Taiwan hopes for increased cooperation with Japan in multiple areas, including talent cultivation and funding for innovation, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said on Tuesday, calling on Japanese firms to invest in Taiwan.
At a joint news conference held by the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Liu touted Taiwan as a destination for Japanese investors, pointing to the semiconductor industry as a key sector in which the two countries complement each other.
Citing international tech giants such as Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, which recently announced their intention to establish research and development centers in Taiwan, Liu said it is the right time to invest in Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the National Development Council
He said that he expected the cooperation between Taiwan and Japan to grow into a strong partnership that could take advantage of global business opportunities.
Liu, who is heading a delegation of representatives from almost 50 innovation firms to a Taiwan-Japan start-up summit in Tokyo, said that to strengthen collaboration in developing advanced technologies and setting up start-up ecosystems, the two sides should focus on how to solicit international funds, cultivate a talent pool, connect to global markets and develop “deep tech.”
Deep tech refers to the field of highly sophisticated technology rooted in advanced scientific principles and engineering innovations.
With Taiwan and Japan each emphasizing technological innovation in their respective economies, both have developed their own models for attracting foreign funding, Liu said, adding that Taiwan has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kyoto University Innovation Capital Corp, funded by Kyoto University, to seek start-ups to invest in.
In terms of talent cultivation, Liu said Taiwan has worked with the Japanese industrial sector to develop high-end technologies and that it hopes to expand such cooperation into talent exchanges.
Taiwan’s industrial sector has a solid foundation in semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) development, and it is expected that Taipei and Tokyo would be able to jointly develop AI, robots and deep tech to address the impact of their aging societies, Liu said.
As for how to connect with international markets, the NDC has launched the “Bridge” program to assist Taiwanese start-ups, he said, adding that yesterday’s launch of an innovation hub in Tokyo was the first step of that program.
According to the council, the innovation hub is expected to serve as a regular platform for comprehensive bilateral exchanges between Taiwan and Japan — in contrast to the previous pattern of sporadic one-off events — thereby paving the way for more substantive business cooperation.
Through these hub-hosted exchanges, start-ups from Taiwan and Japan would be able to extend their reach to find more business opportunities, Liu said.
In addition to Tokyo, the council plans to set up similar start-up innovation hubs in the US and Southeast Asia.
Taiwan has entered an era of massive private investments, which are estimated to top NT$5 trillion (US$156.5 billion) this year, Liu said.
Taiwan’s government has also encouraged the insurance industry to seek more investment, with a goal of US$5 billion per year, he added.
‘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
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
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
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
RSS