The National Development Council (NDC) is to draw up a road map to guide the nation’s search for a new growth engine in the next four years based on technology, green energy and other core strategic industries, new NDC Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday.
The world would see continued US-China trade tensions and supply chain realignment characterized by less concern over production costs and more for risk control and the assurance of critical technology and materials, Kung said.
“The shifting trends pose both challenges and opportunities, and Taiwan should carve out a niche position on the global stage,” Kung said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan’s information technology sector commands global leadership, enabling the nation to emerge unscathed from a US-China trade war and remain resilient amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
The nation’s economy would grow by more than 1 percent this year, while major trading partners suffer contractions induced by lockdown measures to contain the novel coronavirus, he added.
Local tech firms have benefited from a surge in demand for laptops, tablets and devices used in teleworking and distance learning, which has helped offset a decline in smartphone sales, Kung said.
Technology is to gain more importance in the post-pandemic era, when Taiwan can seize on growing demand for 5G, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, he said.
The future technology supply chain would assign more weight to the pursuit of quality instead of quantity, which contributed to the rise of China and ASEAN states as the world’s factories, Kung said.
The council would press ahead with efforts to build Taiwan into the “Asian Silicon Valley,” he said.
In the meantime, the government is to deepen the development of renewable energy sources, particularly offshore wind farms that would grow into another trillion-dollar business and create well-paid jobs for young people, Kung said.
Wind farms last for only two decades, creating a need for new workers for decades to come, he said.
The council would also create a list of critical technologies and materials, and make sure that the government builds up a healthy supply for national security, Kung said, citing face masks and related materials as examples.
The government would assume a more active role in the nation’s economic development, as seen in a so-called national team for the production of masks, stabilization of the local bourse and financial relief efforts amid the pandemic, Kung said, adding that the change is consistent with the global trend toward deglobalization.
The council would wrap up the road map as soon as possible, he said.
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控) yesterday launched its second testing facility in San Jose, California, to expand advanced chip testing capacity such as burn-in testing to satisfy customers’ rising engineering needs for emerging semiconductor applications, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). ISE Labs Inc, a fully owned subsidiary of ASE, would operate the advanced testing facility. When added to its first facility in nearby Fremont, ISE would double its available research-and-development lab and business space to 150,000m2 in hopes of boosting the US semiconductor supply chain, the company said in a statement. “As the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain reshoring
VALUE: TSMC’s market capitalization far exceeds the combined size of all the Latin American companies on MSCI Inc’s benchmark for emerging markets Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) US$420 billion equity rally this year would get a valuation test this week when it reports earnings, with analysts expecting the chipmaker to raise full-year sales forecasts. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker would probably report a 29 percent increase in second-quarter net income on Thursday, according to the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. More importantly, analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co to Morgan Stanley expect it to also raise its full-year sales guidance, justifying another round of valuation expansion. Just like Nvidia Corp, TSMC has become a favorite artificial intelligence (AI)-bet for investors with
The entry of chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) into the elite club of the world’s most valuable companies is further proof that the generative artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is shaking up Wall Street. TSMC, which is listed in Taipei and New York, on Monday briefly broke the US$1-trillion market capitalization barrier, putting it ahead of Tesla Inc as the seventh-most valuable technology giant on the stock market. Also on Monday, Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc and Meta Platforms Inc hit all-time highs. The top 10 of the world’s most valuable companies is headed by Microsoft Corp and Apple, closely followed by
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: The previous shooting targeting a US president or major party candidate was the 1981 incident targeting then-US president Ronald Reagan Saturday’s shooting at former US president Donald Trump’s election rally raises his odds of winning back the White House, and trades betting on his victory would increase this coming week, investors said yesterday. Trump was shot in the ear during the rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday in what the authorities were treating as an assassination attempt. Trump, his face spattered with blood, pumped his fist moments after the attack, and his campaign said he was fine after the incident. Before the shooting, markets had reacted to the prospect of a Trump presidency by pushing the US dollar higher and positioning for a