Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 28 May, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

Business groups are putting forward their views on a suggestion from the labor minister

that Taiwan should try to raise its minimum wage.

On Tuesday, Labor Minister Hsu Ming-chun said that if President Tsai Ing-wen wins reelection, Taiwan should bring the minimum monthly wage up to NT$30,000 (US$950) during her second term.

However, the Taiwanese business association CNAIC says that the government should not unilaterally decide to adjust the minimum wage. Instead, any decision should rest with a committee which already exists to decide on matters related to the minimum wage. The group also says that if the government creates a better economic environment, employers will naturally raise salaries of their own accord.

Meanwhile, it says that employers are shouldering an increasingly heavy burden as insurance costs for employees continue to rise. It says the government should take up a greater share of the labor insurance burden than it does now if it wants to raise the minimum wage to NT$30,000.    [FULL  STORY]

The largest trade show for home electronic brands are in town seeking for new partners and ideas

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/28
By:  Taiwan News

IFA, a global leading trade show that attracts more than 240,000 visitors around the world with 1,800 exhibitors from the consumer and home electronic brands, hosted its annual Media Reception in Taipei on Tuesday (May 28).

In an interview with Taiwan News, IFA’s Director Dirk Koslowski talked about IFA’s 2019 vision and goals for its consumer electronics retail exhibits in Berlin (September 6-11), New York (June 12-13), and Guangzhou (September 19-21).

Organized by Messe Berlin, one of the top global trade show organizers, IFA is the platform where innovations like IoT (Internet of Things) and voice recognition technologies come together. More than 100,000 out of the 240,000 visitors from each year are trade visitors who come to the show to learn and potentially purchase new product lines.

Koslowski said IFA seeks to inform its media and industry partners about the global innovations show, and leverage Taiwanese brands to a broad audience, especially European retailers and US retailers.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/28
By: Liao Yu-yang and William Yen

Taipei, May 28 (CNA) Taiwan and Austria signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU)

Monday to encourage investment cooperation between the two countries, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

According to a statement issued by the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), the MOU is aimed at promoting industrial business clusters, including integration of the semiconductor, automobile and biotechnology industries between Taiwan and Austria.

Although the MOU is not limited to any specific industry, it will start with conducting information exchanges and other activities, starting with industries in which both Taiwan and Austria are currently interested, including machinery and smart cities.

The MOU was signed after a fourth economic and trade dialogue between the two sides that covered multiple topics, including industry 4.0, new ventures and smart cities, the BOFT statement said, adding that Austria also shared its experience in digital transformation.    [FULL  STORY]

The cross-ministry group will hold the first-ever dialogue with EU representatives about the digital economy and GDPR regulations

Taiwan News 
Date: 2019/05/27
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Minister of the National Development Council (NDC) Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) will lead a cross-ministry delegation to Europe in early June to discuss the digital economy with European Union officials.

The delegation will be tasked with holding the first-ever dialogue with EU representatives on the digital economy, said Chen on Monday (May 27), as reported by Central News Agency. The dialogue is expected to cover a wide range of topics, such as artificial intelligence (AI), fintech, information security, 5G, and the digital transformation of traditional businesses.

Taiwan has established similar platforms with the United States, and now with the EU. The ministry looks forward to forging similar connections with other economies in the future, added Chen.

The Taiwan delegation will also conduct negotiations with the EU over General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was implemented by the EU last May and concerns individual data protection and privacy.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/27
By: Pan Tzu-yu and William Yen 

Taipei, May 27 (CNA) Taiwan’s economy flashed a yellow-blue light for the fourth consecutive month in April, signaling sluggish growth, the National Development Council (NDC) said Monday.

The NDC said in a statement that the composite index of monitoring indicators for April rose by 1 point from the previous month to 21, which was still two points shy of the level needed to flash a green light, which would suggest stable growth.

The yellow-blue signal, which represents a range between 17 and 22, has flashed for four consecutive months since January, the NDC said.

The NDC uses a five-color system to gauge the country’s economic performance, with blue indicating economic recession, yellow-blue representing economic sluggishness, green denoting stable growth, yellow-red referring to a warming economy, and red pointing to economic overheating.    [FULL  STORY]

‘PROUD’: The firm’s vision is to push the technology to its limits and use the best the industry has to offer, which is TSMC’s 7-nanometer technology, AMD chief Lisa Su said

Taipei Times
Date: May 28, 2019
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday said that it is using Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 7-nanometer technology to produce a new series of high-performance processors for desktop computers and new processors for gaming PCs, consoles and cloud devices, which would enter the market in July.

The company unveiled its third-generation high-performance Ryzen desktop processor and Radeon graphics chips, both made using TSMC’s 7-nanometer technology, at the Computex Taipei.

The company used to rely on GlobalFoundries Inc for chips.

However, the US firm in August last year said that it would indefinitely put on hold its development of 7-nanometer technology and technologies beyond that, making TSMC the sole foundry for AMD’s processors.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/25
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Frances Huang 

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) Outflows of investment funds from Taiwan exceed inflows in the first quarter of the year, maintaining a trend that has been ongoing for the past 35 quarters, according to the country’s central bank.

Central bank data for the first quarter released earlier this week showed the net fund outflow in Taiwan’s financial account, which measures the flow of direct investment and portfolio investments, at US$14.65 billion in the first quarter.

The aggregate net outflow over the past 35 quarters was US$428.99 billion (NT$13.22 trillion), which is equivalent to 5.5 years of tax revenue in Taiwan, the data showed.

However, the first-quarter net fund outflow was less than the US$17.88 billion recorded the previous quarter, according to the data.    [FULL  STORY]