President Chen Shui-bian (
President Chen, seeking re-election, made the remarks yesterday during visits to several temples in the Sungshan district to pray for a peaceful and properous new year. Yesterday was the fourth day of the first month of the Year of the Monkey, which traditionally is the day for Chinese to greet the arrival of the God of Fortune.
Chen, who started his political career by serving as a Taipei City councilman in the Sungshan and Hsinyi districts, asked for the continued support of his long-time followers in the March 20 presidential election.
Touting the performance of his government, Chen said that over the more than three years of his term, the nation's foreign exchange reserves have almost doubled from US$105 billion when he assumed office in May 2000 to US$206.6 billion at the end of last year.
Taiwan's businesses were adversely affected by the outbreaks of SARS in the second quarter of last year, the president noted, but the nation rebounded strongly in the third quarter to register economic growth of 4.18 percent. Fourth quarter growth stood at an even better 4.81 percent, the president said.
"I'm confident that economic growth this year will reach 5 percent, surpassing Singapore and Hong Kong," the president said.
Chen also said that the jobless rate in Taiwan dropped to 4.71 percent at the end of last year. This compares with 10 percent in Germany, 9.7 percent in France, 7.5 percent in Hong Kong and Canada, 5.9 percent in the US and Singapore, and 5.2 percent in Japan during the same period.
"I'm sure Taiwan's jobless rate could drop to 4.5 percent this year, and 4 percent next year," the president said.
Chen also said that the government has written off more than NT$1 trillion (US$29.67 billion) in bad debts over the past three years.
Non-performing loans of financial institutions have been reduced, and the structure of financial institutions has greatly improved, with the overall investment environment strengthening, he said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS