Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/12/18
By: Jeffery Wu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Dec. 18 (CNA) Acer Inc. (宏碁), one of Taiwan’s leading personal computer vendors, said Friday that it recorded a 25 percent year-on-year increase in sales on Black Friday in the U.S. market

Black Friday, which fell on Nov. 27 in the U.S. this year, is the day after the Thanksgiving and is regarded as the start of the Christmas shopping season. In the U.S., it is a mega shopping day characterized by rock bottom bargains and longer opening hours at retail stores.

Acer said that on Black Friday in the U.S. this year it sold more than 100,000 items, including notebook computers and LCD displays, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. However, it did not disclose the sales value.   [FULL  STORY]

DEMONSTRATED USE:VR headset’s are expected to be used in diverse areas, such as entertainment, healthcare, education, industrial design and commerce, HTC said

Taipei Times
Date:  Dec 19, 2015
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) is looking to work with German luxury automaker Audi AG to provide a service to potential auto buyers, allowing them to test drive vehicles with the aid of HTC’s Vive virtual-reality (VR) headset.

The company is also promoting its VR headset in China by partnering with Hangzhou Shunwang Technology Co (杭州順網科技), which develops and sells Internet entertainment networking platforms, HTC chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a conference in Beijing for VR technology developers, Wang said HTC is exploring opportunities to expand its VR headset’s application to areas such as entertainment, medical care, education, exhibitions, property development, industrial design, tourism and e-commerce.     [FULL  STORY]

Bloomberg News
Date: December 17, 2015
By: Justina Lee
      Cindy Wang

Taiwan cut its policy rate for a second straight quarter, marking a divergence from the U.S., as a contraction in exports shows no signs of a recovery.

The central bank lowered the benchmark discount rate by another 12.5 basis points to 1.625 percent, it said in a statement in Taipei on Thursday. Twelve of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted a cut, while the remainder had expected the rate to be held after it was reduced for the first time since 2009 in September.

Policy makers cited an expanding negative output gap and mild inflation expectations in their statement. External demand is unlikely to improve next year, and slower economic growth has affected inflation, the central bank said in the statement, adding that the global economic outlook faces downside risks.

Exports dropped the most since 2009 last month, signaling the dim prospects of a recovery from a 10-month slump, as economic growth in the biggest market China slows. With domestic consumption also cooling, the economy shrank for the first time in six years last quarter.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-12-17
By: By Yu Kai-hsiang and Elizabeth Hsu, Central News Agency

Taipei 101’s land value highest in Taiwan’s capital.  Taiwan News
The land value of Taipei 101, the landmark skyscraper in the capital’s Xinyi District, was the highest in the city at NT$6 million (US$183,000) per ping, or NT$1.815 million per square meter, according to an assessment by the city government released Wednesday.

It is the third consecutive year that the 508 meter-tall building has won the title of “King of Land” in the city, since it grabbed the title from the Shin Kong Life Tower, situated on Zhongxiao West Road across from the Taipei Main Station, in 2013.

The latter’s land value, officially called “current land value,” was assessed at NT$5.89 million per ping, or NT$1.78 million per square meter. One ping is equivalent to 3.3057 square meters, or 36 square feet.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/12/17
By: Tasi Yi-chu, Chiu Po-seng, Yang Shu-min and Frances Huang

Taipei, Dec. 17 (CNA) The latest interest rate cut by the local central bank is necessary and reasonable at a time when the local economy has showed signs of slowing down, Chairman Tseng Ming-chung (曾銘宗)of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said Thursday.

Bucking a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve overnight, the local central bank announced Thursday that it has decided to lower its key interest rates by 0.125 percentage points, effective Friday.

Tseng said that the interest rate cut by the local central bank is needed and not unfounded at all as the local economy needs stimulus measures to leave the current stagnation behind.

In November, the government trimmed its forecast of the country’s gross domestic product growth for 2015 to 1.06 percent from an earlier estimate of a 1.56 percent rise.     [FULL  STORY]

UPGRADING:The nation’s biggest telecom operator expects a government subsidy program to spur migration from 2G to 4G, as it expands its network

Taipei Times
Date:  Dec 18, 2015
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) aims to expand its 4G customer base to about 6.4 million users next year, with a nearly 40 percent share of the market, a company executive said yesterday.

The nation’s biggest telecom operator, which is on track to hit its target of 4.4 million 4G users since the service was launched in May, said that consumers’ concerns about speed and network coverage have been mostly resolved.

“We expect more customers — especially 2G users — to migrate to 4G services, particularly 2G users,” Chunghwa president Shih Mu-piao (石木標) told reporters on the sidelines of a press conference.     [FULL  STORY]

REVENUES:An international crude oil and stainless steel price slump has dragged down the manufacturing sector, but electronics makers could offset the weakness

Taipei Times
Date:  Dec 17, 2015
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

Total revenue from the nation’s manufacturing sector this year is expected to fall from last year, due to continued decline in crude oil and stainless steel prices, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

“We expect annual revenues in the manufacturing sector to drop about 2.5 percent from last year’s NT$27.33 trillion (US$829.44 billion),” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Yang Kuei-hsien (楊貴顯) said by telephone.     [FULL  STORY]