Rep. Tien Chung- Kwang emphasized Taiwan’s eagerness to do business with India, while promoting Taiwanese products at the Convergence India trade exhibition in New Delhi

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/01
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s Representative to India, Tien Chung- Kwang (田中光), was at the Taiwan Excellence pavilion at the 27th Convergence India trade show and exhibition, held in New Delhi, Jan. 29-31.

Tien was there to promote bilateral trade ties and cutting-edge Taiwanese technology products from some of the country’s top companies like Asus, Wellmark, and Edimax. While at the exhibition, Tien spoke with a reporter from the Times of India on the potential to expand economic relations between Taiwanese and Indian businesses.

Tien said that the Taiwan Excellence pavilion, which is organized with by the Taiwan External Trade and Development Council (TAITRA), aims to promote Taiwanese companies and connect them with Indian customers.

Emphasizing that Taiwan is eager to expand its presence and develop a more cooperative relationship with India, Tien also mentioned some of the bilateral agreements signed recently between the India and Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/01
By: Chung Jung-feng and Chi Jo-yao 

Taipei, Feb. 1 (CNA) Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. said Friday that some of its investment in the U.S. state of Wisconsin will focus on research and technology development.

In the company’s annual meeting, Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) confirmed that aside from production, R&D of new technologies will be included in the company’s Wisconsin project, in an effort to leverage the innovative environment and research talent in the U.S.    [FULL  STORY]

The platform will be used to promote his beliefs and information he considers worth spreading

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/31
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwanese tycoon and Foxconn chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) introduced his official Facebook page Thursday, in a move to counter false stories and rumors about him spreading via a host of fake accounts on the social media platform.

In his opening remarks posted around noon on Jan. 31, Gou noted that the pagewas established with the assistance of the Yonglin Foundation (永齡基金會), a charity co-founded by him and his late wife Serena Lin (林淑如) in 2000.

According to Gou, the public has developed collective anxiety over the authenticity of online information in an era characterized by robust social networking activity, hence the decision to open an official account.

The prominent businessman says the page will be dedicated to promoting his philosophies, values, and information he considers worth spreading to like-minded fellows. “I may not be the most successful person, but I believe I’m a person who exerts every effort to advance my career,” Gou noted.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/31
By: Emerson Lin and William Yen

Manila, Jan. 31 (CNA) The Bank of Taiwan (BOT) officially opened a representative office in Manila, capital of the Philippines Thursday as part of its efforts to help Taiwanese businesses enter the Southeast Asian market.

During a speech at the opening ceremony that day, BOT Chairman Joseph Jye-cherng Lyu (呂桔誠) said the office demonstrates the brotherhood between Taiwan and the Philippines indicating the two sides will work together to create economic value.

Bank of Taiwan Chairman Joseph Jye-cherng Lyu (呂桔誠)

The representative office was set up to assist Taiwanese businesses take advantages of opportunities offered by economic growth in the Philippines, Lyu pointed out.

Explaining the strategic location of the office, he said “the Philippines stands as a critical entry point to the ASEAN market with ample opportunities for Taiwan businesses.”
[FULL  STORY]

Labor costs too high in the U.S.: Foxconn official

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/01/30
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Foxconn Technology Group was likely to scale down or even abandon its high-profile plans to produce screen panels in the American state of Wisconsin, the Reuters news agency reported Wednesday.

Foxconn chief Terry Gou (郭台銘) and President Donald Trump announced the project at a White House ceremony in 2017, indicating that the factory would result in 13,000 jobs for the region, but only 1,000 might be hired by 2020, later reports said.

While the company is sticking to 13,000 jobs, it seems to be converting its plan to manufacture screens to a project dominated by research, according to a Reuters interview with Gou special assistant Louis Woo (胡國輝).

High labor expenses in the United States were mentioned as the main factor in abandoning screen manufacturing, while research, packaging and assembly were the more likely functions of Foxconn’s Wisconsin project, Woo said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/30
By: Liao Yu-yang and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Jan. 30 (CNA) Taiwan on Wednesday reduced the feed-in tariff (FIT) rate for

offshore wind power generation this year to NT$5.516 (US$0.179) per kilowatt hour (kWh), backing off from a proposed deeper cut that had drawn the ire of wind power developers.

The new FIT rate for offshore wind projects that sign power purchasing agreements with state-owned utility Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) represents a 5.71 percent reduction from the 2018 rate of NT$5.8498 per unit, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

In November last year, the MOEA’s Bureau of Energy proposed lowering the FIT rate for 2019 by 12.71 percent to NT$5.106 per kWh, which angered foreign contractors who felt the government had reneged on promises of a rate close to NT$6 per kWh.

Unhappy with the proposal, wind farm developers including Yushan Energy, Northland Power, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and WPD Taiwan Energy Co. released a statement the next day saying that the proposed rate represented a sharp policy U-turn by Taiwan’s government.    [FULL  STORY]

40,000 solar panels are suspended over fish ponds to maximize land use

Data Center Dynamics
Date: January 29, 2019 
By: Paul Mah

Google has signed a deal to buy the output of a 10MW solar array in Tainan City, Taiwan.

It’s Google’s first renewable energy contract in Asia, and the Taiwanese government has changed energy laws to allow it to proceed.

Google’s data center at Changhua County, Taiwan, was opened in 2013 costing around $600m, with another $66.4m invested in 2015. The solar purchase is certainly smaller than the power used by the data center (similar sized data centers in the US are understood to use arouind 60MW) but will give Google a more stable long-term price for electricity, and reduce its carbon emissions in Taiwan.

Laws amended

Worldwide, Google purchases more than 3GW of renewable power, more than enough to offset its energy use, and allow it to claim it is 100 percent renewable. In Taiwan, the company lobbied hard for a change to Taiwan’s Electricity Act which would allow non-utility companies to buy renewable energy directly. Google is the first corporate power purchaser to act after the law was amended.

Taiwanese energy developer New Green Power will deploy the 40,000 solar panels at a fish farm at Tainan City, which is located 100 km south of Google’s Changhua County data center. When completed, the panels will be connected to the same regional power grid, offsetting Google’s energy use through a power purchase agreement.

The solar panels will be deployed in commercial fishing ponds to maximize land use. Poles will be mounted into the ponds to elevate the solar panels several feet into the sky, so fish and solar panels can coexist without loss of land or energy efficiency. The fish farm will be compensated for hosting the solar panels.    [FULL  STORY]