A company executive is betting big on marina development in Taiwan, as the government aims to boost the number of dedicated recreational yacht berths to 1,600 from 1,138 by 2025.
Taiwan could make its dream of having thousands of sailboats and yachts make port calls in the country a reality by speeding up the construction of new marina berths, ARGO Yacht Club (亞果遊艇會) president Ho Yu-lin (侯佑霖) said.
ARGO operates three marinas, in Kaohsiung, Penghu County and Tainan’s Anping District (安平).
Photo: CNA
The 12-hectare Tainan Anping Yacht City is a members-only yacht club providing an array of amenities including restaurants and a hotel resort operated by Singapore’s Banyan Tree Group (悅榕集團), according to the company.
The Anping club was developed after the company received rights in 2017, after which 62 berths were completed. ARGO plans to increase that number to 170 in an expansion project.
Although recreational berths can be found in fishing ports throughout Taiwan, only about 200 have electricity and water charging stations for yachts and sailboats, Ho said.
Regarding the government’s “blue ocean highway” plans, Ho said that a major obstacle is the requirement for private marina operators to fund dredging work without government subsidies or loans.
Dredging consists of maintaining proper channel depth within a marina, and is essential for vessels such as yachts, ferries and private boats to navigate through the facility. Consistent dredging is necessary for safety and to keep a marina operating at maximum capacity throughout the year.
Ho is nevertheless optimistic about the potential of the blue ocean highway plan, and said that ARGO plans to expand its foothold in Taichung and Taipei.
Taiwan has many areas with adequate infrastructure for developing piers for yachts, he said.
More yacht berths that meet international standards would diversify the tourism industry and allow Taiwan better capacity to resupply boaters sailing between Northeast and Southeast Asia, Ho said.
Taiwan is pushing to expand its recreational boating sector, with plans to add six dedicated zones for yachts and sailboats, bringing the number to 24, and create about 460 berths to bring the total to 1,600, with a target date of 2025, the Maritime and Port Bureau said.
‘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
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
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