Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said on Jan. 9 that Taiwan has been trying to diversify its exports to reduce its reliance on the China market.

“It is a must-do, although close trade relations and connections across the Taiwan Strait are unavoidable,” he said.

Ma made his remarks when he was receiving the awardees for the annual National Distinguished Accomplishment Award and the National Manager Excellence Award at the Presidential Office.

During 2014, he said, the ratio of Taiwan’s exports to China dropped to 39% as the government has been seeking new markets from other countries. In 2000, Approximately 24% of Taiwan’s exports went to China and the figure increased to 40% by the end of 2008, when he took oath of his office for the first term.

The president said that since then, Taiwan has increased its exports to Japan and the U.S. as well as many other countries in the Europe and Southeast Asia.

“We do not want to put all the eggs in one basket,” Ma said. “But, at the same time, we cannot avoid putting any eggs in the biggest basket.”

Meanwhile, China has been the major trading partner of 17 out of its 23 neighbor countries, including Taiwan, Ma said. A close tie, connection and relationship between Taiwan and China is unavoidable, but what Taiwan can do is try to reduce trade dependence on China, the president said.

“Taiwan must transform from an efficiency-driven economy into an innovation-driven one and lower its barriers to foreign trade, so that its economy can be improved,” Ma said. “Many countries are willing to conduct business with Taiwan but will hesitate to sign a bilateral free trade agreement with us or whatsoever because Taiwan does not have official diplomatic relations with them, although they are Taiwan’s major trading partners.”

The government, however, has been making efforts to address these issues so that Taiwan can return to the games against its major competitor for now – Korea, the president said.

The president mentioned that China and Korea are likely to sign a free trade agreement within six months, and he predicted that the new relationship between China and Korea will definitely impact Taiwan’s exports as well as the economy. Ma said that approximately 70% of Taiwan’s exports would overlap with Korea’s, that Taiwan must push for more free trade agreements or so to remain in the competition.

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TSMC’s four-month non-stop profits interrupted

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC)(TPE: 2330) has been making profits between June and October but it has ended last month, the chip maker said on Dec. 10.

TSMC said that the total revenue for November was US$2.4 billion, which was 10.5% less than what the figure was for October. TSMC said that the dropping figures reflected the fact that some of its clients have gone through its regular year-end adjustments for procurement. The November revenue, however, increased 63% anyway, to compare with the same figures for the same period for last year, TSMC said.

“Next year, the global semiconductor industry will grow 4% or 5% annually. We do not see any unusual inventory adjustment on the supply chain, so we expect next year’s growth will be very healthy,” said Mark Liu (劉德音), TSMC co-chief executive officer.

United Microelectronics Corp (TPE: 2303), TSMC’s competitor, also said that the company has experienced a business drop of 14.52% during the same period.

Ting Hsin’s deal with IOI Properties Group may be declined: finance minister

Taiwan’s Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said on Dec. 10 that the deal of Ting Hsin International Group’s selling its stakes of Taipei 101 to Malaysia’s IOI Properties Group (KLSE: IOIPG) may be declined by the government anyway.

“The Ministry of Economic Affairs will carry out a strict mechanism when reviewing the application of the deal. I do not think the case can be closed, now that it is the government’s policy to keep the authority of the building under a Taiwanese major shareholder,” Chang said.

Chang said that the government possesses a total of 44% of the shares of the skyscraper. The Ministry of Finance is planning to buy more shares but it concerns share prices.

“A minor shareholder is also interested in selling its shares to us but the final agreement is not reached. Once the case is closed, the government will become the new major shareholder of the building,” Chang said.

Renminbi’s onshore exchange rate continues to plunge despite central bank’s pushing upward

Traders have pushed the onshore exchange rate for Renminbi to its lowest level since June, despite People’s Bank of China’s raising of the official rate to its highest level since March.

China Economic Review reported that traders gained more leeway to influence the exchange rate since March, when the nation’s central bank doubled the currency’s trading band to 2% on either side of the fixing.

Institute releases environmental violations information for publicly listed firms in China

Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based firm, released the latest information to call out more than 200 publicly listed firms for excessive pollution on Dec. 9.

Data collected by the institute said that 1,069 firms it examined had environmental violations on the records, including a total of 34 out of the 36 listed iron and steel companies in China and nearly 80% of China’s listed power companies.

The data singled out a number of regular violators, including top state enterprises Sinochem International (SHA: 600500) and Aluminum Corp of China (NYSE: ACH).

Taiwan is the 10^th trading partner for the U.S.: Department of Commerce

The latest statistics by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of the Census showed that Taiwan is ranked as the 10^th major trading partner for America.

The statistics showed that a total of US$56.4 billion was reached via trading business between two nations during the first 10 months of this year, which increased 7.1%, to compare with the same figure for the same period a year ago. Taiwan is ranked as the 10^th trading partner among other 223 nations.

The total U.S. exports to Taiwan was US$22.2 billion which increased 6.6%, while imports from Taiwan was US$34.2 billion, which increased 7.4%.

The same statistics showed that China is ranked as the second major trading partner for the United States. The total amount of business between two nations reached US$483.6 billion during the first 10 months this year, while U.S. exports to China was US$99.6 billion.

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