INVESTMENT
FDI hits record first quarter
The total value of approved investment projects by Taiwanese expatriates and foreign investors grew 105.43 percent year-on-year to US$2.25 billion in the first quarter, the highest January-to-March figures in 10 years, the Investment Commission said on Friday last week. Commission spokesperson Yang Shu-ling (楊淑玲) said the approved foreign direct investments (FDI) include Itochu Corp buying shares in Taipei Financial Center Corp (台北金融大樓) for US$665 million, German-based Allianz SE increasing its investment in Allianz Taiwan Life Insurance Co (安聯人壽) to US$600 million and wind farm investments.
TRADE
Firms to save with tariff deal
Nicaragua’s removal of tariffs on three types of industrial products from Taiwan — paper or paperboard labels of all kinds, rubber or plastic footwear, and metal furniture — went into effect yesterday, which could save Taiwanese businesses a grand total of US$57,218 per year, an estimate by the Customs Administration found. The expansion of benefits under a decade-old bilateral free-trade agreement was implemented in Taiwan and Nicaragua earlier this year, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said on Friday last week.
ELECTRONICS
P20 Pro lands in Taiwan
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) on Thursday last week launched the P20 Pro in Taiwan. It is the world’s first smartphone to have three cameras and is touted as a game changer in mobile photography. Xunwei Technologies Co (訊崴), Huawei’s exclusive distributor in Taiwan, said that the P20 Pro accumulated preorders totaling about 100 million yuan (US$15.88 million) just 10 seconds after its Web site went live in China.
‘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
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
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