The Tsai administration is making a heavy commitment of resources to promoting seven sectors of the economy as the key to transforming Taiwan’s industry. The initial five “pillar industries” were the Internet of Things (also referred to as Asia·Silicon Valley), Biomedical, Green Energy, Smart Machinery, and Defense. Added later were high-value agriculture and the circular…
In recent months, the public faceoff between ride-hailing app Uber Technologies and Taiwanese regulators has at times overshadowed the many ways in which the United States and Taiwan are working together in the digital economy. The collaboration covers a number of digital-economy initiatives first outlined in a Digital Economy Forum held in Washington, D.C. in…
The social-networking juggernaut has a higher penetration rate in Taiwan than anywhere else in the world. When Aaron Turner gets a new wine or beer product, the first channel he uses to promote it is Facebook. The sale of alcohol online is forbidden in Taiwan, but marketing is permitted. That means Turner, the founder and…
Massive fines have forced the popular ride-hailing app to suspend its Taiwan operations from February 10. In Taiwan, the end of the road for Uber came swiftly. The ride-hailing app juggernaut, which is the world’s largest startup by valuation, suspended services here in February after being fined more than NT$1 billion (around US$31 million) in…
So far, regulators have been more concerned about the risks of financial innovation than the rewards. Financial industry observers see big potential for Taiwan in the nascent fintech sector, citing the ways in which emerging technologies could help the banking and insurance components of the nation’s financial conglomerates share information safely and efficiently. A special…
Taiwan’s population is rapidly aging, challenging its vaunted healthcare system to continue supplying quality, affordable healthcare to all citizens. In just 24 years, between 1993 and the end of 2017, Taiwan will have gone from an “aging population” with some 7% of the population 65 years old or older to an “aged society” with 14%…
Taiwan is facing a social time bomb as its population ages. In response, through the recent passage of the Long-term Care Act 2.0, it is dramatically ramping up spending on its elderly population. But critics question how the Tsai administration intends to pay for long-term care, and ask what the implications are for the future….
The aging of Taiwan’s society is hitting its pension system hard, with fewer people paying into national pension schemes and more people drawing off them. Pension reform has been the subject of controversy for years, and with the Tsai administration putting its full weight behind it, the issue has erupted into a major conflagration, with…
Korea and China are ahead of Taiwan in developing next-generation OLED display technology, which many expect to supplant LCD displays. Domestic companies will be under pressure to increase R&D expenditures to develop innovative new products and explore new applications. Taiwan’s liquid-crystal display (LCD) panel makers have steadily lost market share to Korean and Chinese competitors…
Restrictions on Chinese investment in the semiconductor sector have failed to stymie budding ties among chipmakers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In January, Powertech Technology announced it would annul a share agreement with Tsinghua Unigroup that would have given the Chinese chipmaker a 25% stake in one of Taiwan’s top semiconductor packaging and…
