Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/01
By:  Central News Agency

Taiwan's manufacturing activity returned to expansion mode in October, doing so for the first time since April, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) said Friday.

Most of the five major factors in the country's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), such as new orders and production, moved higher in October, vaulting the entire manufacturing sector into expansion mode, CIER data showed.

The PMI rose 1.1 in October from a month earlier to 51.1, its first expansion since April, when the it stood at 51.7, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the non-manufacturing index (NMI) for Taiwan's service sector, rose 2.9 from a month earlier to 53.9, marking the eighth consecutive month of expansion, CIER said. 
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/01
By: Chang Chien-chung and Ko Lin

Taipei, Nov. 1 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, is expected to break ground on a new research and development center in Hsinchu next year.

At an annual convention organized by the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) Thursday, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) described the center as Taiwan's equivalent to Bell Labs, a globally renowned R&D institution that has been established in the United States for over 90 years.

The R&D center will be built in the Hsinchu Science Park over some 32 hectares and has already passed a city government environmental impact assessment in July this year.

The site has the capacity to house some 8,000 researchers, who will help spearhead TSMC's research for the next 20 to 30 years, Liu said.    [FULL  STORY]

Deal will facilitate circulation of organic food without additional certification

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/31
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After reaching a deal on the mutual recognition of organic certifications on

Wednesday (Oct. 30), organic products will soon be allowed to circulate between Taiwan and Japan without requiring the certifications issued by each respective country.

Taiwanese and Japanese officials wrapped up their 44th annual round of talks on economic and trade in Tokyo on Wednesday. Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), president of the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association, and Mitsuo Ohashi, chairman of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, signed four memorandums of understanding (MoUs) during the two-day conference, outlining bilateral cooperation on agriculture, patents, and environmental protection.

Organic products sold overseas are required to go through the certification process of the importing country. The agreement to recognize each other's certification will exempt both countries from these procedures, facilitating the circulation of organic Taiwanese food in Japan and vice-versa.

The agreement will go into effect as soon as early next year after Taiwan’s agricultural agency confirms details regarding export management with its Japanese counterpart, said the Agricultural and Food Agency (AFA) on Wednesday. Japan is the first country to reach such an agreement with the island, which implemented the Organic Agriculture Promotion Act last year.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/31
By: Flor Wang and Pan Tzi-yu

Taipei, Oct. 31 (CNA) Taiwan's government Thursday announced the seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) for gross domestic product in Q3 at 2.91 percent, an increase of 0.24 percentage points from its forecast in August.

The figure marks the largest quarterly growth in the SAAR for nearly five quarters, boosted by higher domestic production, strong global demand and booming domestic investment, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported.

The DGBAS attributed the rise to an increase in domestic investment by Taiwanese businesspeople with operations overseas, mainly China, and to orders local companies have received from other countries due to the ongoing trade war between the United States and China.

As the SAAR estimate for Q3 economic growth is higher than the previous DGBAS forecast of 2.67 percent in August, a DGBAS official said Taiwan's economy is expected to gain greater momentum than expected, pushing the economic growth rate for the whole year up to 2.53 percent.
[FULL  STORY]

Global Research and Industry Alliance representatives ink partnership agreements with major companies

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/29
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Global Research and Industry Alliance (GLORIA), which was formed by

Taiwanese universities, has signed collaboration agreements worth over NT$6 billion (US$200 million) at a business conference in the U.S.

GLORIA is currently led by the former deputy minister of Science and Technology, Su Fang-ching (蘇芳慶). The project focuses on the fields of advanced technology and provides innovation services both locally and internationally.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/29
By: Liao Yu-yang and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 29 (CNA) Taiwan and the Philippines held a forum in Manila Tuesday on cooperation in

small and medium-sized enterprise development to facilitate innovation in the region.

The Small and Medium Enterprise Administration (SMEA) under Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), and the Philippines' Department of Trade and Industry, jointly organized the forum that was part of a series of four meetings titled the "APEC Local Innovation Ecosystem Forum: Enhancing Local Industry Clustering and Social Innovation with International Reach."

The SMEA said that through panel discussions, experience sharing and mentoring activities, the forum is expected to "accelerate the knowledge accumulation and capacity building of SMEs, as well as the development of local innovation ecosystems."

According to the SMEA, the forum was the last of the four, with the previous ones held in the Russian city of Tomsk and Taipei in June and the other in Bangkok in August.

The agency said panel discussions shared ideas and opinions in terms of inclusive innovation, social innovation, women's empowerment, and local markets' connections to the global network.
[FULL  STORY]

ZOOMING AHEAD: Wemo plans to offer a NT$99 monthly contract for 125 minutes of scooter use as the firm battles growing competition from Gogoro Inc’s GoShare

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 30, 2019
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Electric scooter-sharing service provider Wemo Corp (威摩科技) yesterday said that it expects to

turn a profit next year as growing demand has prompted the company to double the size of its fleet and expand its business overseas.

“We hope to start making a profit in cities like Taipei next year, although some might remain unprofitable,” Wemo cofounder and chief executive officer Jeffrey Wu (吳昕霈) told a media briefing in Taipei.

The cofounder is a member of the Wu family that owns Shin Kong Group (新光集團), which operates businesses in the insurance, banking, synthetic fibers, retail and healthcare sectors.

His optimism is built on a booming gig economy that includes vehicle-sharing and food-delivery services, not only in Taiwan, but around the globe.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan's TSMC begins construction on US$19.6 Billion 3nm fab

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/28
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has begun construction on a new US$19.6 billion 3nm fab that is anticipated to be completed in 2023.

TSMC has acquired 30 hectares of land on which to build a new 3nm wafer fab in the Southern Taiwan Science and Technology Park, reported DigiTimes. The processors are expected to begin rolling off the assembly line by 2023, according to ithome.

The cost of the new plant is estimated to be NT$600 billion (US$19.6 billion). Earlier in October, a U.S.-based brokerage said that in 2020, TSMC is likely to control 90 percent of the international 7nm technology market, enabling it to dominate the 5nm and 3nm processes over the next three years.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/28
By: Tsai Peng-min and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 28 (CNA) Google Inc., the U.S-based search engine, has received approval from Taiwan's government to invest NT$26 billion (US$850 million) in the country, the Investment Commission said Monday.

The commission said Google's investment is aimed at expanding its data center operations in Taiwan and buying related equipment, but it would not disclose further details about the new investment.

The commission said Google will make the investment through its British Virgin Islands-registered Kohl Holdings Ltd.

In September, Google announced it will build its second data center in Taiwan in Tainan after the first became operational in Changhua County in 2013.    [FULL  STORY]