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Taiwan's growth rides on AI, as capital markets turn volatile
U.S. and Japan ride AI demand as China's momentum falters |
Global manufacturing momentum remains uneven: U.S. manufacturing continues to expand, eurozone economic confidence keeps improving, and Japan's manufacturing sector sustains growth on AI-related and semiconductor demand. In contrast, China's manufacturing activity has slipped into contraction amid weak demand. Meanwhile, escalating U.S.–Iran tensions have pushed up energy prices and inflation expectations, while fiscal and political uncertainty in major economies has driven long-term bond yields higher in the U.S., Japan, and the U.K., raising financing and credit costs and intensifying global financial market volatility.
On the domestic front, robust demand for AI, high-performance computing, and smartphone stocking continues to support Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain. The chemical industry saw notable improvement in July, benefiting from rebounding oil prices, downstream restocking, and gradual capacity recovery. In services, retail sales grew on summer travel, heat-driven consumption, and typhoon-preparation demand; the securities sector weakened amid a soft stock market and shrinking trading volume, while banking remained stable, supported by lending, wealth management, and credit card business. ...Read more |
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| Taiwan's Path to Transformation and Resilience Amid Global Realignment |
| Economic development and industrial competitiveness depend on a nation's human capabilities. Given the scale of recent shifts in the global environment, resilience has emerged as a critical attribute. This article examines two dimensions worth noting when defining resilience and shaping related policy: resilience must be assessed holistically rather than piecemeal, and it is not the capacity to remain unchanged or return to a prior state, but the capacity to develop anew. At the level of individual corporate decisions, firms must recognize that resilience sometimes requires sacrificing some production efficiency or cost, and such trade-offs should not be begrudged. The global emphasis on resilience stems from heightened volatility and risk; enterprises and broader policy planning alike must account for the full range of contingencies, including extreme risks. Notably, the resilience of a nation, industry, or enterprise must be judged as a whole, not through any single component in isolation—a dangerous view. Enhancing a nuclear plant's total generating capacity, for instance, may reduce grid flexibility, and should an accident occur, nearby residents would themselves lose resilience. The same logic holds within individual firms. Reliable, flexible linkages must exist between sectors. Nobel laureate John Hicks noted that intermediaries can moderate price and production fluctuations by adjusting their own inventories and margins. Mechanisms should distribute pressure across sectors, avoiding the tendency to withdraw support prematurely, which only amplifies shocks—a principle applying not only to finance but to upstream-downstream relationships. Gap-filling mechanisms matter too: if exports to Market A are disrupted, Market B can substitute. Yet diversification is not necessarily superior to relying on trusted partners. Beyond mutual support among industries, the economy needs robust, steadily growing sectors that foster an ecosystem for new technologies and products. Enterprises should not merely demand a favorable environment for their preferred projects; they must also identify viable opportunities within the existing environment, letting new technologies and industries embody economic resilience at its best. |
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Taiwan Economic Research Monthly
Valorizing Agricultural ESG: From Compliance to a Natural Capital Economy |
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As IFRS disclosure standards and supply chain decarbonization requirements intensify, agriculture, spanning carbon sinks, biodiversity, and food security, is becoming a strategic resource for enterprises facing Scope 3 and ecological pressures. This reflects a shifting institutional landscape. TNFD (2023) and the Kunming-Montreal Framework now require disclosure of nature-related impacts, while Taiwan's ESG matching guidelines and first ESG assessment have taken effect, placing agricultural sustainability at the core of compliance. Based on 119–121 listed companies' sustainability reports (2022–2024), this feature identifies a "nature turn" in agricultural ESG. Food firms are driven by supply chains, financial firms by investment exposure, and electronics firms by client demands, calling for sector-specific strategies. The feature then examines three project types: carbon sequestration, covering pathways and practices across forest, soil, and ocean sinks; circular economy, using Taiwan's leisure farms to show value creation from resource circularity to cross-sector symbiosis; and conservation, with pangolin habitat restoration and raptor recovery as public-private models delivering verifiable outcomes. Together, these address enterprises' shift from declared intent to measurable execution. When agricultural ESG links food safety with sustainability and builds consumer trust, it generates brand premiums that break through market homogeneity, mapping ESG's evolution from mandate to economic transformation.
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