Taiwan's economic growth rate in the first quarter of this year will stand at around 3 percent, Lee Kao-chao (
According to Lee, Taiwan's economic history shows that if economic growth can maintain a level of 6 percent, the unemployment rate will not increase.
However, he said, Taiwan has suffered increased unemployment month on month since July 2000, when the jobless rate broke the 3 percent mark.
Just last Friday, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics announced that unemployment in February rose to 3.7 percent from January's 3.5 percent, seasonally adjusted, making it the highest since the government began compiling figures in 1978.
Lee said the rising jobless rate indicates that the pace of the country's economic slump has been much more serious than expected.
Wu Chung-shu (
Both Lee and Wu's estimates of Taiwan's economic growth rate in the first quarter of this year are much lower than that predicted earlier by the directorate as Taiwan's electrical and electronic exports to the US have decreased significantly thus far this year. Exports -- the powerhouse of Taiwan's economic growth -- fell 4.4 percent in the first two months of the year in comparison with a year ago.
Because Taiwan's exports in the next three months will likely continue to fall as demand from the US and Japan slow, which in turn will put more people out of work, the council convened a cross-ministry meeting yesterday, aiming to generate measures for boosting domestic employment.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Council chairman Chen Po-chih (
First, traditional industries facing difficulties will receive priority assistance from the government to prevent firms from making more layoffs. Second, Chen said, in addition to existing government-run vocational training departments, the Cabinet will probably entrust private organizations to serve as links among job seekers and potential employers.
Third, the government will amend labor regulations to reinforce the domestic job market and encourage part-time employment.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained