German company said in a regulatory filing on Friday following a news report on remedies the companies have offered. In the ministry’s view “in this case, a mitigation agreement is apparently not suitable
Source:Taipei Times
January 19, 2022 20:27 UTC
COVID-19: Hon Hai tightens curbs at Jhongli sites
People enter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District in an undated photograph. To reduce in-person contacts and protect its workforce, employee restaurants would only offer boxed lunches and employees would only be allowed to eat in their cubicles rather than in public areas, Hon Hai said. Separately, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said that the company would develop a platform for companies in its ecosystem to develop metaverse applications, a strategy Hon Hai has adopted for entering the electric vehicle (EV) business. Aside from the metaverse, Hon Hai has identified quantum computing as a key technology that would significantly affect people’s lives, so the company is seeking to make inroads in that field, too, he said. Hon Hai is striving to transform itself into a technology-oriented company, leaving behind its image as a manufacturing service provider, Liu said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 19, 2022 16:42 UTC
Slovenia to establish office in Taiwan
Slovenia to establish office in Taiwan‘GOOD FRIEND’: The Slovenian prime minister said he had visited Taiwan four or five times, and that Taiwanese should have the right to determine their futureBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday welcomed Slovenia’s plan to establish a representative office in Taiwan, after Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa revealed the plan in an interview with Indian TV station Doordarshan on Monday. Taiwan is a democratic country that respects international democratic standards and international laws, the Slovenian prime minister said in the interview. Photo: screen grab from Doordarshan“When I spoke with our businessmen who are trading with Taiwan, they told me that we are trading with Taiwan, but those companies from Taiwan are also trading with mainland China... “Prime Minister Jansa is a good friend of Taiwan and has visited the nation several times,” she said, thanking him for speaking the truth on international issues. Taiwan and Slovenia have close economic and trade interactions, while their health ministers have shared their experiences with the pandemic via videoconference, she said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 19, 2022 01:02 UTC
Lithuanian beer brewer eyes the Taiwanese market
Lithuanian beer brewer eyes the Taiwanese marketStaff writer, with CNA, VILNIUSLithuania’s oldest beer brewer is exploring the Taiwanese market in the wake of a naming row over a newly opened Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius that led to a ban on products from the Baltic state in China. Horbacauskas said he is thrilled that Taiwanese like his company’s products. The skyrocketing sales might have something to do with a campaign launched by Taipei to support Lithuanian products, which have been boycotted in China. Recent measures have included recalling its ambassador to Lithuania, downgrading diplomatic relations, expelling the Lithuanian ambassador to China, as well as suspending direct freight rail services and banning Lithuanian products from entering the Chinese market. Horbacauskas said that the company’s products entered the Chinese market seven years ago.
Source:Taipei Times
January 19, 2022 00:58 UTC
CECC reports 17 new domestic virus infections
CECC reports 17 new domestic virus infectionsUNKNOWN SOURCES: The center was investigating how a man involved in a traffic accident and a nurse at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital had been infectedStaff writer, with CNAThe Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday confirmed 17 new domestic COVID-19 infections, all but three of which were linked to an outbreak in Taoyuan. Since then, other airport personnel and their contacts have also tested positive and the disease has spread to the wider community. The other three local cases reported yesterday were not linked to the outbreak in Taoyuan, the CECC said. Of the 17 domestic cases, five were classified as breakthrough infections and the vaccination status of five others was still under investigation. The CECC yesterday also reported 48 imported cases, but did not release information regarding the vaccination status of those infected.
Source:Taipei Times
January 18, 2022 03:59 UTC
Tesla to source key battery component outside China
Tesla to source key battery component outside ChinaAP, LONDONTesla Inc is turning to Mozambique for a key component in its electric vehicle batteries in what analysts believe is a first-of-its-kind deal designed to reduce its dependence on China for graphite. Tesla is to buy the material from the company’s processing plant in Vidalia, Louisiana, which sources graphite from its mine in Balama, Mozambique. The battery industry has been confronted with a short supply of graphite in the past few months, Moores said. Graphite stores lithium inside a battery until it is needed to generate electricity by splitting into charged ions and electrons. Tesla is making almost 1 million electric vehicles per year and sourcing enough batteries is its biggest constraint, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 17, 2022 22:02 UTC
Number of ‘big investors’ falls after cooling scheme
Number of ‘big investors’ falls after cooling schemeBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterThe number of so-called “big investors” — those trading NT$500 million (US$18.11 million) or more in a single quarter — fell to 3,791 last quarter, the second-lowest last year after only 3,178 in the first quarter, data released yesterday by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) showed. The number of “mid-sized investors” — those trading NT$100 million to NT$500 million in shares in a single quarter — declined 28 percent from the third quarter to 30,463 last quarter, while the number of regular investors — those trading less than NT$100 million in a quarter — declined 3.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to 4.12 million, TWSE data showed. Investors sit in front of an electronic stock board at a securities firm in Taipei on Nov. 19, 2019. Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei TimesThe drop in investors contrasts with a quarterly rise of 9 percent in the benchmark TAIEX at the end of last year, TWSE data showed. Hitting 18,218.84 at the end of last year, the TAIEX yesterday reached 18,535.42 points in the middle of the session before closing up 122.11 points, or 0.66 percent, at 18,525.44, TWSE data showed.
Source:Taipei Times
January 17, 2022 22:00 UTC
China might raise pressure next year: British historian
China might raise pressure next year: British historianStaff writer, with CNAChina would likely ramp up pressure on Taiwan next year, British historian Niall Ferguson said on Saturday, adding that deterrence is key to warding off Beijing’s threats. British historian Niall Ferguson speaks at a talk via video link on Saturday. The US and its allies should be committed to a credible deterrence strategy that could prevent “China from acting recklessly with respect to Taiwan,” Ferguson said. “Deterrence is key here.”“And it’s not just the United States that can deter China. It’s the United States and [its] allies,” he said, alluding to countries such as Japan, which has expressed concerns over security and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Source:Taipei Times
January 17, 2022 04:00 UTC
Notes from Central Taiwan: Omicron is not an opportunity
The Omicron variant has become the focus of public attention recently, with school closures and some businesses having their staff work from home. One can only imagine how many such closures would be necessary should Omicron rampage across Taiwan. The strident emphasis on “mild” Omicron is intended to obscure the issue of how many would be killed by this policy. “The good news is that most of these deaths are mild.”OVERWHELMED HOSPITALSIn the US and elsewhere, the “mild” Omicron wave has resulted in massive spikes in hospitalization. Keep Taiwan (Omicron) free!
Source:Taipei Times
January 17, 2022 03:58 UTC