Dutch firms interested in local electronics sector: MOEA

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/09
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Following a motion in the Dutch Lower House of parliament to support Taiwan, it is notable that the small European country is the largest foreign investor in the island it once occupied, the Liberty Times reported Wednesday (October 9).

In the first eight months of this year, the Netherlands invested US$35.2 billion (NT$1 trillion) in Taiwan, more than any other country, compared to the US$24.4 billion from the United States, the number two investor, according to data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/09
By: Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 9 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan moved down more than 1 percent Wednesday as investors got jittery over the high-level trade talks taking place between the United States and China in the coming days, dealers said.

Investors in Taiwan reacted to a fall in U.S. markets overnight, which came after hopes for a positive outcome from the trade negotiations suffered a blow when the U.S. expanded its trade blacklist Tuesday to include some Chinese tech firms, they said.

The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), the Taiex, ended down 127.35 points, or 1.16 percent, at the day's low of 10,889.96, off an early high of NT$10,989.39. Turnover was NT$129 billion (US$4.18 billion).

The market opened down 0.37 percent to fall below 11,000 points after the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.19 percent and the S&P 500 index ended 1.56 percent lower overnight in reaction to the move to expand the trade blacklist, dealers said.    [FULL  STORY]

The Ministry of Transportation said city, countryside and highway buses should all be electric in just over a decade

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/08
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The government will invest NT$30 billion (US$974 million) by 2030 in an effort to push through the electrification of all buses, the Ministry of Transportation said Tuesday (Oct. 8).

The intention was to have only electric buses running on all city, countryside and highway routes, CNA reported. The investment would be concentrated on technological innovation and the promotion of manufacturing the electric buses, said Transportation Vice Minister Huang Yu-lin (黃玉霖).
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/08
By: Pan Yi-ching and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 8 (CNA) The four major subsidiaries of the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) saw their combined net profit for the third quarter of this year plunging more than 36 percent from a year earlier, the four companies said Tuesday.

The fall was due to falling product prices at a time of weakening global demand caused by trade friction between the United States and China, the companies said.

The combined net profit of the four units — Formosa Plastics Corp., Nan Ya Plastics Corp., Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp. and Formosa Petrochemical Corp. — totaled NT$48.85 billion (US$1.58 billion), down 36.5 percent from a year earlier.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, however, the combined profit rose 62.7 percent in the third quarter, largely on the back of income of cash dividends from their equity investments.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/06
By: Liu Chien-pan and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) Taipei's Nanmen Market, one of the best known markets in Taiwan for traditional Chinese foods and ingredients, was crowded with shoppers on the last day it was open Sunday before being torn down and rebuilt over the next three years.

The city government-owned market, located on Roosevelt Road not far from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, will close Monday, and its 250-plus tenants will move to a temporary market in the neighborhood to continue to do business.

The old building, which the market has called home for 38 years, will be torn down and replaced with a modern 12-floor structure that is connected to the Taipei's subway system's CKS Memorial Hall Station through its B1 and B2 floors.

It is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

Taipei authorities said the popular traditional market had to be rebuilt because the concrete used in the building was found to contain sea sand and the structure failed to meet modern earthquake-resistance standards during a safety evaluation in 2013.    [FULL  STORY]

Explore IP Strategy Trends to Manage Future-Ready Capabilities

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/04
By:  Taiwan News

The event “2019 Global IP Strategy & Marketing Forum” held on Sep. 27 with the theme of “Trade Secret” and “Technology Transaction” has invited speakers of IP strategy background from domestic and international institutions. These speakers will elaborate on the macro strategies and licensing transactions from the market point of view, helping enterprises to avoid potential risks and find a way to survive and thrive.

“2019 Global IP Strategy & Marketing Forum”, an event of the Taiwan Innotech Expo, is held jointly by MOEA (經濟部), MOST (科技部), COA (農委會), NDC (國發會), MOE (教育部), MND (國防部), and EPA (環保署). This inter-departmental cooperation has shown that the government is not only working proactively to carry out the 5+2 Industrial Transformation Plan but also harnessing Taiwan’s advantages in technology integration to seek the international cooperation of IP technology. This way, Taiwan can be developed into a critical international hub for technology transactions.

The distinguished speakers are as follows: James Pooley (Former Deputy Director General, WIPO), Guojun Zhou (Director of Patents, Asia Pacific, Intel), Shouichi Motodaka (General Manager of Corporate Marketing Strategy Department, NTT DOCOMO, Inc.), Justin Lewis (Managing Director, Ocean Tomo, LLC), Tyler Capson (Managing Director, Asia EverEdge), Sylvia Fang (Vice President and General Counsel, TSMC, Inc.), and David Su (Vice President and General Counsel, MediaTek, Inc.). Based on the current international relations and politics, they put forward their global viewpoints, including operational strategies for topics like trade secrets and IP protection, future technology innovation and technology cooperation.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/04
By: Chung Jung-feng and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 4 (CNA) Chunghwa Precision Test Tech. Co., a Taiwan-based integrated circuit testing equipment supplier, said Friday that it will recruit 1,000 newcomers for its new research and development headquarters to promote future growth.

At a ceremony officially opening the new headquarters, Chunghwa Precision Chairman Huang Hsiu-gu (黃水谷) said his company is inviting interested people to join its R&D headquarters, expecting the number of new employees to top 1,000 in the future.

Chunghwa Precision, a subsidiary of telecom services provider Chunghwa Telecom Co. after a 2005 spinoff, currently has a workforce of about 900 that produces a wide range of IC testing equipment such as probe printed circuit boards (PCB), probe heads, load board PCBs and vertical probe cards (VPC) for customers worldwide.

Before the spinoff, the company served as a high speed PCB development team under Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories.    [FULL  STORY]