Coast guard denies it held joint drill with USBy Yu Tai-lang and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNAThe Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday denied reports that a joint military drill was held with the US off the coast of Hualien County, saying that the activity that took place was part of regular exercises to familiarize new vessels with sea conditions around Taiwan. If there had been a drill, it would have been the first since the two nations on March 25 signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a joint coast guard working group. Photo: Yu Tai-lang, Taipei TimesInvolved in the exercise were the 4,000-tonne Chiayi (嘉義) heavy patrol vessel, the 1,000-tonne Taitung (台東) patrol vessel, the 600-tonne Chengkung (成功) medium patrol vessel and a 100-tonne coast guard vessel, the Liberty Times reported. The paper reported that a CGA official confirmed there was a joint exercise with the US, but refused to comment further as the matter involves sensitive information. The two sides preferred to maintain a low profile, as it was their first joint exercise, carried out ostensibly for rescue and counterterrorism purposes, the paper said.

COVID-19: TPP calls for stimulus checks, instead of vouchersBy Chen Yun and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerTaiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers yesterday said that stimulus checks, not the Executive Yuan’s proposed “quintuple stimulus voucher” program, are what Taiwan’s economy needs to recover amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan People’s Party legislators Lai Hsiang-lin, left, and Jang Chyi-lu hold placards during a news conference at the Legislative Yuan yesterday calling on the government to review the effectiveness of last year’s Triple Stimulus Voucher program. Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei TimesA comprehensive and objective review of the Triple Stimulus Voucher program’s effectiveness should be conducted, he said. Checks boost the economy better than vouchers and efficiency should matter to the government, as it has spent NT$679.5 billion of the NT$840 billion COVID-19 relief budget, she said. The government needs to be more generous with relief money, broaden eligibility standards and stop agencies from repackaging pre-pandemic programs as relief measures, she said.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs is reportedly planning to launch a new scheme modeled on last year’s Triple Stimulus Voucher program, which offered Taiwanese and permanent residents NT$3,000 in vouchers for NT$1,000. This year’s program would offer NT$5,000 in vouchers for NT$1,000 to reflect the significant impact of COVID-19 on local industries since an outbreak began in May. The vouchers are intended for use at commercial outlets, such as retail stores, restaurants, night markets, department stores, hotels and arts venues, they said. Asked whether the vouchers could be used for online shopping, the official said that vendors who operate exclusively online would in principle be excluded. Chinese-language media have reported that the quintuple stimulus vouchers could be issued next month at the earliest.

The Hsinchu-based firm started to raise prices of packaging and testing services last month to reflect higher raw material costs and worsening capacity constraints amid constant delays in the delivery of new manufacturing equipment, it said. Higher utilization rates and price increases are to give a further lift to the company’s net profit this quarter, ChipMOS chairman Cheng Chih-chieh (鄭世杰) told a videoconference. Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times“In the wake of recovering demand, the company expects the growth momentum to extend into this quarter from last quarter,” Cheng said. “Customer demand remains strong.”The driver IC segment contributed 45.4 percent of total revenue last quarter, while the chip testing and packaging segment accounted for 43.1 percent. ChipMOS booked NT$60 million of income from its Chinese subsidiary Unimos Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co Ltd (紫光宏茂) last quarter, it said.

Taiwanese lose more years to illness: ministryPANDEMIC EFFECT: People with chronic conditions might have postponed treatment, an expert said, expecting the trend to continueBy Wu Liang-yi / Staff ReporterTaiwanese are spending more years of their life in poor health, Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed. The population’s average disability-adjusted life years was 8.41 years in 2019, nearly a month longer than in 2018, the data showed. Disability-adjusted life years measure the time a person spends in poor health, has a disability or dies before reaching a population’s average life expectancy. Chiu Hung-yi (邱弘毅), a public health professor at Taipei Medical University, said that the measure primarily expresses the social effects of chronic diseases. Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said that there are two ways to address the issue.

Last year, the Dauphins achieved an overall readiness of 69.45 percent, but their readiness has declined yearly from a high of 79.45 percent in 2018, it said. For example, over a 90-day period, the three Dauphins assigned to the Kaohsiung unit achieved a readiness rate of 50 percent on 55 of the days, it said. Five of the Black Hawks, or 35 percent of the fleet, failed to achieve the readiness goal, with the worst Black Hawk logging a readiness rate of only 31.51 percent, it said. Over the past three years, four of the five Black Hawks, as well as the Beechcraft, have consistently failed to meet maintenance standards, it added. Asked for comment on Saturday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said that a readiness rate of 65 percent was the bare minimum required for the corps to function.

The man, who goes by his last name, Chiu (邱), is unmarried and has no children, and has never celebrated his birthday or Father’s Day, which was yesterday, Chiu said. Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times“This is my first time eating a cake made especially for my birthday — and my first time experiencing the joy of Father’s Day,” Chiu said. An 82-year-old Taichung resident surnamed Chiu looks at the van in which he lives in Taichung on Saturday. A son hugs his father after sending him a Father’s Day cake and best wishes with the help of Huashan Social Welfare Foundation in Hsinchu County on Saturday. The foundation said it is happy that the pandemic has eased its grip on Taiwan so that it can resume visits to those in need.

COVID-19: Blood shortage due to outbreak worsens amid rainsStaff Writer, with CNAThe Taiwan Blood Services Foundation yesterday called on the public to donate blood, as Taiwan’s blood banks on average had 4.1 days of blood supply, well below the official safe level of seven days. The shortage is mainly because of surging blood demand from hospitals across Taiwan, where regular surgeries have resumed after a nationwide COVID-19 outbreak was brought under control, Lin said. About 40,000 fewer bags of blood have been donated in Taiwan since the middle of May, when the COVID-19 outbreak started, Lin said. Supplies of type A blood was at 3.6 days, type O at 3.7 days and type B at 5.5 days, it said. The city’s blood banks on average only had 2.5 days of blood supply, it added.

Rains continue as nation recoversLITTLE CHANGE IN SIGHT: More heavy to extremely heavy rain could occur in central and southern Taiwan, a Central Weather Bureau forecaster saidBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterHeavy rain brought by a southwest jet stream continued to fall in southern Taiwan yesterday, as large parts of the nation were recovering from damage caused by torrential rains on Saturday. Yesterday, heavy rains were concentrated in the very south of Taiwan, with the 10 Central Weather Bureau (CWB) stations that recorded the highest amounts of rainfall being in Pingtung County and Kaohsiung. Independent Legislator Su Chen-ching, front row left, and others inspect an embankment that was washed away by the Linluo River in Pingtung County yesterday. Passion fruits destroyed by torrential rain rest on protective nets at a farm in Nantou County yesterday. Heavy to extremely heavy rain could also occur throughout central and southern Taiwan, he said.

Gadget, phone demand boosts Hon Hai, LarganStaff writer, with CNAHon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), an iPhone assembler, has benefited from solid demand for Apple Inc’s latest smartphones and other gadgets such as high-end servers, reporting a monthly sales increase of more than 4 percent last month. People walk into Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District on June 5, 2019. The Zhengzhou plant, Hon Hai’s second-largest factory in China, employs 250,000 people who assemble 500,000 iPhones per day, accounting for about 50 percent of global iPhone production, Chinese media reported. Hon Hai’s consolidated sales in the first seven months of the year totaled NT$3.12 trillion, up 26.69 percent from a year earlier. Largan’s consolidated sales in the first seven months of the year fell 16 percent year-on-year to NT$25.74 billion.

Novatek bets on better product mixBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterNovatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠) expects revenue and earnings to continue to increase this quarter on the back of a better product mix, the company said on Thursday after posting better-than-expected financial results for last quarter. The Novatek Microelectronics Corp logo is pictured at the company’s headquarters in Hsinchu City in an undated photograph. Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei TimesNovatek expects gross margin to expand to 48 to 51 percent and operating margin increase to 33 to 36 percent this quarter, on the back of continued product mix adjustments and product price hikes. The company has been improving its product mix of large display driver ICs (DDI), system-on-chip solutions for TV controllers and OLED DDIs. Cathay’s target price for Novatek compares with Taishin Securities Investment Advisory Co’s (台新投顧) NT$660, Capital Investment Management Corp’s (群益投顧) NT$619 and Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) NT$870.

Taiwan semiconductor firms hungry for workers; wages lag US, JapanStaff writer, with CNATaiwan’s semiconductor industry has been aggressively recruiting talent this year, with its demand for workers in the second quarter rising more than 44 percent from a year earlier, Web site 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) has said. In a white paper on the semiconductor industry’s workforce, 104 Job Bank said that Taiwan-based semiconductor companies averaged 27,701 job openings per month from April to June, the most in six-and-a-half years. The booming stay-at-home economy, including the rising popularity of online learning and remote work, has also boosted demand for semiconductors, driving the need for more workers, 104 Job Bank said. IC engineers accounted for about 55 percent of the job openings advertised in the semiconductor industry per month on average, 104 Job Bank said. The average pay, including bonuses, in the local semiconductor industry was NT$1.7 million, lower than the NT$2 million to NT$3.5 million seen in the US, Singapore and Japan, 104 Job Bank said.

Net profit in the April-to-June quarter rose 85.5 percent from a year earlier to NT$1.05 billion (US$37.8 million), the highest in nearly 11 quarters. Consolidated revenue rose 25.2 percent annually to NT$7.05 billion, while operating income expanded 107.6 percent to NT$1.43 billion on improved margins. Gross margin and operating margin both increased by about 8 percentage points from a year earlier to 36.12 percent and 20.25 percent respectively, the company said. Hiwin started to raise product prices in the first quarter of this year in response to rising prices of raw materials. The company plans to raise prices for some products again in the third quarter if raw material prices continue to soar, it said.

Tokyo 2020: Wen Tzu-yun takes pride in her bronze, despite bitter lossStaff writer, with CNATaiwanese karate star Wen Tzu-yun is known for her competitiveness and perseverance, so the way she was ousted on Thursday from the Olympics a step short of a gold medal bout might have been hard to accept. The 27-year-old karateka won bronze in the women’s kumite 55kg category in Tokyo after a loss to world No. Taiwanese karateka Wen Tzu-yun poses with her bronze medal at the awards ceremony for the women’s kumite 55kg category at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. In 2013, Wen injured her hip during the gold medal match against then-world No. Thinking back to Thursday’s performance in Tokyo, Wen thanked everyone who supported her along the way, especially her family.

Chung Yuan Christian Unversity’s Chang Ching-yu Library is one of Wang Chiu-hwa’s best known projects in Taiwan. After 30 years in the US, Wang returned to Taiwan to take care of her parents. When Wang died at the age of 96 last month, she was remembered as the “mother of Taiwanese libraries.”A certificate given to Wang Chiu-hwa by mentor and collaborator Percival Goodman before she moved to Taiwan. She has worked on libraries at National Changhua Normal University, National Taiwan Ocean University, National Palace Museum and National Chung Cheng University. “I didn’t design so many libraries because I like libraries,” she once said.