The highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Taiwan since an historic trade pact came into effect, met with the minister of finance yesterday.
Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Chen Jian (陳健) led a 30-member delegation to Taipei on Saturday and visited Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德).
“The two sides have agreed to use wisdom to solve problems during the initial phase of implementation of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA],” Chen was quoted by CNA yesterday.
Chen met Lee at a banquet hosted by the Taiwan Asset Management Co (TAMC, 台灣金聯資產管理), in which representatives from both sides vowed to increase economic and trade cooperation and exchange.
Both sides also agreed to step up cooperation in asset management area, with a long-term goal of establishing a joint asset management venture in the third place, the CNA reported, citing unnamed sources.
Chen said on Saturday that he has “three major tasks” to achieve during this trip, the main one being to promote direct sales of Taiwan’s agricultural products to China.
At a banquet hosted by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新), who also serves as vice chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), Chen said the second task was to find more suitable ways to facilitate cross-strait trade cooperation and for Taiwan and China to jointly access other markets.
Thirdly, he said he hoped to see the ECFA benefit more people, particularly the large number of small and medium-sized enterprises and fishermen’s and farmers’ associations.
With the ECFA taking effect on Sept. 12, bilateral cooperation will be closer, Chen said, adding that he is in Taiwan to learn more about its investment environment.
The delegation is scheduled to visit major Taiwanese enterprises in northern and central Taiwan and attend a conference on cross-strait business strategies today.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$10.26 billion to finance the construction of its second fab in Kumamoto, Japan, and a second fab in Arizona, using advanced process technologies. The Department of Investment Review approved TSMC’s investment applications on the basis that Taiwan remains a major technology and manufacturing hub for the chipmaker, which makes its most advanced chips at home, the company operates its research-and-development center here and the majority of its capacity remains in Taiwan. The latest capital injections — US$5.26 billion for its Japanese venture Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing
Packed into a small room, a drone, bipedal robot, supermarket checkout and other devices showcase a vision of China’s software future — one where an operating system developed by national champion Huawei (華為) has replaced Windows and Android. The collection is at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Center in the southern city of Shenzhen, a local government-owned entity that encourages authorities, companies and hardware makers to develop software using OpenHarmony (鴻蒙), an open-source version of the operating system Huawei launched five years ago after US sanctions cut off support for Google’s Android. While Huawei’s recent strong-selling smartphone launches have been closely watched for
The waves of the Aegean Sea lap gently at the tables and chairs of two beach restaurants on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula. It is an idyllic scene, but one that is totally illegal. Like many others in Greece, the two establishments on Pefkochori Beach do not have a license to set up shop so close to the water. After a wave of protests last summer by locals about bars and restaurants illegally covering beaches with sunbeds and tables, the Greek state is taking action. It is cracking down on rogue tourist practices with surveillance drones, satellite imagery and a special app
South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, the world’s No. 2 memorychip maker, is to invest 103 trillion won (US$74.6 billion) through 2028 to strengthen its chips business, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), its parent SK Group said yesterday. SK Group also said it plans to secure 80 trillion won by 2026 to invest in AI and semiconductors as well as fund shareholder returns, while streamlining its more than 175 subsidiaries. The sprawling conglomerate outlined the plans following a two-day strategy meeting, aiming to revive the group after SK Hynix, its main money maker, and the group’s electric vehicle battery arm suffered heavy losses. SK