Focus Taiwan
Date: 06/06/2020
By: Chung Jung-feng and Frances Huang

Taipei, June 6 (CNA) iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. saw its sales hit the highest level ever for May, with market analysts attributing the growth to U.S. consumer electronics giant Apple Inc. launching global sales of the more affordable new iPhone SE.

In a statement released Friday, Hon Hai said it posted NT$386.98 billion (US$12.92 billion) in sales, up 1.59 percent from a month earlier and up 0.72 percent from a year earlier. Analysts said the presence of the new iPhone SE, which hit stores in April, helped Hon Hai offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On a month-on-month basis, Hon Hai said, its consumer electronics division enjoyed the highest growth in sales, ahead of the computer, electronic components, and cloud-based Internet communications device divisions.

However, in the first five months of this year, Hon Hai's consolidated sales stood at NT$1.698 trillion, down 6.74 percent from a year earlier.    [FULL  STORY]

President Tsai identified cybersecurity as major target for development: Chairman of Wealth Magazine

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/05
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Once the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic slows down, investors should shift their attention from Taiwan's biotech industry to the cybersecurity sector, Wealth Magazine chairman Hsieh Chin-ho (謝金河) said Friday (June 5).

Producers of masks, vaccines, and coronavirus tests have been all the rage over the past few months, but last month, the Presidential Office and Taiwan’s two main oil companies were hacked, propelling cybersecurity to the forefront of public attention, cable station SETN quoted Hsieh as saying.

The popular investment expert also noted that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in her May 20 inaugural speech had named cybersecurity, to be integrated with 5G and digital transformation, as one of six strategic sectors.

During her first term, she promoted wind energy as a key sector, but cybersecurity could become the next item to hold public interest for at least a decade, according to Hsieh.    [FULL  STORY]

The Fast Mode
Date: 05 June 2020
By: Ray Sharma

Sporton, an accredited test house with operations in China, Taiwan and U.S, has selected Keysight Technologies' 5G test platforms to deliver comprehensive conformance and regulatory test services to a global device market.

Sporton has selected Keysight’s 5G conformance test toolset for radio frequency (RF) and radio resource management (RRM) design verification and test (DVT) and conformance testing to address test requirements specified by standards and certification organizations including 3GPP, the global certification forum (GCF), PTCRB and CTIA.

Sporton uses Keysight’s conformance toolset to certify 5G devices that operate in mmWave spectrum or frequency range 2 (FR2). Keysight combines network emulation test solutions with a compact antenna test range (CATR) anechoic chamber to create an integrated over-the-air (OTA) test environment. According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), almost a third of the 112 commercially available 5G devices support mmWave spectrum.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Dated: 06/04/2020
By: Liu Pei-cheng and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, June 4 (CNA) The value of credit card transactions declined to NT$206.2 billion (US$6.89 billion) in April, down 20 percent from a year earlier and the biggest drop in 11 years, according to data released Thursday by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

Credit card transactions in the month of April totaled NT$206.2 billion, a decrease of NT$51.6 billion from the same month last year, or a 20.02 percent year-on-year decline, the biggest fall since January 2009, according to the FSC data.

On a month-on-month basis, the value of credit card transactions in April decreased by NT$22 billion, or 9.64 percent from the previous month.

The dramatic fall in credit card spending can be attributed largely to significant weakness in domestic demand due to social distancing and other measures to combat the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that impacted people's normal life and business activities, said a banking industry analyst.
[FULL  STORY]

KEEPING IT LOCAL: Although many firms had planned to hold trips overseas for their employees, they are instead opting to spend that money on domestic events

Taipei Times
Date: un 05, 2020
By: Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter

Nearly 300 financial companies plan to spend NT$3.032 billion (US$101.3 million) subsidizing domestic trips for employees from this month to the end of the year to help boost the economy, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.

The 287 companies include 36 banks, 41 insurance companies, 68 securities brokerages, 39 securities investment trust firms, 84 securities investment consulting companies, 15 futures traders and four accounting firms, FSC Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) said.

Banks plan to spend NT$1.36 billion, the highest among all industries, followed by insurers with NT$1.35 billion, securities companies with NT$185 million and accounting firms with NT$67 million, the commission said.

A total of 600,000 employees are expected to benefit from the subsidies, Huang said.
[FULL  STORY]

Seven-year plan to cost NT$10 billion

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/03
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The government plans to spend NT$10 billion (US$335 million) to persuade foreign memory chip makers to open research and development facilities in Taiwan, the Bloomberg news agency reported Wednesday (June 3).

The aim of the seven-year project would be to attract at least o6ne such company per year, while local semiconductor makers who convinced foreign suppliers to open R&D centers on the island would also be rewarded.

Criteria for the funding of up to half the companies' R&D costs would include the number of jobs created in Taiwan and the amount of funds invested, according to the report.

The administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has promoted foreign investment in Taiwan as well as tried to lure Taiwanese investors back from China to help them avoid tariffs levied by the United States in its trade war with the communist country.   [FULL  STORY]