Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/31
By: Lucas Wang and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) Taiwan signed four resolutions with El Salvador following the

conclusion of the second annual Taiwan-El Salvador-Honduras Free Trade Agreement (FTA) executive committee meeting, in Taipei on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said at a press conference on Thursday that the two countries agreed to make annual reductions in tariffs on each other’s exports, including aloe vera juice, jello and tape from Taiwan, and dried pineapple, dried mango, dried plantain and dried banana from El Salvador.

The 5-10 percent tariffs will be reduced to zero in 10 years’ time, the ministry noted.

Representatives from Honduras were unable to make it to the meeting due to flight delays caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas. The ministry has said that it will arrange for Taiwan and Honduras to discuss the FTA at a later date.   [FULL STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/26
By: Central News Agency

The empty home rate in Taiwan surpassed 10 percent in 2016, but it was down slightly

from a year earlier, according to data released by the Construction and Planning Agency of the Ministry of the Interior on Friday.

According to the data, the number of empty residential homes totaled 862,965 units, accounting for 10.22 percent of the total homes registered with the agency in 2016, down 0.13 percentage points from a year earlier.

The agency came up with empty home numbers based on two indicators: the number of new homes unsold by property developers and the number of homes in which the average monthly power consumption was below 60 kilowatts per hour, the data showed.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/26
By: Jeffery Wu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) HTC Corp. (宏達電), a smartphone vendor in Taiwan, was the

only Taiwanese firm to rank among the top 100 most-loved brands in the world, according to NetBase, a global social analytics platform.

In the Top 100 Global Brand Love List for 2017, HTC took 44th place in the NetBase rankings.

In addition to the smartphone business, HTC entered the virtual reality arena by launching its first VR headset — the HTC Vive — in 2015 which went on sale in April 2016 in a bid to help the company offset the impact of stiff competition in the global phone market.

According to the methodology employed by NetBase, the company came up with the list based on brand conversations across the social web, inclusive of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and millions of other sources during the one-year period from May 2016 through July 2017.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan is working to expand downtown VAT refunds for foreign visitors as an efforts to boost tourism

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/25
By: Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan will expand its value-added tax (VAT) refund

service for foreign visitors purchasing Taiwanese products as a means to promote tourism.

Starting from September 1, foreign nationals who have purchased more than NT$1,800 at any Tax Refund Shopping-labeled stores in Taiwan will be able to claim a VAT refund at those four counters located in Taipei and Kaohsiung, according Yeh Hui-chuan (葉慧娟), a section chief at the Finance Ministry’s Taxation Administration.

In addition to the VAT refund counters at airports and seaports, foreign visitors can find these counters in the Taipei 101 Mall, SOGO’s Taipei Zhongxiao store, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi’s Taipei Xinyi A8 store, and Kaohsiung’s Hanshin Department Store. However, only purchases made at department stores are eligible for the VAT tax refund at these counters.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/25
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Frances Huang

Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) The empty home rate in Taiwan surpassed 10 percent in

2016, but it was down slightly from a year earlier, according to data released by the Construction and Planning Agency of the Ministry of the Interior on Friday.

According to the data, the number of empty residential homes totaled 862,965 units, accounting for 10.22 percent of the total homes registered with the agency in 2016, down 0.13 percentage points from a year earlier.

The agency came up with empty home numbers based on two indicators: the number of new homes unsold by property developers and the number of homes in which the average monthly power consumption was below 60 kilowatts per hour, the data showed.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/24
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—An online survey, conducted by Gartner, Inc. from April

2017 through May 2017, and polled 1,519 people in the U.S. and Germany, revealed that 55% of respondents will not consider riding in a fully autonomous vehicle, while 71% may consider riding in a partially autonomous vehicle.

Many consumers are cautious about fully autonomous vehicles because they are concerned about technology failures and security, according to the research results.

“Fear of autonomous vehicles getting confused by unexpected situations, safety concerns around equipment and system failures and vehicle and system security are top concerns around using fully autonomous vehicles,” explains Mike Ramsey, research director at Gartner.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/24
By: Pan Chi-i and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan closed 0.79 percent higher Thursday, close to the 10,500-point mark, despite a drop on Wall Street overnight after U.S. President Donald Trump threated to shut down the government if Congress failed to fund a Mexico border wall.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange’s main index opened up 7.85 points at 10,414.66 and moved higher, closing up 82.15 points at the day’s high of 10,488.96. Turnover totaled NT$116.846 billion (US$3.94 billion) during the session.

All the major stock categories gained ground, with paper and pulp stocks showing the biggest rise of 2.8 percent, followed by foodstuff issues, which gained 1.87 percent.    [FULL  STORY]