Taiwan | BIC

Posts tagged as: taiwan back to homepage
Taiwan Boost China Retail(0)Hon Hai plans to start opening the new stores later this year under a partnership initiated last year with German retailer Metro AG, the newspaper quoted Louis Woo, in charge of the company’s retail push, in an interview published on Tuesday.
Hon Hai also plans to open 45-50 branches of Cybermart, a small retail chain it bought a decade ago, the report said, adding that Cybermart operated 34 stores in 20 Chinese cities.The retail push by Hon Hai, which makes personal computers and mobile phones for global brands such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Apple Inc, came as the Taiwan company faced challenges in its core manufacturing business after years of rapid growth, the newspaper said.
Source : Konaxis
China, Taiwan Tariff Reductions(0)”We are still working on details, but the basic agreement has been reached,” Tang Wei, head of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau affairs at China?s Ministry of Commerce, said late Sunday after talks in Beijing with Huang Chih-peng, director-general of Taiwan?s Bureau of Foreign Trade.
An agreement would lower tariffs on more than 200 items exported from Mainland China to Taiwan including car parts, petrochemicals and machinery, the officials said. The exact items have yet to be decided, and Tang said he hoped that Taiwan would export textiles and car parts to Mainland China. An accord would allow service providers to compete in the two markets, he said.Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has been pushing for an accord to bolster export-dependent Taiwan?s economy after a Chinese trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began this year. Ma is also seeking better relations with the island?s biggest trading partner and No. 1 investment destination.
Taiwan and China agreed in December to boost cooperation in fishing, agriculture and industrial goods at the fourth cross-strait talks as relations reached their warmest in 60 years. In November, they signed three memoranda of understanding to ease access to each other?s banking, securities and insurance industries.Trade between the mainland and Taiwan increased 68 percent in the first four months of 2010 compared with same period last year, and Taiwan investment rose 45 percent, China?s Tang said Sunday.
Source : Konaxis
Taiwan to allow mainland chinese investment(0)Starting Monday, Chinese institutional investors can buy shares in Taiwan’s stock market, with purchases by any single investor limited to $80 million, the Financial Supervisory Commission said.
The current investment cap would amount to less than 5 percent of the total capitalization of the mainland Chinese institutional investors approved by mainland authorities, short of the 10 percent analysts had expected.
In an effort to stabilize local financial markets, Taiwanese authorities have in recent weeks tried to halt an influx of foreign capital that has driven up local shares prices and currency.
The combined Chinese ownership will be limited to 10 percent in financial, natural gas and other government-controlled firms, and 8 percent in shipping firms, the commission said.
Buying shares in local airlines, telecom, real estate and broadcasting firms will be barred, the regulator said in a statement posted on its Web site.
The announcement came as a memorandum of understanding signed between the sides took effect, allowing the establishment of banking, securities and insurance firms in each other’s territory.
Also on Saturday, the Bank of China, the country’s largest foreign exchange lender, said in Beijing it will submit an application to open its first branch in Taiwan, with an initial management team of 20 to 30 staff, according to a statement on the bank’s Web site.
Source : Konaxis
China trade deal with Taiwan(0)Ma said that the strategic industries will not be included in the “Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement,” an agreement opening up trade between the two, expected to be signed sometime next year.
He cited other nations’ refusal to allow such items to be manufactured in China, adding he would not let Taiwan be the first to transfer the making of those products to China.
Taiwan currently only allows producers of 8-inch semiconductors to invest in China, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. among just three companies allowed to produce chips of that size in mainland China.
Taiwan is expected to sign a long-awaited memorandum of understanding with China to allow tighter ties between financial institutions by the end of this year, with the broader Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement to follow.
Source : Konaxis
Trade agreement Taiwan China(0)On Sunday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office chief Wang Yi said the two sides could begin talks on the trade pact, known as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, during a new round of bilateral talks later this year. This was the first time a senior Chinese official has proposed a timeframe for it.
Taiwan and China have already started informal talks on the trade pact, and Taiwan wants to sign the agreement next spring. Taiwan and China have scheduled their next round of high-level talks in Taichung, Taiwan’s third largest city, for the middle or end of December.
The trade agreement would permit the free flow of many goods, services and capital between Taiwan and China. It would allow the island to keep its competitive standing in the region as Beijing is set to allow tariff-free imports from Southeast Asian countries as soon as next January.
Taiwan has said the pact will not include agricultural goods and will not allow the import of mainland Chinese laborers.
Source : Konaxis
Taiwan High-Tech investment(0)”The restrictions have been under review by the Investment Commission and may be discussed in meetings among several ministries before the end of the year,” the official told AFP.
Calls have been mounting for easing the restrictions as Taiwanese high-tech companies, which mainly make semiconductors and liquid crystal displays, eye China’s enormous market.
Local businesses are among the biggest foreign players on the mainland, with an estimated $80 billion invested there, but Taipei imposes restrictions on high-tech firms fearing it could give mainland China a technological advantage.
Cross-strait tensions have decreased since President Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power last year, vowing to promote reconciliation and trade links.
Source : Konaxis
Taiwan equity funds flow in(0)Taiwan and China officials are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding by mid-October, marking the first formal regulatory agreement to facilitate direct investment from the mainland, according to reports citing an account in Taiwan’s Commercial Times newspaper.
The report came as Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou said Thursday he hoped to accelerate talks with China aimed at economic and financial agreements.
Ma’s agenda of improving trade economic ties with China has been largely on hold since a killer typhoon struck the island in August.
The size of funds that would flow into Taiwan under such a deal is expected to be small, at least initially.
Source : Konaxis
Mainland tourists Taiwan(0)383,300 mainland tourists have visited the island since it was opened to mainland tourists one year ago.
According to Janice Lai, chairwoman of Taiwan Straits Tourism Association (TSTA), more than 60 percent of mainland tour groups are on an eight-day tour that covers 1,800 km and takes in the most famous destinations, like the Sun Moon Lake and Mount Ali.
However, in the busy season of March and April, mainland tourists flock to the same scenic spots and restaurants at the same time, resulting in lower service standards.
Taiwan’s tourism authority is strengthening management to upgrade the service quality. More than 800 hotels are renovating their facilities and measures have been taken to prohibit local tour operators without enough capacity to handle mainland tour groups, Lai said.
New upcoming promotions will offer mainland tourists more in-depth and diversified tours in Taiwan to try to spread the flow of tourists, she said.
Lai said that an appraisal on whether mainland visitors could travel as individual tourists in Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu has been completed and submitted to Taiwan’s “Executive Yuan” for approval.
Source : Konaxis
Taiwan and China $2.2B deals(0)For example, the visitors from the mainland in the first week of June signed deals to purchase over US$2.2 billion worth of Taiwan products after a four-day visit to the island.
Around 827 million dollars of products would be for July delivery, while the balance of US$1.4 billion worth of products would be for the end of this year , according to the head of the delegation, Li Shuilin.
Among the products the delegation members are interested in are: LCD (liquid crystal display) equipment, spare parts for mobile phones and computers, plastic and chemical products, textiles and handcrafts, Li said.
The delegation was organized by the Mainland Association for Cross-Strait Economic and Trade Exchanges, and consist of about 80 representatives of 35 companies, including IT and home appliance giants Lenovo, Haier, Changhong and ZTE. The business representatives/ owners held talks with more than 300 Taiwan firms in Taipei and Kaohsiung to learn more about their products and market potential in the mainland as well as how to take reciprocal advantage of their joint manufacturing capacities, according to Li.
In telecommunications, a total of 17 telecommunication service providers and 30 equipment manufacturers of the mainland were invited to attend a forum in Taipei the following week.
“We see a lot of opportunities for cooperation as the mainland is fast developing its 3G market,” said Liu Liqing, chairman of the China Association of Communications Enterprises.
Johnsee Lee, president of the Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), also said the discussions would help local equipment producers better understand the market potential and industrial standards in the mainland.
The delegation was the first of its kind and was warmly received on the island.
This marked a substantial step by the mainland to help boost investment in Taiwan and the purchase of Taiwan products, proposed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April, Li said.
Chinese State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office director, Wang Yi, also said that Beijing will encourage its citizens to visit Taiwan, and estimated that more than 600,000 mainlanders will travel there for tourism this year.
Ties between Taiwan and China have improved rapidly since Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May 2008, pledging to set aside longstanding political disputes and enhance exchanges.
Their buying spree was seen as a gesture to expand trade ties between the mainland and Taiwan aside from the aim to offset the effects of the global economic downturn.
In addition to the regular two-way air and shipping traffic agreements, the two sides reached an agreement in principle to end a ban on investment from China to Taiwan.
Taiwan plans to begin accepting applications from Chinese firms to invest in local companies in as many as 101 business sectors by early July according to an Investment Commission draft proposal.
Source : Konaxis
Use of Wireless and Mobile Internet in Taiwan(0)
Online Entertainment
Trends in the Chinese Online Education IndustryComments Off3 great strategies on the Social Medias in ChinaComments OffChina’s new phoenomen: get Smartphones at all costsComments OffTencent Buys Google Social Networking(0)read more