US senators introduce bill to encourage high-level visits to Taiwan Six U.S. senators jointly introduced the Taiwan Travel Act on May 5 to encourage visits between the United States and Taiwan at all levels. The draft bill states that Congress believes the U.S. government should allow officials at all levels, including cabinet-level national security officials,…

Improvement Seen in 2017 Outlook Economists are increasingly bullish on Taiwan’s growth prospects through 2017, with three local forecasting organizations raising GDP growth projections to over 2% for the year. The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) announced on April 19 that it had raised its forecast from 1.73% to 2.11%. “The stronger-than-expected momentum of…

Uber Returns to Taiwan Market Two months after hitting pause on its Taiwan operations, Uber is back running in Taipei under a new business model. The popular ride-hailing service surprised the local market announcing it had formed a new partnership with car rental companies.  Uber suspended its Taiwan operations on Feb. 10 after incurring fines of up to NT$328.5…

New Infrastructure Plan to Boost Economy Premier Lin Chuan on March 23 unveiled a NT$880 billion (US$28.9 billion) infrastructure stimulus plan, dubbed the Forward-looking Infrastructure Program (FIP). It aims to build capacity in such sectors as the digital infrastructure, railways, renewable energy, urban-rural development, and water resources. On March 28, speaking at a station on…