US companies operating in Taiwan are significantly less confident than last year about Taiwan’s economic outlook this year, amid concerns over five key issues — trade disputes, Chinese pressure, cybersecurity, US trade policy and intellectual property rights infringement — the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) said yesterday.
Based on input from 179 members, AmCham’s annual poll found that only 45.8 percent of respondents were upbeat about the outlook for this year, nearly a 10 percentage point drop from 55.5 percent last year.
However, 53.63 percent were optimistic about local growth over the next three years, slightly higher than last year’s 50.25 percent, AmCham said, adding that sound fundamentals would lend support to domestic growth and predicting that the volatility arising from the five key concerns could end in the next three years.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The US-China trade dispute is the biggest geopolitical threat to the local economy, followed by pressure from China over Taiwan and the US’ America first trade policy, AmCham chairman Leo Seewald told a news conference in Taipei.
Although the US and China on Dec. 3 announced a 90-day truce, 81 percent of respondents expect the dispute to last longer, Seewald said.
The survey, which was conducted from Nov. 12 to Dec. 21, included “pressure from China over Taiwan” as a geopolitical factor for the first time, with 79 percent of members expressing concern, but most companies said they would be willing to continue their operations in Taiwan as long as the environment remains stable, he said.
Power supply was once again citied as the main operational issue, with 86.59 percent voicing concern over energy sufficiency, up from 84 percent a year earlier, the survey showed.
With regards to the government’s “nuclear-free homeland by 2025” policy, member companies do not favor any kind of energy resources, but are worried how the policy would be implemented, AmCham said.
The passage of Referendum No. 16, which asked people if they agreed to abrogate Article 95-1 of the Electricity Act (電業法), has increased the uncertainty, it said.
“It does not matter how the lights go on, but it matters if they do not go on,” Seewald said.
AmCham advocates revisions to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), as its members feel that current regulations are not flexible enough to meet their needs, with 55.31 percent saying labor issues are likely to be a key factor in their decisions on business expansion in Taiwan.
While more than a third of companies plan to increase employment this year, respondents are less satisfied with their companies’ ability to recruit talent, with the satisfaction rate dropping from 62 percent last year to 59 percent this year.
“It is not a significant drop, but may be a issue if it continues declining, and with young talent moving to Hong Kong and China seeking opportunities, we really need to find a way for them to stay in the nation,” Seewald said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
RSS