Eastar Jet latest company to announce more routes with charter flights to Hualien

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/19
By: Duncan Deaeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Interest in Taiwan among South Korean tourists has continued to grow steadily over the past year, with several airlines boosting their flight offerings between Taiwan and South Korean airports.

Eastar Jet is the latest company to announce more flight routes, with over a dozen charter flights planned over the next month from Incheon and Busan to Taiwan’s Hualian County. Earlier this week, Air Busan also began a series of charter flights between Ulsan and Hualien Airport, located on Taiwan’s east coast.

According to CNA, the charter flights to Hualein from South Korea are organized as part of a subsidy program initiated in 2018 to boost tourism to Eastern Taiwan and make the region more easily accessible for international travelers. The first flight from Air Busan arrived in Hualien on Thursday (Oct. 17) and the first flight from Eastar Jet will arrive Oct. 29.

Eastar Jet and Air Busan, along with the latter’s parent company Asiana Airlines, are also preparing to increase the number of flight routes from Korea to Kaohsiung, according to Flight global. While Taipei remains the main destination for South Korean visitors to Taiwan, data from the past year suggests that other regions of the country are increasing in attractiveness for Korean visitors.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/19
By: Wu Chia-jung and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 19 (CNA) At a time when trade friction between the United States and China is affecting global demand, export-oriented Taiwan still posted a year-on-year increase of more than 2 percent in outbound sales for the first nine months of the year, after inflationary adjustments, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Data compiled by the ministry shows that real export growth in Taiwan hit 2.8 percent in the nine month period, compared with a 2.5 percent fall in nominal terms.

The MOF said the real export growth figure came after excluding inflationary effects to better reflect the reality of Taiwan's export performance.

In terms of real export growth, Taiwan outperformed the three other Asian tigers which all suffered a year-on-year decline in the nine months: Hong Kong (down 6.0 percent, January-August), South Korea (down 1.4 percent, January-September) and Singapore (down 4.0 percent, January-August), the data showed.    [FULL  STORY]

Chung-Hua Institution of Economic Research increases Taiwan's growth prediction for 2020 to 2.34%

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/18
By: Duncan Deaeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — On Friday (Oct. 18), the Chung-Hua Institution of Economic Research (CIER) announced that it has revised Taiwan’s economic growth forecast for the next year.

According to the CIER, Taiwan’s growth forecast has been increased by 0.27 percent over the previous forecast issued in July. Currently, the institute anticipates that Taiwan’s economy will grow by 2.34 percent in 2020.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/18
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 18 (CNA) The local central bank stepped into the foreign exchange market Friday to limit the U.S. dollar's depreciation against the Taiwan dollar at a time of continued foreign funds inflow, according to dealers.

Nevertheless, the U.S. dollar dipped to a more-than one year low to close at NT$30.611 against the Taiwan dollar, down NT$0.070, or 0.23 percent, after coming off an earlier low of NT$30.575.

During the trading session, the U.S. dollar moved between NT$30.575 and NT$30.685 before the close. The greenback's closing level was the lowest since Oct. 1. 2018, when the currency ended at NT$30.556 against the Taiwan dollar.

This week, the U.S. dollar closed down NT$0.239, or 0.77 percent, against the Taiwan dollar.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese inventor creates system to manufacture diesel fuel from ocean water

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/17
By: Duncan Deaeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — This year at the 13th annual International Warsaw Invention Show in

Poland, Taiwanese participants took home an incredible amount of medals for their innovative creations.

In total, the Taiwan delegation snagged three bronze, 14 silver, 19 gold, and three special award medals, giving Taiwan the second most medals of any delegation at the competition after the host country Poland. One Taiwanese inventor that received lots of attention at the show was Professor Hsu Tzu-kuei (徐子圭) from the Air Force Institute of Technology, whose invention was dubbed the “Noah’s Ark of green energy technology.”

According to Liberty Times, Hsu, along with Professor Tai Chang-hsien (戴昌賢) from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, created a system to convert water, sunlight, and air into a burnable fuel source. They proposed that the system be outfitted on a large ocean-faring vessel and claimed that energy from the wind and waves could be harnessed to transform the water into a kind of “diesel” fuel.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/17
By: Y.F. Low

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) Taiwan shares closed up 24.05 points, or 0.22 percent, at 11,186.88 Thursday on turnover of NT$121.69 billion (US$3.97 billion).    [SOURCE]

5G DRIVEN: The additional US$4 billion for next year is to be spent on boosting its 5 and 7-nanometer capacities, as 5G deployment, especially from telecoms, accelerates

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 18, 2019
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its capital spending by

up to 40 percent for this year to US$15 billion and said it would maintain the record-high budget next year as faster 5G network deployment and higher smartphone penetration continue to fuel demand for its most advanced technologies.

TSMC has decided to add about US$4 billion in spending, with more than half of the amount to be spent on boosting its 5-nanometer capacity and the remainder for 7-nanometer chip production, said the company, which counts Apple Inc and Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) chip design arm, Hisilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體), as its top clients.

The company said 5-nanometer technology is more expensive than its previous technology nodes, given its extensive use of high-cost extreme ultraviolet (EUV) tools in mass production, which is to begin in the first half of next year.    [FULL  STORY]

Completion target of 2023 looks unrealistic: reports

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Ministry of Transportation will drop plans for an artistic ceiling at Taiwan

Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 because the design is too expensive and has resulted in no company biddng for the project, CNA reported Tuesday (October 15).

The Taoyuan International Airport Corporation (TIAC) will present a report to the ministry on Friday (October 18) concluding it is necessary to abandon the plan for 130,000 aluminum tubes in the shape of flowers suspended from the ceiling of the terminal’s departure hall. Last year, TIAC said it had already asked the designers, the U.K.'s Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Taiwan’s CECI Engineering Consultants, Inc., to alter their plans for the ceiling.    [FULL  STORY]