Seoul saw the biggest annual growth in house prices with a rise of 24.7% 

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/29
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A luxury residential complex in the greater Taipei area (Photo by Facebook 景冠-金鶯一品)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei reported the second biggest annual decline in luxury real estate prices in the first quarter of 2018 while Seoul leads the rankings with the largest rise among the 43 cities surveyed, according to the recently released Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index.

The Prime Global Cities Index, conducted by the London-based real estate consultancy, analyzes figures based on prices of prime property that represents the top 5 percent of the housing market in each city.

According to the research, Seoul reported a staggering 24.7 percent annual growth in home prices in the year to March 2018, with the Gangnam area being the main driving force. Taipei, which saw a 7.4-percent decline year-on-year in the first quarter this year, ranks 42nd in the index, trailed by the Swedish capital Stockholm, which sits at the bottom with the largest price decline of 8.4 percent.

Knight Frank pointed out that the number of cities that saw their housing prices decline annually has risen from 16 to 23 in the first three months of 2018, partly attributed to the raise of interest rates, reported the Liberty Times.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/29
By: Pan Tzi-yu and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 29 (CNA) Gogoro Inc., a Taiwan-based electric scooter company, is likely to

CNA file photo

become Taiwan’s first unicorn startup and expand its operations into overseas markets, National Development Council (NDC) deputy chief Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮) said Tuesday.

A unicorn is a privately owned startup that has usually been in business for fewer than 10 years but has an estimated market value of over US$1 billion.

Earlier this year, the government launched a plan to improve the investment environment for Taiwanese startups and promised to help incubate the first unicorn business in two years and at least three others in the next six years.

Taiwan has about four companies with the potential to become unicorn startups, and Gogoro, which was founded in 2011, will likely be the first to hit the target in the country, Chiou said.    [FULL  STORY]

The market could force reluctant Taiwanese seafood traders to address concerns over complicity in human rights abuses.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/28
By: Nick Aspinwall

Photo Credit: Greenpeace

A shocking Greenpeace report released last week details forced labor and physical abuse at sea, including the death of Indonesian fisherman Supriyanto. It also makes disturbing connections between human trafficking operations and Taiwan’s largest seafood trader.

The report, “Misery at Sea,” casts Taiwan’s deep-sea fishing industry as operating in a state of perpetual anarchy, enabled by regulatory apathy, corporate culpability, and a stunning lack of transparency.

Greenpeace highlighted the role of Taiwan’s Fong Chun Formosa (FCF), Taiwan’s dominant seafood trader and a major provider of seafood to the American, European, and Japanese markets. “What you have been eating in your tuna can in the U.S. market, from Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee – they are all being provided their tuna by FCF,” investigation leader Yi Chiao Lee (李宜蕎) told The News Lens.

The report says that FCF continues to trade with vessels implicated in the Giant Ocean human trafficking case, in which Cambodian authorities found six Taiwanese nationals guilty of “unlawful removal with purpose” of local fisherman, and sentenced each to 10 years imprisonment.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan ranked 19th highest GDP per capita in world in terms of PPP according to International Monetary Fund

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/28
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

GDP map of world based on PPP. (Screenshot of IMF map)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan ranks as having the 19th highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), according to data released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on in April.

In its biannual report on data about the economic status of countries in the world, the IMF ranks countries in order of GDP based on PPP.

PPP compares the living standards among different countries by assessing the relative cost of living and inflation rates of those nations.

Topping the list was Qatar at US$128,702 per annum, followed by Macao (US$122,490), Luxembourg (US$110,870), Singapore (US$98,010) and Ireland (US$79,920), to round out the top five.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/28
By: Pan Tzi-yu and Ko Lin

Taipei, May 28 (CNA) Taiwan’s economy flashed a “green light” for the third consecutive month in April, pointing to steady growth buoyed by strong industrial production, according to the National Development Council (NDC) on Monday.

The composite index of monitoring indicators for April rose three points from a month earlier to 26, flashing a healthy green light, the NDC said.

The NDC said the three-point increase resulted from gains in the industrial production index, manufacturers’ shipments, and sales in the trade and food services sectors, according to the NDC.

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]