AVOIDING TARIFFS: While 52 firms have already pledged to invest in Taiwan, business leaders were concerned about shortages of land, electricity, water and unskilled labor

Taipei Times
Date: May 16, 2019
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

It is difficult for Taiwanese electronics firms to pull out of China, as the personal

computer industry has built a stable supply chain there over the years, industry leaders said yesterday.

Local electronic firms with production lines in China could face a sharp earnings challenge if Washington next month extends tariffs to US$300 billion of Chinese goods, including smartphones and notebooks.

Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) said that relocating supply chains is a difficult and time-consuming process, as it requires a massive transfer of personnel and depends a lot on technology brands.

Taiwan is home to the world’s largest suppliers of electronic components used in laptops and mobile devices.    [FULL  STORY]

Its novel cross-blockchain cloud platform and the benefits of a hybrid cloud system are reshaping the local art market and the overall tech environment

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/14
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan tech startup TokenBacon has developed the world’s first-ever cross-blockchain cloud platform, allowing users to quickly build their own blockchain service.

In doing so the startup has created something novel in the cloud computing market, currently dominated by tech giants in the United States who offer private cloud services. TokenBacon offers a hybrid cloud system, which combines the merits of both the public and private cloud.

It is now revolutionizing the local art market.

The entrepreneurial Lai Chih-Hsing (來智行), founder and CEO of TokenBacon, has worked in both the U.S. and Luxembourg, and has typically founded companies aiming to solve market problems that serve the common good, and promote equality.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/14
By: Chang Chien-chung, Pan Tzu-yu and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) Taiwanese companies in China that manufacture telecommunications devices and computers are likely to be hit hard in the escalating trade war between the United States and China, as such products are the prime targets of the U.S.’ latest wave of proposed tariffs, a leading technology research and development institute in Taiwan said Tuesday.

One official at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) made the comment in a phone interview with CNA after the U.S. on Monday released a new list of about US$300 billion worth of Chinese products, including information and communications technology products such as cellphones and laptops, which it is threatening to hit with tariffs of up to 25 percent.

Expressing similar views, Roy Chun Lee (李淳), deputy director of the Taiwan World Trade Organization and Regional Trade Agreements Center of the Chung Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that if the threatened tariffs are implemented, the effects will be grimmer than the first round of U.S. tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods last year.

This time, China-based Taiwanese manufacturers like Hon Hai Precision Industry, which assembles iPhones for Apple Inc., and Quanta Computer will be the first to suffer if the U.S.-China trade war exacerbates, Lee said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 14 May, 2019
By: Paula Chao

President Tsai Ing-wen says domestic demand has propped up Taiwan’s economic growth in recent years.

The president was referring to the impact of the escalating US-China trade war on Taiwan. The United States has more than doubled tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese products. In retaliation, China says it will raise tariffs on $60 billion of US goods from June.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 13 May, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

This weekend Pingtung County is hosting a “Cape Tea Time” event to celebrate tea grown from the lowest point in Taiwan. The local tea is grown at only 100 meters above sea level.

The tea is also known as “port tea” and is grown in Manjou Township in Pingtung County, the southernmost tip of Taiwan. The area has grown tea for over a century. The tea is grown in very dry conditions and carries a light flavor of the ocean breeze. The area is also known for its onions and agave plants.

The town is hosting its tea-tasting event on Saturday afternoon. Those interested can register at www.ktnp.gov.tw    [SOURCE]

A ban on the fruit has been in effect for over a decade due to problems with fruit flies

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/13
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan will likely start importing mangosteen fruit from Thailand in late July, as a 16-year ban on the Southeast Asian tropical fruit will be lifted soon, said the country’s Council of Agriculture (COA).

The import of mangosteen fruit to Taiwan has been suspended since 2003 due to the spread of fruit flies, bactrocera carambolae and bactrocera papayae, in the fruit which are prevalent in Southeast Asia.

Over the past seven to eight years, Thailand has continued to improve its biosecurity and quarantine measures to tackle the fruit fly problem, COA Deputy Minister Chen Chun-chi (陳駿季) told Central News Agency on Monday (May 13).

The mangosteen fruit from Thailand has recently fulfilled the import requirements of horticultural produce from COA’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ), which issued a public notice of the matter on April 26.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/13
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, May 13 (CNA) China Airlines (CAL), one of the country’s two major airlines, has

been instructed by the government to assist EVA Air passengers if EVA’s flight schedule is disrupted due to a strike by its flight attendants, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said Monday.

Deputy transport minister Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said on the sidelines of a legislative session that the ministry has prepared for the worst-case scenario and has instructed CAL to help with passenger transfers and extra flight operations.

The ministry declined to give any details about how CAL would be able to help with the situation.

A vote to strike organized by the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union (TFAU) will take place Monday-June 6, in which EVA members will decide whether to strike.    [FULL  STORY]