Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang headed a big business group to Indonesia, saying that the archipelago held great promise as an investment spot.

Indonesia has introduced a drive to invest almost US$ 156 billion on infrastructure in the next five years, but says it will only be able to fund less than half, with the reminder coming from private investors.

According to Taiwan Central Weather Bureau (CWB), its weather prediction service on the world’s biggest social networking site, FaceBook, has been blocked “for unknown reason” for at least one week.

An official from the bureau said in a September 29 note that it had been barred from posting FaceBook messages since September 27 of this year.

In a statement released by the bureau, it said, “In a recent notice to the bureau, FaceBook cited a "violation of user rules" as a reason for the ban.”

According to officials, around 270 firms responsible for more than half of Taiwan’s greenhouse gas pollution have decided to supply emission data to the federal government to assit it introduce a carbon offset scheme.

A spokesperson from EPA said that Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration passed rules on Sept. 10 in which firms were asked to supply emission data required to unveil a carbon trading platform by year’s end.

As per reports released by the European Union, it would not call for ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO) over its tariffs on the imports of LCD panels.

The organization forwarded the ruling on July 23, announcing that the EU had violated an earlier deal by imposing a 14 percent tariff on imports of the high-end flat screen panels.

In general, the tariffs had aimed panels bigger than 19 inches, which were equipped with high-definition interface terminals as well as digital video interface terminals.

According to reports, Taiwan has sent a team to Japan to attend the 6th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEAC) Tourism Ministerial Meeting.

The two-day meet, which opened in Nara on Wednesday, is targeted at endorsing tourism exchanges among APEAC member nations.

The delegation group from Taiwan will be headed by transportation minister Mao Chi-kuo and Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai.

According to the latest data released by the Beijing Statistics Bureau, the export as well as import value in Beijing increased by 31.3 percent year on year to hit US$25.43 billion in the last month of this year.

In August, the capital city recorded export value growth of 21.5 percent year on year to reach US$4.84 billion.

Beijing saw its import value increasing 33.9 percent to hit US$20.58 billion in August 2010.

According to news released in the Dow Jones Newswires, the Kosmopolito Hotels International Ltd, a leading hotel brand of Far East Consortium International Ltd, aims to lift up around US$192 million from an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

The reports showed that Kosmopolito Hotels will issue around 540 million shares into the market for HK$2.04 to HK$2.75 per share. If the underwriters consider the 15 percent over-allotment option, the complete offering size will touch the mark of US$220 million.

According to recent news, that Taiwan-based LED chip packager company, Unity Opto Technology, has announced in a press release that it targets to increase a total capital of NT$2.18 billion (US$68.87 million) largely for capacity expansions in the country as well as China.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of the company has recently sanctioned the issue of convertible bonds of around NT$1.5 billion (US$47.39 million), and the company is also aiming to introduce 15 million new shares into the market as to increase capital of NT$675 million.

According to the statement issued by the Polaris Research Institute (PRI), the think tank has lifted its prediction for Taiwan’s this year economic growth to 8.52%, up from earlier estimate of 6.82 percent, because of the high exports and growing private usage.

It was the third time when Polaris Research Institute has changed its estimation for the country’s 2010 gross domestic product (GDP) development after better results in GDP growth of 12.53 percent in the period of April-June of
2010, and 13.71 percent jump recorded during the first quarter of this year.

The statement released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan said that the country’s export orders in the last month hit an all time high mainly due to increasing demand for high-tech products.

During the last month, the country’s export orders stood at US$34.88 billion, a growth 23.30 percent as compared to the last year and a growth of 3.10 percent from the month of July, showing peak season for the international high-tech sector.

The ministry said that export orders showed deliveries 3 months in advance and are regarded as an important economic indicator.