Taiwan, Japan to deepen cooperation to help transform Taiwan into smart machinery hub

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/08/29
By: Scott Morgan, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan and Japan will establish a long-term cooperation mechanism to deepen collaboration and exchange in smart machinery, CNA reported on Aug. 29.

Taiwan hopes to draw on the knowledge and experience of Japan in developing and implementing smart machines in the manufacturing process, in a bid to maintain Taiwan’s competitive advantage in manufacturing.

The efforts to foster greater Japan-Taiwan exchange comes as part of Taiwan’s “Smart Machinery Industrial Promotion Program” (智慧機械產業推動方案), which aims to improve Taiwan’s industrial competitive advantage, and to transform Taiwan into a global manufacturing hub for smart machinery.

The announcement came at the sideline of the 2018 Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show (TAIROS), which runs in Taipei from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1. The trade show invited Japanese researchers and manufacturers to share their experience to accelerate implementation of smart machinery by Taiwanese companies and prompt greater international exchange, according to CNA.    [FULL  STORY]

TRADE TENSIONS: The LCD panel supplier said it might reallocate some US orders for displays used in cars from its Chinese fabs to its Tainan facilities to circumvent US tariffs

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 30, 2018
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Innolux Corp (群創), a LCD panel manufacturing arm of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday said it is seeking outsourcing partners outside China to assemble premium panels used in cars and medical devices to avert potential impact from the growing trade war between the US and China.

The Miaoli County-based company made the remarks as tensions between the world’s two biggest economies has spread to electronic supply chains operating in China, with the US imposing a 25 percent tariff on US$200 billion of Chinese imports.

“The impact will be on high-end displays, such as those used in cars and medical devices,” Innolux chairman Jim Hung (洪進揚) told a media briefing in Taipei.

“We are seeking solutions with our partners like Hon Hai and other companies to outsource assembly [of display modules] in Mexico” or manufacturing sites outside China, he said.
[FULL  STORY]

International Investment
Date: 28 Aug 2018
By:: Pedro Goncalves

HSBC Private Banking has appointed Edwin Lim as market head, China and Taiwan. In this newly created position, Lim will lead the business for these two markets across all booking centres in Asia, including onshore China, onshore Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The long-standing private banker decision to move follows HSBC announcement of a massive hiring drive, in which Asia will be the prime beneficiary. HSBC said 70 new colleagues will join this year in Hong Kong, along with 40 in Singapore as part of the push, as reported by International Investment.

Lim, a 30-year-veteran of the Asian wealth management industry, joins from Credit Suisse, where he was ran a team of private bankers for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as market head. Prior to that, he held senior positions at JP Morgan including head of the northeast Asian region as well as stints at DBS and Citi.

“Greater China continues to be one of the most important growth areas for our private banking business,” says Ivan Wong, co-head of North Asia, HSBC Private Banking, in a statement.

“Edwin’s deep experience of the region is an excellent match for our ambitions as we look to support High Net Worth clients with the full range of solutions from the HSBC Group. We will continue to invest in the best people and in delivering the best proposition for our clients, in order to capture this significant wealth opportunity.”

Lim will be based in Hong Kong, reporting to Ivan Wong, co-head of North Asia, HSBC Private Banking. He will join in October 2018.    [SOURCE]

It is the first time APEC and Taiwan held a joint training course in international business

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/08/28
By: Alicia Nguyen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor together with seven members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) signed letters of Intent to pave the way for international cooperation in business and education, reports said Tuesday.

On Aug.28, the Workforce Development Agency held an international forum about Event Capacity Building International Collaboration at Taipei International Convention Center in the presence of Labor Minister Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春).

It is the first time APEC and Taiwan held a joint training course in international business and exchange with the certificate being given by the end of the training process.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/28
By Frances Huang 

Taipei, Aug. 28 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan extended their momentum from the previous session early on Tuesday with local investors motivated by a higher Wall Street, on the back of a trade deal reached by the United States and Mexico, to buy into local equities, dealers said.

Rotational buying dominated the main board with interest focusing on large cap electronics stocks, in particular contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, they said.

However, the main board failed to sustain its earlier strength and ended the session below the 11,000 point mark as trade friction between the U.S. and China continued to weigh on the market, they added.

The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) or the Taiex closed up 87.34 points, or 0.80 percent, at 10,989.55, after moving between 10,946.33 and 11,005.55, on turnover of NT$127.67 billion (US$4.15 billion).    [FULL  STORY]

STRINGS ATTACHED: The university must raise US$100 million on its own to receive the Foxconn funding, most of which is to pay for a building on its engineering campus

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 29, 2018
By: AP, MADISON, Wisconsin

Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) CEO Terry Gou (郭台銘) and University of

Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) chancellor Rebecca Blank on Monday signed an agreement that also calls for the creation of a science and technology institute on the UW-Madison campus that would collaborate closely with the display screen manufacturing plant being built in Mount Pleasant, about 160km southeast of Madison near the Illinois border.

Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in Taiwan, chose Wisconsin for its first plant outside of Asia after receiving generous incentives from the state.

Foxconn has said that the manufacturing campus could cost up to US$10 billion and eventually employ 13,000 people.

Finding workers was expected to be a challenge in a state with low unemployment.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s three business climate indexes up in July

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/08/24
By: Scott Morgan, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Director of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research’s (TIER,

台灣經濟研究) Prosperity Forecast Center, Gordon Sun (孫明德) said that Taiwan’s economy is performing well as global growth is divided on Aug. 24, reported CNA.

Sun characterized the global economy as “eastern mountain rainy, western mountain clear” (東山飄雨西山晴), during an event to promote TIER’s business climate reports.

TIER is one of Taiwan’s two main economic think tanks, and a leading force of economic analysis of Taiwan and the world. TIER also provides advisory services to government and private industry.

Sun characterized Taiwan’s recent economic results as being good, and said Taiwan is not necessarily in a boom period. He suggested that some Taiwanese manufacturers are concerned about the effect of the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, reported CNA.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/24
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Frances Huang 

Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) Local manufacturing sector sentiment toward the business climate improved in July at a time when the electronics industry has entered a peak season for the year, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said Friday.

TIER, one of Taiwan’s leading think tanks, said the July composite index for the manufacturing sector rose 1.35 points from a month earlier to 101.74 as many export-oriented manufacturers benefited from solid global demand for tech devices in the month.

The latest composite index for the manufacturing sector came after Taiwan reported an almost 5 percent year-on-year increase in exports in July. In the month, Taiwanese electronic component firms sold US$9.33 billion-worth of goods overseas, up 7.2 percent from a year earlier, on the back of solid demand for semiconductors, exports of which increased 7.0 percent year-on-year to US$7.97 billion.

In addition, the industrial production index for July rose 4.43 percent from a year earlier with the sub-index for the manufacturing sector, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the total, up 5.01 percent in the month.   [FULL  STORY]