Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/22
By: Yang Kai-hsiang and Frances Huang

Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) Unemployment in Taiwan fell slightly in October from a month earlier, indicating the local job market remains stable, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Friday.

The jobless rate in October was 3.77 percent, down 0.03 percentage points from September, with the number of those without a job during the month falling by 4,000 or 0.84 percent, to 451,000, DGBAS figures showed.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the October unemployment rate was 3.72 percent, down 0.02 percentage points month-on-month, but up 0.02 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the DGBAS.

For the first 10 months of 2019, the seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 3.73 percent, also slightly higher than for the same period in 2018.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/21
By: Central News Agency

As global trade disputes have continued to affect demand, Taiwan, an export-oriented economy,

saw its export orders falling year-on-year for the 12th consecutive month in October, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said Wednesday.

Data compiled by the ministry shows that the country's export orders fell 3.5 percent from a year earlier to US$47.28 billion after a year-on-year decline of 4.9 percent in September.

On a month-on-month basis, however, export orders rose 3.9 percent on the back of the peak-eason effect in the global electronics industry, and after seasonal adjustments, also grew 0.8 percent, the data shows.

In October, almost all of the major industries in Taiwan suffered a year-on-year drop in export orders, with the exception of the electronic component industry, which posted a new high of US$12.95 billion in export orders, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier and up 4.7 percent from a month earlier, the MOEA said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/21
By: Flor Wang and Chiu Chun-chin

Taipei, Nov. 21 (CNA) The Taipei station of United Airlines (UA) at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport won the airlines' Silver Safety Excellence Award Wednesday, the first time it has been accorded the status.

Of UA's more than 170 outports around the globe, Taipei was given the honor in the airline's annual Safety Excellence Program — a key element of its safety management system that evaluates the safety of the team and airport, customers and assets, Wang Kuo-an (王國安), UA's airport operating manager in Taiwan, said at the award ceremony.

"Safety is No. 1," Wang stressed, attributing the honor to the teamwork between the Taipei station, Taoyuan International Airport Corporation and all its ground staff.

In line with UA's top priority of safety, the Taipei station will do its utmost to achieve the goal of "zero damage and zero injuries," he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Organizer says Anping event being presented as first yacht festival to be held in Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/20
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 2019 Tainan Anping Yachting Festival will take place at Anping Argo Marina in Tainan's Anping District from Nov. 22–24, with nearly 50 yachts on display worth a total of NT$500 million (US$160 million), including the Azimut S6, UDN reported on Wednesday (Nov. 20).

The organizer of the yacht show, the Argo Yacht Club, said that in order to differentiate it from the annual Taiwan International Boat Show in Kaohsiung, the Anping event will be presented as the first yacht festival to be held in Taiwan, according to UDN.

In addition to the yacht show, there will be a grassy area at the venue set aside for food trucks, a market, and a playground. Concerts, flash mob performances, and picnic parties will also take place during the show, according to the yacht club’s Facebook page.

Activities and facilities in the grassy area are free of charge. However, tickets will be required to visit the yachts.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/20
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) The Ministry of Labor will pay the wages and other funds owed to more than 1,800 employees of flat panel supplier Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (CPT), which filed for bankruptcy in September, Labor Minister Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said Wednesday.

The back wages, severance pay and pension benefits will come from the government's Arrears Wage Payment Fund, but the amount will fall short of the total NT$1.2 billion (US$40 million) owing to the 1,800 CPT workers who have been laid off and have not been paid, Hsu said in a legislative committee hearing.

Under the Labor Standards Law, she said, the government fund cannot be used in the case of CPT employees to pay more than NT$900 million.

"We want the workers to receive the payment as soon as possible," Hsu said.    [FULL  STORY]

TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES: Falling raw material prices and declining investment in machinery contributed to the fall in orders, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 21, 2019
By: Natasha Li  /  Staff reporter

Export orders last month contracted for a 12th straight month, slipping 3.5 percent year-on-year to

US$47.28 billion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday, as traditional industries saw orders falter.

“Traditional industries are the ones that have suffered most from the trade conflict between the US and China,” Department of Statistics Director Huang Yu-ling (黃于玲) told a news conference in Taipei.

Huang pointed to plunging raw material prices and declining investment in machinery as reasons behind the disappointing performance.

Orders for machinery equipment contracted 10.3 percent year-on-year to US$1.65 billion last month , while orders for base metal products decreased 14.8 percent to US$2.1 billion, ministry data showed.
[FULL  STORY]

The two countries share aging woes and are looking for ways to turn them into profit

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/19
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Commerce Development Research Institute (CDRI) and the Tokyo

Star Bank on Monday (Nov. 18) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) pledging a joint effort to explore commercial opportunities in the senior market.

As Taiwan and Japan are faced with the shared problem of an aging society, the two should seek to capitalize on the irreversible trend and make it a driving force of economic growth, reckoned Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財), chairman of CDRI.

It is wrong to treat the elderly, who may have lost productivity, as a burden on society, Liberty Times quoted Hsu as saying. The senior population should be considered a key force that has the potential of boosting the economy with changes in consumer behavior and demographic composition, he added.

With the partnership, the Taiwanese government-sponsored think tank and the Japanese bank group will team up to promote a series of projects. These will include the development of senior-friendly facilities, the incorporation of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies into nursing homes, the provision of know-how in dining services targeting elders, and more.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/19
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Nov. 19 (CNA) The government has relaxed the interpretation of the scope and mechanism of tax concessions stipulated in the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals to assuage concerns over the application of the preferential treatment.

Since the act came into effect Feb. 8, 2018, the tax concessions provided for foreign talent have drawn the attention of foreign chambers of commerce, domestic enterprises and foreign professionals in the country, the National Development Council (NDC) said in a statement released Tuesday.

"In view of the doubts concerning the scope of application of the tax concession, the NDC has coordinated with the Ministry of Finance to provide a more flexible interpretation of the scope and mechanism under the provisions of the Act" for those taking up professional jobs for the first time in Taiwan, the statement said.

Under the more lenient interpretation, tax concessions are not just limited to foreign professionals who got their first employment contract on or after Feb. 8, 2018, when the act entered into force, but also before and into the year when the act came into effect.    [FULL  STORY]