Foxconn Rejects Microsoft Patent Suit Terry Gou, chairman of the Foxconn Technology Group, which trades as Hon Hai Precision Industry, in mid-March responded to a patent infringement lawsuit filed against one of his subsidiaries by Microsoft Corp. He said that as a contract manufacturer, his group has never been required to pay royalties for use…
DPP Retains 2 Seats In By-elections Following the thrashing of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the municipal elections in November at the hands of the Kuomintang (KMT), the DPP managed a slight comeback in by-elections for four vacant seats in mid-March. It retained two seats in electorates in New Taipei City and Tainan…
2019 Off to Slow Start Central banks throughout the world have been in a holding pattern amid a global economic slowdown and a protracted, bitter trade war between the U.S. and China. The U.S. Federal Reserve in late March announced that it will not increase rates during 2019. The Bank of England is unlikely to…
Forecasts for Taiwan’s economic growth next year currently range between 2.18% and 2.5%. The Taiwan economy is expected to undergo a moderate slowdown next year as overseas demand falters for its information technology and other high-tech products. But if that prospect is somewhat disappointing, the consolation is that Taiwan is likely to escape suffering harsh…
The Tsai administration is making an effort to pursue “transitional justice.” Will it be healing or divisive? February 28, 1980 has gone down in Taiwan’s history as the date of one of the nation’s most gruesome unsolved murders. An intruder entered the ground-floor apartment of opposition politician Lin Yi-hsiung and fatally stabbed his mother and…
For a variety of reasons, Singapore and Hong Kong can manage just fine with significantly lower tax rates. Over the years, the business community has made the case that Taiwan’s steep personal income-tax rates discourage the recruitment and retention of outstanding skilled professionals, both foreign and local. Often these individuals opt to live and work…
The slow rate of economic growth is considered to be the major factor causing the stagnation in compensation levels. Why does nearly everyone in Taiwan feel they are working hard but still receiving a meager pay packet? “The biggest problem is the low rate of growth,” says Peng Su-ling, director of the Center for Economic…
The major new development is creation of Taiwania Capital Management, a government-backed venture-capital operation. Among the seven industries targeted in the government’s “5+2 Industrial Innovation Program,” the one starting with the strongest foundation is smart machinery. Overall machinery production value this year could break the NT$1 trillion (about US$33 billion) mark for the first time,…
Rising worldwide demand for Taiwan’s export products is injecting more vitality into the economy. Most economists are currently forecasting GDP growth for this year and 2018 in the range of 2-2.5% – not the fast pace that Taiwan was long accustomed to, but still an improvement over recent economic performance. Given Taiwanese companies’ prominent role…
Where business has slowed, the main reason appears to be economic factors. Ever since Beijing angrily terminated official communications with Taiwan’s then newly installed Tsai Ing-wen government in June last year, political relations with China have plunged to their coolest point in nearly a decade. But the cross-Strait political chill over Taiwan’s unwillingness to accept a…
