December is a busy season due to students shopping for items before traveling abroad to study, prompting a jump in online sales of electronic products.

Taiwan-based fabless chip vendor MediaTek Inc. announced Friday that it had reached a deal with U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. under which the two companies will allow each other to utilize technology covered by their respective patent portfolios.

Taiwan's GreTai Securities Market (GTSM), commonly known as the over-the-counter (OTC) exchange, launched yesterday the online trading service for international bond investment.

Taiwan's currency has strengthened against the South Korean won, the island's central bank said, adding that the two economies compete with one another for exports.

Taiwan's dollar dropped for a third day, its longest losing streak of the month, after the central bank said it will intervene if irregular factors cause excessive currency volatility. Bonds were little changed.

Taiwan's current-account surplus widened in the third quarter as imports declined. The surplus expanded to US$8.24 billion in the three months to Sept. 30 from a revised US$2.06 billion a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement in Taipei.

The Merrill Lynch Group yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan's gross domestic product for this year to a minus 3.4 growth rate from an earlier forecast of a negative 5 percent.

Taiwan-based fabless chip vendor MediaTek Inc. announced Friday that it had reached a deal with U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. under which the two companies will allow each other to utilize technology covered by their respective patent portfolios.

Ten customers of China Airlines (CAL) will get their air tickets at a price of only 10 percent of the regular price after Taiwan's largest air carrier yesterday said it will honor the deals despite mispricing on its Web site.

Vice President Vincent Siew said yesterday that the biotech and medical care industries will play a critical role in Taiwan's economic development.