The European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei yesterday encouraged Taiwanese businesses to expand investment in the 27-member state EU, which has a total population of 500 million people and accounts for 25 percent of the world's GDP.
Taiwan is currently the EU's 14th largest trading partner, accounting for 1.9 percent of EU's imports and 1.1 percent of EU exports, Guy Ledoux, the office's head, told a seminar yesterday.
The EU is Taiwan's fourth largest trade partner, accounting for 11 percent of the nation's exports and 9.5 percent of Taiwan's imports, Ledoux added.
"There's a substantial link between Taiwan and EU, but we need to make it stronger," he said.
He added that Taiwan lagged behind six other Asian economies -- including Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea -- in making EU-bound investments last year, while it once, in 2000, outperformed South Korea.
Currently, Taiwanese electronics brands such as BenQ (明基), Acer and Tatung (大同) as well as bicycle maker Giant (巨大) have set up shops in the EU.
The lack of a consulting agency to evaluate the investment risk has been attributed to Taiwan's slim investment share in Europe, Wang Chung-yu (王鍾渝), vice chairman of the Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association, said at the seminar.
Wen Si-chuang, chairman of Kinka Corp, sided with Wang, saying that Taiwanese corporations have a fear of investing in Europe simply because the cost is high compared to developing countries like China and India.
Another major concern in some EU countries is the language barrier, Wen 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
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
‘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
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