Some of the multinational company’s busiest stores in the world are located in Taiwan. Among the 759 Costco stores in the United States and 10 other countries and regions, the operation in central Taiwan’s Taichung ranks at the very top in the number of members and is second in the world in sales volume (the…
Foxconn Pursues More Wisconsin Initiatives Foxconn Technology Group, known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is following up its planned US$10 billion investment in Wisconsin to build an LCD-panel plant with several additional commitments in the Mid-Western state. At a ceremony in late August at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Foxconn CEO Terry Gou…
The government seems receptive to the idea of greater flexibility in public-project contracts. In each of the last two editions of AmCham Taipei’s annual Taiwan White Paper, the Chamber’s Infrastructure & Engineering Committee encouraged the government to make use of an option called “alternative methodology” when tendering public infrastructure projects. Increasingly common in other construction…
Positive Indications on the Trade Front Given Taiwan’s heavy reliance on international trade for its economic momentum, the past several weeks brought some encouraging news. Announcement of Taiwan’s trade figures for July showed that exports had continued to increase for the fifth consecutive month. At US$29.36 billion, export value in July was 4.7% higher than…
Torrential Rains Pummel Kaohsiung, Pingtung Late August brought severe flooding to much of southern Taiwan. As of August 26 – with continued heavy rainfall still forecast – seven people were reported to have died due to the floods, with another 116 injured and nearly 600 temporarily housed in shelters. The Central Emergency Operation Center estimated…
Tsai Makes 9-Day Trip to Latin America President Tsai Ing-wen departed on August 12 on a trip to Paraguay and Belize, two of the countries with which Taiwan continues to maintain full diplomatic relations, with stopovers in the United States. On her arrival in Los Angeles, Tsai was greeted at the airport by the U.S.-based…
A look back at the founding and early days of AIT. In the lead-up to President Jimmy Carter’s announcement on December 15, 1978 that the United States would switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, only cursory discussion had taken place within the U.S. government about the nature of the future American relationship with Taiwan….
The organization will soon move into impressive new quarters in Taipei’s Neihu district. When the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) opened for business on April 15, 1979 to replace the U.S. embassy following “derecognition,” many observers wondered how well the United States would be able to maintain its broad range of…
Kin Moy will be succeeded as Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) by a former Deputy Director, Brent Christensen, who is expected to take up the post later this summer. A member of the U.S. Foreign Service for nearly 30 years, Christensen holds the personal rank of Minister-Counselor. As AIT Deputy Director from…
Kin W. Moy this summer completed his three-year tour of duty as Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), where he was the first person of Chinese descent to hold the position. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Moy is a career foreign service officer. At a…
