Fresh baked goods and theme-based stores are also drawing customers. In order to better serve as one-stop supply stations for local people in their daily life, Taiwan’s convenience stores are expanding their floor space, adopting more sophisticated technology, taking on more functions, and seeking to make their store layouts more attractive. 7-Eleven, the largest convenience…
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…
The onetime place of exile has become a tourist magnet. Like Alcatraz in the San Francisco area, Taiwan’s Green Island was for decades synonymous with the loss of freedom. Unlike Alcatraz, however, it offers much more than penal history. Many visitors to Green Island stay a night or two to escape to a more pristine…
A leading engineering company seeks to reposition itself. If you’ve ever ridden on the Taipei MRT, filled up your car with gasoline, or even turned on the lights in your home or office, then you’ve experienced the work of Taiwan’s largest engineering services company, CTCI Corp. With annual revenues exceeding US$2.4 billion, and over 40…
KKR in Deal to Acquire LCY Chemical An investment group led by the private equity firm KKR & Co. announced a deal to acquire a majority share in Taipei-based LCY Chemical Corp for US$1.56 billion. The investors also include LCY employees and members of the founding family. If approved by regulators in both Taiwan and…
Delays for Two Key Infrastructure Projects Despite strong support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) committee of the Environmental Protection Administration in early July rejected plans by the state-run CPC Corp. Taiwan to build Taiwan’s third liquefied natural gas receiving terminal project at Datan in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District. Increased reliance…
The archipelago of Matsu, which lies more than 90 nautical miles northwest of Taiwan’s main island but less than 10 nautical miles from the Chinese mainland, is attracting growing interest from tourists looking to explore its relatively remote islands and learn about its history and culture. Within the archipelago, one place of particular interest is…
The most popular beverage in the world is made to perfection in Taiwan, from bubble teas at roadside vendors to the most expensive high-mountain choice grade oolong. The playbill for a Broadway production in the early 1900s pictures a waiter serving a gentleman and two impeccably attired ladies in some undefined but leafy and upscale…
The stress is being placed on quality service and Taiwanese culture. The last decade has been full of ups and downs for Taiwan’s hospitality industry. Initially driven by a surge in Chinese tourism thanks to president Ma Ying-jeou’s strengthening of cross-Strait ties in 2008, the following years saw the construction of hundreds of new hotels…
Taiwan’s Indigenous Formosan Mountain Dog “Don’t be mad,” my wife said one afternoon in an unexpected phone call telling me that our 16-year-old daughter had found a puppy on the street near our home. “There are signs up in the neighborhood and somebody is looking for him. Can we keep him until we find the…
