Business and Finance

Day trading tax cut passes first reading

COST:Daily turnover needs to increase by NT$10 billion to offset the NT$3.75 billion loss in government revenue caused by the cut, Minister of Finance Sheu Yu-jer said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 24, 2017
By: Ted Chen / Staff reporter

The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday passed th
e first reading of a bill to cut the transaction tax on day trading by half.
The government aims to boost turnover on the local equity market by attracting short-term funds through cutting the tax from 0.003 percent to 0.0015 percent for one year.

The legislature is scheduled to review the bill’s second and final readings next month, with market watchers saying they see no difficulty in the bill clearing the legislative floor.

The bill could be implemented at the end of next month at the earliest, which would make Taiwan the first market in the world to cut day trading tax, market watchers said.
[FULL  STORY]

Driver-assistance tech firm eyes a city to partner with

The China Post
Date: March 24, 2017
By: Kuan-lin Liu

Mobileye is looking for which city in Taiwan wants to be the first to introduce the

Mobileye sales director David Oberman shows off the Mobileye 630 in Taipei on Thursday, March 23. (Kuan-lin Liu, The China Post)

collision-avoidance system to public vehicles, the Israel-based firm’s sales director told The China Post in an exclusive interview Thursday.

“We can start cooperating straight away in one area — we already have a product which can be used for the benefit of everyone. This product can be installed in any bus, any truck, any car today,” David Oberman said of Mobileye 630.

The collision avoidance system, created by Israeli Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), can detect a four-wheel vehicle’s position in relation on the road as well as nearby cars and pedestrians and warns drivers if they stray too far from their lane or come too close to another object.

“It’s a special three-camera system. One camera looks forward and two more cameras are on the back of the bus or the truck to protect pedestrians, bicycles and scooters,” Oberman explained.    [FULL  STORY

New Kingpo Group and ADATA to increase investments in Brazil

Taiwanese technology companies New Kingpo Group and ADATA plan to raise investments in Brazil

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/22
By: Judy Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Despite a stagnant economic outlook, Brazil continues to

New Kingpo Group CEO Simon Shen (second left), President of ADATA Shalley Shen (front left), and government officials. (By Taiwan News)

attract investments from Taiwanese companies including New Kingpo Group (NKG) and ADATA Technology (ADATA), due to local government incentives that encourage companies to move manufacturing to the Latin American country.

In spite of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashing Brazil’s anticipated GDP growth to 0.2 percent for 2017 in January, Taiwanese companies’ outlook for the Brazilian information and communications technology (ICT) market remains positive.

“We expect ICT demand to remain strong in Brazil, especially among first-time buyers,” wrote Director of Calcomp Tarzan Lee in an email response. “There might be delayed replacement cycles for new products, but overall we uphold a positive long-term outlook for the local ICT industry.”    [FULL  STORY]

Mixed picture for unemployment in February (update)

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/22
By: Chen Cheng-wei, Flor Wang and Elaine Hou

Taipei, March 22 (CNA) Taiwan’s jobless rate in February edged slightly higher in

(CNA file photo)

February on a nominal basis but was relatively flat after being adjusted for seasonal factors, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Wednesday.

The nominal unemployment rate was up 0.07 percentage points from January at 3.85 percent, but the seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell 0.01 percentage points from a month earlier to 3.83 percent, DGBAS figures show.

Both rates were down 0.1 percentage points from a year earlier.

Some 453,000 people were unemployed in February, up 8,000 from January, which the DGBAS said was mainly caused by job shifts and the termination of temporary jobs after the conclusion of the Lunar New Year holiday in early February.   [FULL  STORY]

Electric bikes a silver lining in gloomy year

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 23, 2017
By: Kuo Chia-erh / Staff reporter

Giant Manufacturing Co Ltd (巨大機械), the nation’s largest bicycle maker, yesterday

A model displays a Liv bicycle, Giant’s new line of bikes for female consumers, on the opening day of the four-day Taipei International Cycle Show at the Taipei World Trade Center yesterday. Photo: CNA

said it expects revenue contribution from electric bikes to reach 10 percent by 2022, compared with last year’s 7 percent.

The target has been set because of robust demand for electric bikes in Europe, despite the company’s gloomy performance last year.

Giant had a difficult year last year, with cumulative revenue down 5.57 percent to NT$57.01 billion (US$1.87 billion) from the previous year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

In the first three quarters of last year, the company saw its net profit fall 20 percent year-on-year to NT$2.4 billion, or earnings per share of NT$6.4, the company’s latest data showed.    [FULL  STORY]

Ex-TSMC exec appointed MediaTek co-CEO

The China Post
Date: March 23, 2017
By: Christine Chou

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The board of directors of MediaTek Inc. (聯發科), Taiwan’s leading chip supplier for Chinese smartphones, agreed Wednesday to recruit Rick Tsai (蔡力行), a former CEO Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電), to join the firm as co-chief executive officer and company board member.

Tsai’s appointment will take effect on July 1, stated MediaTek.

Last year, the former TSMC chief and Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) chairman was rumored to be joining mainland-Chinese semiconductor giant Tsinghua Unigroup (紫光集團). Tsai denied the speculations.

TSMC is the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a key supplier for Apple’s iPhones. It has also been a major production partner of MediaTek’s.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan TSMC beats Intel to become world’s largest chip maker by market cap

Wealth Magazine Chairman Xie Jinhe said Intel’s acquisition deal failed to drive share price

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/20
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

(by iphonedigital, Flickr)(By Wikimedia Commons)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Wealth Magazine Chairman Xie Jinhe (謝金河) said

on Facebook Sunday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2330:TT)(TSM:US) topped the world’s largest chip maker Intel Corp. (INTC:US) in terms of market capitalization last week.

Intel’s share price dropped after its US$15.3 billion acquisition of Israeli autonomous vehicle technology firm Mobileye was announced last Monday. The pricey acquisition of Mobileye was said to help Intel branch out to driverless systems for global automakers, but caused its share price to drop and resulted in its market capitalization shrinking to US$167.14 billion, which is smaller than TSMC’s by US$1.9 billion from the American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).    [FULL  STORY]

Apple store in Taiwan begins recruiting staff

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/20
By: Jeffrey Wu and Lilian Wu

Taipei, March 20 (CNA) Apple has released a list of 14 types of job positions it will be offering at the first Apple store it plans to open in Taiwan.

The American consumer electronics giant said Monday that the open positions include manager, store leader, expert, business leader, market leader and tech genius.

The successful candidate for the “tech genius” position should have excellent communications skills and be good at solving problems; keep calm, focus on clients and solve technical problems for them; and be on time for customer appointments.
[FULL  STORY]

Export orders surged 22% last month

BEATING EXPECTATIONS:Ministry of Economics data show strong first-quarter exports on the back of recovering demand in key markets and rising prices

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 21, 2017
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

The nation’s export orders jumped 22 percent year-on-year to US$33.75 billion last month, driven by strong demand for notebooks, smartphones, TVs and servers, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

The numbers exceeded the ministry’s own forecast of 15.7 percent growth by a wide margin and represented the seventh consecutive annual expansion, the ministry said.

“Last month’s export orders reflected persistent demand for information and communication technology [ICT] products during the traditionally slow season for consumer electronics,” Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference.

Lin said that rising global average sales prices for raw materials contributed to the performances of the nation’s traditional industries, such as steel and petrochemical products.    [FULL  STORY]

Citibank launches Total Wealth Advisor system

The China Post
Date: March 21, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — As part of an ongoing drive to improve customer experiences, Citibank Taiwan has converted the Chungcheng Branch in Taipei into a smart banking branch. This included setting up digital banking areas for customers to better understand the process of opening a bank account and applying for a credit card with a Taiwanese Citizen Digital Certificate.

These kinds of conversions allow customers to transfer funds through Citibank’s Mobile Banking services and control investments in both the Hong Kong and the U.S. stock markets. As part of its drive to aid wealth management, Citi has launched the Total Wealth Advisor (TWA) system — an image-based, intuitive tool for financial advisors to provide a more professional service and help customers achieve their financial goals.    [FULL  STORY]