The Council of Agriculture yesterday said it will set up a fund to subsidize farmers for losses they could encounter after the government implements its free economic pilot zones.
The pilot zones are to allow food-processing companies to set up factories within the zones and to import agricultural raw materials that are currently banned from being shipped in, the council said.
For example, after the policy takes effect, local pineapple cake makers might start importing pineapples from abroad, and companies selling tea leaves are likely to use more of such products from China and Vietnam, Wu Ming-ming (吳明敏), a professor from Kainan University, said yesterday in Taipei during a public hearing regarding the establishment of the pilot zones.
The council said its preliminary estimation indicates that the output of farmers who supply their products to food-processing companies is between NT$23.5 billion and NT$35 billion (US$783 million and US$1.17 billion) a year.
The council did not specify an amount of potential damage local farmers might encounter.
Meanwhile, Su Wei-shuo (蘇偉碩), president of an association for farmers, said the government should not allow food-processing companies to label their products as “Made in Taiwan” if they used materials from abroad, because such a practice was likely to hurt the reputation for food made in the nation if cheaper ingredients from other countries was allowed under the “Made in Taiwan” label.
The policy is also to allow companies to transport pet fish from abroad to the zones for distribution to other countries.
In about 100 countries, companies can provide 5,400 kinds of fish to customers, while Taiwan currently only allows fish suppliers to bring 460 kinds into the country, Fan Tsu-hao (方祖豪), executive director of Taiwan Ornamental Fish Association, said at the hearing.
Meanwhile, participants at the hearing said that the draft was incomplete because it lacks clear regulations for supervising imports, which might present an opportunity for companies to import animals illegally.
In response, the National Development Council said that it would revise the draft to close loopholes that could give rise to animal trafficking.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
RSS