Business and Finance

Bank sees opportunity in Taiwan’s green energy market

Focus Taiwan
2016/10/30 18:31:27
By: Huang Li-yun and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Oct. 30 (CNA) Macquarie Capital of Australia sees Taiwan’s green energy

John Walker

John Walker

project as Asia’s biggest business opportunity and has decided to invest NT$25 billion (US$790 million) over three years in Taiwan’s renewable energy market.

Touting his company’s record in Korea, where Macquarie earns a 6-7 percent return on investment in infrastructure projects, Macquarie Chairman John Walker said he expects a similar return in Taiwan, but argued that Taiwan needed to raise the wholesale price for renewable energy.

In an interview with CNA, Walker said his company has signed a letter of intent with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to build offshore wind farms to help realize the government’s goal of replacing nuclear power with green energy by 2025.    [FULL  STORY]

Real-estate sales rise from last month

FLEXIBILITY:The pickup was most apparent in Taoyuan and Taichung, rising 18.6% and 14.6% respectively, as sellers were prepared to negotiate prices, Taiwan Realty said

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 31, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

The nation’s major real-estate brokers reported better transactions this month than last month, when two typhoons and the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday decreased the number of working days and dampened buying interest.

However, the market remains soft and brokers said they expect weak sales for the rest of this quarter — the traditional high sales season — as buyers wait on the sidelines in expectations of price reductions.

Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) posted an 8.3 percent month-on-month increase in property transactions, driven by self-occupancy needs, the broker said.

“The pickup is most evident in Taoyuan and Taichung, where 10-year-old homes outperformed other properties because they are relatively affordable and necessitate low renovation costs,” Taiwan Realty spokeswoman Charlene Chang (張旭嵐) said in a statement.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s economic crime rate drops

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/10/27
By: Wendy Lee, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan’s economic crime rate from January to August has declined by 11.3 percent clipboard01from the same period the previous year, according to the latest Interior Ministry statistics released on Saturday.

The statistics show that in the first eight months of this year, a total of 4,969 finalized cases of economic crime have been recorded, 633 cases less than the same period last year.

Intellectual property rights infringement is still the most commonly committed economic crime in the nation, with 3,358 cases being reported during the period, making up 67.6 percent of all reported cases, and was followed by violation of financial order, with a total of 947 reported cases.    [FULL  STORY]

Stocks with good corporate governance gain more: Taiwan Index Plus

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/29
By: Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 29 (CNA) Shares of companies that have good corporate governance records tend to post higher gains, according to Taiwan Index Plus Corp. (TIP, 台灣指數公司), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).

TIP, which compiles and manages indexes on the TWSE, said that with the benchmark Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Stock Index (TAIEX) hitting a high of 9,385.65 for this year at the close on Oct. 25, the TWSE Corporate Governance 100 Index (台灣公司治理100指數) ended at a record high of 5,321.72.

The TWSE CG 100 Index was launched on June 29, 2015. The index is comprised of 100 stocks that scored among the top 20 percent under the exchange’s Corporate Governance Evaluation System.

TIP said that as of Oct. 25, the TWSE CG 100 Index had gained 19.80 percent year-to-date, outperforming the TAIEX, which had risen 15.42 percent, indicating that the TWSE CG 100 Index has strong constituents chosen through a sound selection mechanism.    [FULL  STORY]

China Airlines unveils new A350 passenger jet

The China Post
Date: October 29, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

National carrier China Airlines (CAL) officially unveiled its Airbus A350 passenger jet,

A China Airlines flight attendant greets reporters in the business class cabin of the company's new Airbus A350 passenger jet, Friday, Oct. 28. (CNA)

A China Airlines flight attendant greets reporters in the business class cabin of the company’s new Airbus A350 passenger jet, Friday, Oct. 28. (CNA)

conducting a demonstration flight Friday amid great fanfare after successful completion of preparations and government certification trials.

The new A350 fleet will initially fly on European routes. Next year, direct flights will commence for Taoyuan-Amsterdam, Taoyuan-Vienna, and Taoyuan-Rome. This means the carrier will be operating two direct flights everyday to Europe and a total of 16 flights per week.

With the new flights, CAL will offer the most direct flights to Europe of any carrier in Taiwan. Passengers between Taiwan and Europe will no longer be required to make a stopover, saving four hours of flight time.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Q3 GDP up 2.06%, beating forecast

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/10/28
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Frances Huang, Central News Agency

Taiwan’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 2.06 percent in the third quarter year-on-year, beating an earlier forecast of 1.99 percent made in August, according to an advance estimate from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released on Friday.

The DGBAS said that the higher than expected GDP growth for the July-September period largely reflected stronger private consumption as well as capital formation, though export growth was lower than previously forecast due to the reduced number of business days caused by a series of typhoons.

In the wake of the better than expected GDP figure in the third quarter, Taiwan’s economy is expected to grow a minimum of 1 percent in 2016, the directorate said.

Third quarter GDP growth was the highest recorded quarterly growth since the first quarter of 2015, when the figure stood at 4.04 percent.    [FULL  STORY]

MediaTek Q3 net profit up more than 18% over Q2

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/28
By: Jackson Chang and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 28 (CNA) MediaTek Inc. (聯發科), Taiwan’s leading integrated circuit 201610280022t0001designer, said Friday that its net profit for the third quarter of this year rose more than 18 percent from a quarter earlier on the back of strong demand for smartphones.

The third quarter is traditionally the peak season for the global semiconductor industry, which tends to report a better bottom line in that period.

MediaTek, whose smartphone chips account for about 60 percent of the company’s total revenue, benefited from growing demand in the smartphone market in China, boosting its net profit by 18.8 percent from the previous quarter to NT$7.83 billion (US$248 million) for the July-September period.    [FULL  STORY]

Ma’s office accused of setting up chairwoman

DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS:Ma’s office said that Hung was deliberately disrespectful by applying lipstick during his speech; Tsai said she was meeting the media

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 29, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff Reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday accused former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) office of “setting up [KMT Chairwoman] Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱)” by spreading a rumor that she thumbed her nose at Ma.

Tsai yesterday denied a news report saying KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) claimed Hung would not mention “one China, different interpretations,” but rather focus on the KMT’s recently passed policy platform that aims to “further” the so-called “1992 consensus” and on signing a peace agreement with Beijing during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Tuesday next week.

Tsai quoted Chan as saying that he has not taken part in writing the speech for Hung’s meeting with Xi and has not spoken to the media regarding what Hung would say during the meeting.

The Chinese-language China Times reported that Ma’s office released a statement on Thursday, saying that the “1992 consensus” and “one China, different interpretations” are not only a cross-strait consensus, but also a “Taiwanese consensus,” in response to Chan’s remarks.     [FULL  STORY]

China Airlines unveils new A350 passenger jet

The China Post
Date: October 29, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

National carrier China Airlines (CAL) officially unveiled its Airbus A350 passenger jet,

A China Airlines flight attendant greets reporters in the business class cabin of the company's new Airbus A350 passenger jet, Friday, Oct. 28. (CNA)

A China Airlines flight attendant greets reporters in the business class cabin of the company’s new Airbus A350 passenger jet, Friday, Oct. 28. (CNA)

conducting a demonstration flight Friday amid great fanfare after successful completion of preparations and government certification trials.

The new A350 fleet will initially fly on European routes. Next year, direct flights will commence for Taoyuan-Amsterdam, Taoyuan-Vienna, and Taoyuan-Rome. This means the carrier will be operating two direct flights everyday to Europe and a total of 16 flights per week.

With the new flights, CAL will offer the most direct flights to Europe of any carrier in Taiwan. Passengers between Taiwan and Europe will no longer be required to make a stopover, saving four hours of flight time.    [FULL STORY]

Meet the Start-up that Wants to Tidy Your Room

Ten questions with the founders of Tidy Man, a Taipei-based startup fighting against waste, clutter and, sometimes, heartbreak.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/10/27
By: Yuan-ling Liang

4x5fnwl950da1e7buk09z65eabysanDo any of the following symptoms sound familiar?

“I have difficulty using spaces in my home for their intended purposes (for example, eating with others at my kitchen table, sitting on my sofa to watch TV, or sleeping in my bed).”

“Getting rid of my possessions causes me anxiety, whether I’m throwing them out, donating them, or selling them.”

“I often have a hard time finding what I am looking for because my place is always cluttered with possessions.”

If any of your answers is a “yes”, then you are probably suffering from “hoarding disorder,” a “disease of affluence” listed in the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2013.

“A person’s room reflects their life”, says Cheng Po-yuan (鄭博元), co-founder of Tidy Man, a start-up that tackles hoarding by rearranging your possessions for you.
The News Lens International (TNLI) interviewed Cheng and his fellow company founders, Tzeng Chi-yun (曾紀昀), Kuo Shih-chieh (郭士傑), Lai Ting-ho (賴廷荷) in Taipei.     [FULL  STORY]