More international students are coming to pursue graduate degrees, but a more global outlook will be needed to capitalize on this trend. Tomas Swinburne came to Taiwan by way of Beijing, where he found life stifling. “Taiwan is just a lot more pleasant,” says the 25-year-old Irishman, who won a scholarship from the Ministry of…
The government has undertaken various initiatives to promote the island as a center for learning Mandarin. The global craze to learn Chinese has moved in tandem with China’s rise, with the number of students surging since the mid-2000s. Even Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s five-year-old daughter Arabella has been part of the trend, enabling her…
With the U.S. tech giant ready to launch three iPhone models this year, Taiwanese suppliers and transporters expect a big boost in business. The Taiwan technology sector is often criticized for lacking viable brands. In the consumer electronics category, the number of big names can be counted on one hand, and these companies have generally…
The flagging handset maker sold part of its mobile-phone business to Google and is expected to turn its focus to virtual reality. In early 2013, Gerald Fu decided to buy his first smartphone. He went with Taiwan’s HTC “because I thought it was better than a mainland Chinese brand and cheaper than an iPhone,” says…
But capturing the possibilities will require a difficult shift in focus from hardware and assembly to software, plus a change in regulatory mindset. Long before there was Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram, Taiwan had an active social network of its own: the PTT bulletin board system (BBS). National Taiwan University student Ethan Tu founded PTT in…
When is a foreign bank not a foreign bank? Answer: When it establishes a domestic subsidiary. Between 2007 and 2013, five leading international banks – Standard Chartered, Citi, HSBC, DBS, and ANZ – received approval from the financial authorities to expand their presence in Taiwan’s retail banking market by taking over the operations of local…
New York regulators’ fining of Mega Bank last year for lax compliance practices was a wake-up call. In a victory for the nation’s regulators, Taiwan in July was removed from a regional list of countries judged to have insufficient money-laundering controls. Taiwan had spent months revising legislation and pushing its financial institutions to crack down…
More education is needed on the importance of investment and savings for old age. Taiwan will soon join the ranks of “super aged” societies, with one in five Taiwanese 65 years old or older by 2025. Among the factors regarded as contributing to Taiwan’s extremely low birth rate are stagnant wage levels, which have made…
Exposure declines in China, though it remains an important market for serving Taiwanese SMEs. Taiwan has long suffered from a saturated domestic banking market, prompting its banks to foray abroad for new business opportunities. Under the administration of former President Ma Ying-jeou, banks took advantage of the cross-Strait detente to open numerous branches in China….
Taiwan’s ambitious plans to develop offshore wind power spur a need for project financing. International banks have held a rather limited market share in Taiwan, but one area in which they have a potential competitive edge by virtue of their technical expertise in the financing of major projects. In recent years, such projects have…
