TAIPEI (CNA) — Four more high tech companies have promised to invest in Taiwan under the government’s incentive program to encourage Taiwanese enterprises operating overseas to return home, boosting total pledges to almost NT$540 billion (US$17.22 billion) so far this year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

The MOEA said Thursday that the four electronics companies — printed circuit board (PCB) maker Unimicron Technology Corp., electronics ODM and OEM services provider Qisda Corp., chip resistor supplier Ta-I Technology Co., and diode and related item producer Taiwan Semiconductor Co. — plan to invest more than NT$32.5 billion in Taiwan.

The four companies bring the total number of firms that have this year committed to invest in Taiwan to 106, under an MOEA program that seeks to encourage overseas Taiwanese companies to return home or invest more in existing operations in Taiwan, the ministry said, adding that investments could potentially create more than 45,700 new jobs.

The MOEA launched the incentive program in January to encourage Taiwanese companies that have shifted all or part of their operations overseas in recent decades, especially to China, to invest more in Taiwan as a way of avoiding high U.S. duties on products made in China.

The incentives offered include easier access to bank loans and a simplified process to recruit migrant workers, as well as services tailored to meet their needs.The MOEA has said it will work hard to try and ensure at least NT$170 billion of the pledged investment is realized in the second half of this year, as a way to boost the local economy.

According to the MOEA, Unimicron, which has the highest production value of any PCB company in the world over the past three years, has followed its clients’ request to increase production in Taiwan in a bid to avoid the impact of the ongoing trade war. The MOEA said many semiconductor manufacturers around the world are Unimicron clients.

As a result, Unimicron has pledged to invest NT$26.5 billion in Taoyuan to add high-end PCB production capacity by introducing smart manufacturing and eco-friendly manufacturing for its semiconductor clients and the investment is expected to maintain the PCB maker’s lead over its peers in the global market.

Meanwhile, Qisda has decided to invest NT$2.5 billion to build a smart factory in Taoyuan and add production lines for communications and optoelectronic devices as well as value added products, by introducing automation and artificial intelligence analysis to boost efficiency, the MOEA said.

Ta-I has plans to invest NT$2 billion to expand production capacity in Taoyuan and its planned investment aims to meet demand from some of its Taiwanese clients, which are returning home amid escalating trade friction between Washington and Beijing.

The investment involves rolling out chip resistors for a wide range of products such as automotive electronics, 5G and industrial precision items, the MOEA said.

The ministry said Taiwan Semiconductor will invest NT$1.5 billion to add production lines to its existing factory in Yilan and the investment will use sophisticated equipment to boost yield rate.

The four investments are expected to add 1,795 new jobs in Taiwan, the MOEA added. In addition to the 106 companies that have already pledged investment, the ministry has received applications from another 40 enterprises to join the program.

https://chinapost.nownews.com/20190809-683020

Most of the deaths occurred in Yongjia county, administered by Wenzhou city, where torrential downpours caused a landslide that blocked rivers. The barrier lake bursted and flooded people away. Twenty-two died and 10 went missing there.

Three were killed in Lin’an, with four missing, while three died in Leqing, with three missing, and three went unaccounted for in Linhai.

Nearly 1.08 million people have been evacuated to safe places, and close to 5 million people in Zhejiang were affected, said the provincial flood control headquarters.

Lekima, the ninth typhoon of this year, landed around 1:45 am Saturday in Zhejiang, bringing heavy rainstorms and triggering flash floods.

In Zhejiang, the typhoon damaged more than 173,000 hectares of crops and 34,000 houses. Direct economic loss amounts to 14.57 billion yuan (about $2.1 billion), the headquarters said. Rescue operation is underway.

Lekima is moving northwards and will churn up the east coast of Shandong Province on Sunday.

It is expected to make a second landing along the coastline in Shandong late Sunday, bringing strong wind and heavy downpours, the National Meteorological Center warned on Sunday.

Shandong air traffic management bureau said the typhoon will greatly affect traffic in airports of the area. A total of 47 flights have been adjusted.

Shanghai Disney closed

In Shanghai, the local meteorological observatory issued an orange alert on Typhoon Lekima Saturday afternoon, with heavy downpours expected in its urban area within the next six hours.

The Shanghai Disney Resort, including Shanghai Disneyland, was closed on Saturday for safety reasons.

It is the first time that Shanghai Disneyland has closed down due to inclement weather conditions since its opening in June 2016.

People who had tickets for Shanghai Disneyland for Saturday can visit the park on any other day within the next six months (by February 10, 2020), according to the resort.

The country’s Ministry of Industry and Trade signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with MM Mega Market Vietnam Co Ltd on Thursday (August 8).

According to the MoU, the ministry will help MM Mega Market seek partnerships with reputed Vietnamese processors and manufacturers, to push the sales of Vietnamese goods to Thai-owned retail chains.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said the purpose of the pact was to help promote consumption of Vietnamese goods in MM Mega Market’s distribution system in the domestic market as well as exports via international distribution networks and other companies of the TCC Group – the parent company of MM Mega Market Vietnam.

The two sides will also work closely in organising Vietnamese goods weeks, seminars and training courses to promote Vietnamese products at TCC Group’s foreign distribution channels.

The firm will work with Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Industry and Trade to hold a Vietnamese goods week in Thailand this October.

At the same time, they will help Vietnamese businesses and producers improve their product quality to the standards and requirements of the distributors.

The agreement follows the success of cooperation between the ministry and other major foreign retailers in Vietnam, such as Aeon from Japan, Central Group from Thailand and Lotte from South Korea, in supporting Vietnamese manufacturers to develop the domestic market and enter foreign ones.

The cooperation with foreign retailers is one of the activities of the Domestic Market Development Project in the period 2014-20 and the project of promoting Vietnamese enterprises to join direct foreign distribution networks by 2020.

After three years of implementing the project to promote Vietnamese enterprises to join direct foreign distribution networks, according to the ministry’s Department of Domestic Market, the Central Group has annually exported Vietnamese goods worth US$46 million every year via its Big C supermarket system since 2017. The exports are expected to increase.

Meanwhile, MM Mega Market has established four centres to purchase local agricultural products in Vietnam such as dragon fruit and sweet potatoes for export to Thailand.

MM Mega Market exported Vietnamese agricultural products to Thailand for the first time last year. The products include frozen tra fish, squid, star apple, pink grapefruit and dragon fruit.

Aeon supermarket is exporting US$250 million per year of goods through the Top Value brand. According to Aeon’s commitment, the export value of Vietnamese goods via its distribution system will increase to $500 million in 2020 and $1 billion in 2025.

This year, it has doubled export volume to 200 tonnes of Vietnamese farming products per month.

The ministry said the foreign distribution system will help businesses bring Vietnamese goods to four million Vietnamese living and working abroad.

The move is also expected to offset the influence of the US government’s restrictions over the use of Google’s Android operating system in smartphones and other hardware.

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, said an operating system is needed to address future challenges in the era of internet of things, and it is hard to deliver a smooth experience across different devices with millions of lines of code.

Unlike the much-expected name of HongMeng, Huawei adopted Harmony for its in-house operating system to solve all these problems.

Yu said some features of Harmony have already been used in its premium smartphone models and other devices.

When asked whether Harmony can be used in its smartphones, Yu said, “Of course, it can be used in smartphones. But Android is still Huawei’s preferred choice for handsets, given the status quo ecosystem. However, when Android is not available, Harmony can be applied to smartphones immediately.”

Yu highlighted that Harmony is the next-generation system based on microkernel, and it can be distributed to all scenarios, including smart TVs, automobiles, and wearables, and other hardware.

Huawei said it has over 500 million registered users and 910,000 mobile application developers on Huawei’s platform.

The platform economy refers to the use of internet and advanced technologies in businesses, such as shared bikes, online shopping, takeaways and online medical care.

Sun Wei, deputy head of innovation and high-tech development at China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said efforts will be accelerated to foster new models of the platform economy, promote healthy development of various internet platforms, as well as promote free flow of key internet data.

During the first six months of this year, major Chinese internet companies saw revenue rise by 17.9 per cent on an annualised basis, while internet platforms helped add over 60 million jobs in 2018, Sun said at a news briefing of the State Council Information Office.

Cai Tuanjie, head of transportation services at the Ministry of Transport, said on Thursday that China will look to level the playing field to attract more ride-hailing companies. Currently there are around 30 million orders for ride-hailing services in China every day.

“The ministry will come out with some supervision rules to drive the development of new transportation formats including ride-hailing, shared bikes and online rental cars. We will also tweak entry barriers at the provincial level to fuel growth,” he said.

The ministry’s move comes close on the heels of the recent State Council guidelines, which promised a raft of measures to bolster growth of the platform economy. The business climate will be further optimised and the approval procedures for new platforms will be further streamlined, it said.

Industrial internet, an important part of the platform economy, has witnessed rapid development in the past years and started to take root and blossom in the country.

According to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are more than 50 industrial internet platforms with regional or sector-wide influence in the country. Also, an increasing number of applications are being commercialised with each platform owning 1,500 apps on average.

Many existing Chinese companies have already beefed up their presence and gained momentum in the industrial internet segment, with improved efficiency and management via introduction of new technologies in the assembly lines.

An example of this is SAIC Maxus Automotive Co, a subsidiary of carmaker SAIC Motor Co, which allows customers to tailor vehicles in their platforms with the help of the industrial internet.

Wang Rui, vice-president of SAIC Maxus, said the company’s compounded annual growth rate has risen by over 60 per cent because of the platform, despite the overall downturn in the global vehicle industry.

The fair features more than 450 booths, of which 250 display and sell agricultural and forestry products, specialty food, textile and garment products, household appliances, decorations, cosmetics and healthcare services.

In addition, up to 100 stalls featuring products imported from Thailand, 15 food booths introducing dishes of the provinces and regions of both Vietnam and Thailand; and 85 booths selling wood and handicrafts products.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Tuan said the fair aims to stimulate consumption demand and enable consumers to access quality Vietnamese and Thailand goods.

The event also gives the two countries’ businesses a chance to strengthen exchanges, renew technology to improve product quality and develop markets.

Visitors at the event are also treated to music performances.

The fair runs until August 18.

The balance of payments deficit stood at US$2 billion in the second quarter, the latest Bank Indonesia (BI) data reveal. While the figure was an improvement on the $4.3 billion deficit recorded in the second quarter last year, it reversed the $2.41 billion surplus recorded in the previous quarter.

The balance of payments records the import and export of goods, services and capital and payments, including foreign aid.

Meanwhile, the current account deficit was recorded at $8.4 billion in the second quarter, equal to 3.04 percent of GDP, higher than the $7 billion booked over the same period last year.

Seasonality factors, such as high foreign exchange demand for dividend repatriation and the government’s debt interest payments, usually translate into a wider current account deficit in the second quarter compared with other quarters, according to the central bank.

BI governor Perry Warjiyo said the wider current account deficit, which was larger than the estimate of around 2.9 percent of GDP, could be attributed to lower-than expected economic growth in the second quarter.

“In the recent board of governor’s meeting we projected that the GDP in the second quarter would expand at a relatively similar pace to the first quarter,” said Perry in Jakarta on Friday. “The GDP expanded by 5.05 percent [in the second quarter], which was lower than we previously expected, and that is why the current account deficit was slightly higher.”

The second quarter GDP expansion was slightly lower than the 5.07 percent expansion recorded in this year’s first three months.

Perry, however, expressed confidence that the deficit would narrow to around 2.8 percent of GDP by the end of this year, which would be an improvement on the 2.98 percent deficit booked last year.

“We are optimistic that the surplus in the capital and financial accounts will be able to finance the current account deficit as highlighted by the foreign exchange reserve level that improved to $125.9 billion [in July], which signaled that the surplus in the capital and financial accounts will be able to cover the deficit in the current account,” said Perry.

The platform economy refers to the use of internet and advanced technologies in businesses, such as shared bikes, online shopping, take-aways and online medical care.

Sun Wei, deputy head of innovation and high tech development at the National Development and Reform Commission, said efforts will be accelerated to foster new models of platform economy, promote healthy development of various internet platforms, as well as promote free flow of key internet data.

The ministry will come out with some supervision rules to drive the development of new transportation formats including ride-hailing, shared bikes and online rental cars

During the first six months of this year, major Chinese internet companies saw revenue rise by 17.9 percent on an annualized basis, while internet platforms helped add over 60 million jobs in 2018, said Sun at a news briefing of the State Council Information Office.

Cai Tuanjie, head of transportation services at the Ministry of Transport, said on Thursday that China will look to level the playing field to attract more ride-hailing companies. Currently there are around 30 million orders for ride-hailing services in China every day.

“The ministry will come out with some supervision rules to drive the development of new transportation formats including ride-hailing, shared bikes and online rental cars. We will also tweak entry barriers at the provincial level to fuel growth,” he said.

The ministry’s move comes close on the heels of the recent State Council guideline, which vowed a raft of measures to bolster growth of the platform economy. The business climate will be further optimized and the approval procedures for new platforms will be further streamlined, it said.

Industrial internet, an important part of the platform economy, has witnessed rapid development in the past years and started to take root and blossom in the country.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are more than 50 industrial internet platforms with regional or sector-wide influence in the country. Also, an increasing number of applications are being commercialized with each platform owning 1,500 apps on average.

Many existing Chinese companies have already beefed up their presence and gained momentum in the industrial internet segment, with improved efficiency and management via introduction of new technologies in the assembly lines.

An interesting example of this is SAIC Maxus Automotive Co, a subsidiary of carmaker SAIC Motor Co, which allows customers to tailor vehicles in their platforms with the help of the industrial internet.

Wang Rui, vice-president of SAIC Maxus, said the company’s compound annual growth rate has risen by over 60 percent because of the platform, despite the overall downturn in the global vehicle industry.

As violent protesters threw projectiles and surrounded Lau and his colleague on July 30, the officer raised his rifle as a gesture of warning as the lives of the duo were seriously threatened.

READ MORE: Chief secretary reiterates support for Hong Kong police

The mainland artist created the illustrations to show support to Hong Kong police and to appreciate their efforts in upholding the rule of law in the city.

The international conference on “Cambodia and Asean Regionalism in the Context of Indo-Pacific” was organised by the International Relations Institute of Cambodia (IRIC) of the RAC in cooperation with German political think-tank Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in the capital.

The event highlighted Cambodia’s benefits and opportunities within Asean, and its commitment to emphasising a high value on the principles of non-interference and respecting the sovereignty of other member states.

“[Moreover], Cambodia makes efforts to reduce gaps in the [context of] regional development and to expand dialogues with external partners,” Peou said, noting that since the Kingdom joined Asean, Cambodians “have had more opportunities to learn about the citizens of neighbouring countries”.

A similar sentiment was expressed by Prime Minister Hun Sen in a statement to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Cambodia’s Asean membership.

Hun Sen stressed that, in the context of growing geopolitical competition, it was more important for Cambodia and other Asean member states to maintain strong solidarity to tackle global challenges.

“Cambodia cannot live without connections with the world. The prosperity of all Cambodians depends on regional integration within Asean that could strengthen the nation’s development,” the prime minister was quoted as saying.

IRIC director-general Kin Phea said that over “the last few decades, Asean has been perceived as a reliable security shield as well as the catalyst for regional economic prosperity and dynamism”.

He further lauded Cambodia’s “crucial role that is remarkable in the framework of relations [among Asean member states] inside and outside of [the bloc]”.

Phea continued to acknowledge that Asean has become a strategic region as it had seen major powers competing to spread their influences in the region.

“Twenty years as an Asean member state has allowed a formerly isolated country such as Cambodia that had undergone political and economic embargoes to become a state of equal voices and rights in the framework of regional and international cooperation. The voice of Cambodia is a voice of Asean,” he said.

He also emphasised that foreign investments in Cambodia were not only intended for the Kingdom’s 15 million population but also the more than 600 million people in the region.

However, political analyst Meas Nee said Cambodia remained one of the poorest countries among other Asean member states, and that the Kingdom lagged behind its peers despite having been an Asean member for two decades.

“This [fact] demonstrated that Cambodia’s membership in Asean has not provided major benefits to the Kingdom,” he said.