Legislators praise ministry for higher basic research budget

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/09/25
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has cooperated with four prominent universities to launch a set of guidelines for the development of artificial intelligence (AI), reports said Wednesday (September 25).

Yet, lawmakers wondered whether the ministry had done enough to prepare for the expected 100,000 jobs needed in the AI sector over the next five years, the United Daily News reported.

According to the guidelines published this week, AI should be based on the core values of humanity, sustainable development and tolerance. The eight key guidelines focused on the common good and well-being, fairness and non-discrimination, autonomy and control, safety, privacy and data governance, transparency and traceability, explainability, and accountability and communication.
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Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/09/25
By: Liao Yu-yang and Frances Huang

Taipei, Sept. 25 (CNA) Confidence among Taiwanese manufacturers improved in August for the second consecutive month largely on the back of rising global demand during the peak season for electronic gadgets, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said Wednesday.

TIER data showed that composite index for the manufacturing sector, which gauges business sentiment among manufacturers, rose 1.16 points in August from a month earlier to 94.98.

At a news conference, TIER President Chang Chien-yi (張建一) said old economy manufacturers in the machinery, metal, rubber and plastics industries, for example, have been affected by weakening global demand amid the trade frictions between the United States and China.

However, Chang said, the information and communications industry reported higher outbound sales during its peak season.    [FULL  STORY]

REALIGNMENT: China-based Taiwanese companies are returning at a faster pace and at a greater scale, easing the impact of the US-China trade row, a think tank said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 26, 2019
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Another research institute yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year, as

more companies return home from China as the trade conflict between Beijing and Washington persists, driving up private investment and cushioning the blow from soft external demand.

Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute (元大寶華綜經院) revised up its GDP growth forecast for this year to 2.3 percent from the 2.1 percent it predicted six months earlier, as China-based companies shift production bases back home at a faster pace and a greater scale.

“The supply chain realignment has made Taiwan less of a victim of the ongoing trade dispute and cut its economic dependence on China, although the link remains strong,” the Taipei-based think tank’s president Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源) said.

A government-backed survey late last year found that 45.8 percent of Taiwanese firms in China said they intend to adjust their investments or relocate, Liang said.    [FULL  STORY]

Yunlin followed by Pingtung and Changhua in highest value agricultural yields in 2018

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/09/24
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — According to data recently reported by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics of the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s highest agricultural yield in 2018 came from Yunlin County, followed by Pingtung County.

According to statistics on gross domestic product, Yunlin and Pingtung lead the country in the production of agricultural goods, a category which includes timber, seafood, and livestock. In 2018, the country’s total agricultural output amounted to NT$498.6 billion (US$16 billion).
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Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/09/24
By: Tsai Peng-min and Frances Huang

Taipei, Sept.24 (CNA) Taiwanese vendors will take part in an upcoming online shopping festival organized by authorities in Malaysia, making Taiwan the first foreign country to join the online sales campaign, the Commerce Development Research Institute (CDRI) said Tuesday.

The MYCYBERSALE ASIA, which has been expanded from the previous MYCYBERSALE to include Taiwanese vendors, is scheduled to kick off on Sept. 27 and run through Oct. 3, according to the CDRI, one of the leading economic think tanks in Taiwan.

Taiwanese vendors will be part of the Taiwan Pavilion at the expanded shopping festival, featuring about 2,000 brands, including e-commerce operators PCHome and Books.com, beauty product vendor Allyoung, biotech firm Ejia, Jia Chi Wan stick rice provider and Sheriff Tea Egg, the CDRI said.

The Taiwanese vendors are expected to sell about 10,000 products across a wide range including Taiwanese foods, cosmetics, skin care, fashion items, and home products, the CDRI added.
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Taiwan News
Date: 2019/09/23
By:  Central News Agency

Taiwan-based Compal Electronics Inc. remained the world's largest notebook computer assembler in

the second quarter, according to a report released by market information advisory firm International Data Inc. (IDC).

Compal's shipments accounted for 30.5 percent of the global notebook computer assembly market during the April-June period, up from 26.0 percent in the previous quarter, the IDC report said.

According to IDC, a total of 39.70 million notebook computers were rolled out by notebook computer assemblers during the quarter, up 11.4 percent from a quarter earlier, translating to about 12.11 million units assembled by Compal during the period.

IDC said Taiwan-based contractors, which mainly manufacture their products in China, accounted for 82.3 percent of the global notebook assembly market in the second quarter.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/09/23
By: Wu Po-wei and Frances Huang

Taipei, Sept. 23 (CNA) Taiwan's jobless rate edged higher in August as more new graduates entered the job market for the first time, the Directorate General of Budget6, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Monday.

Taiwan had an unemployment rate of 3.89 percent in August, up 0.07 percentage points from July. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate also rose by 0.01 percentage points in August to 3.73 percent.

The DGBAS said it was no surprise that the nominal unemployment rate spiked during the graduation season between June and August when new university graduates typically flood the labor market.

But the seasonally adjusted rates of 3.72 percent in July and 3.73 percent in August, which account for the annual influx of new job seekers, were similar to the 3.73 percent jobless rate for the January to August period.    [FULL  STORY]

DIVERSIFIED CONTENT: The box would give subscribers access to more content, including Android TV, HBO, iQiyi and Line TV, as Kbro faces intensifying competition

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 24, 2019
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Kbro Co (凱擘), the nation’s biggest cable television system operator, yesterday said that starting

next month, it would give Internet-based subscribers a free Android-based set-top box to stream online videos other than its cable TV content, in a bid to fend off growing competition from Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) Internet TV unit.

Kbro’s announcement came following a major regulatory change early this year allowing Chunghwa Telecom’s Internet TV business unit, known as multimedia-on-demand (MOD), greater flexibility in offering content and channel packages.

Before that, MOD only served as a platform provider delivering video on demand.

“The competition landscape has completely changed. We are facing the strongest competition from Chunghwa Telecom’s MOD,” Kbro chairman James Jeng (鄭俊卿) told a media briefing in Taipei.
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