The NT$446-billion high-speed passenger rail project to link Taipei and Kaohsiung could face a setback because of differences between Taiwan and Japanese contractors over the project's design and other details, sources at the Japanese group said.
Both sides have officially denied any delay, but the sources, who declined to be identified, warned yesterday that the bullet train may not meet its launch deadline of 2005.
The sources said that Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp and the Japanese Taiwan Shinkansen Consortium (
Those details, including format and materials, were supposed to be agreed upon by the end of May, the source said.
"The project has just begun and if we remain locked in a wrangle over such basic matters, it's possible to see the project missing the October 2005 deadline," a senior official in the consortium said.
The Japanese consortium, which won the NT$95 billion contract in December 1999 to provide the core electrical systems, train engines and passenger cars, has insisted on the same format used in Japan citing safety reasons, while Taiwan High Speed prefers mixing Japanese and European styles.
Another consortium official said he suspects Taiwan wants to procure parts from European manufacturers instead of from the Japanese group.
A Taiwan High Speed executive, who requested anonymity, said yesterday that "there were no such differences between the two companies" over the basic design and format of the project.
The executive said that senior executives from "both Taiwan High Speed and their counterparts at Taiwan Shinkansen Consortium met every month to discuss progress on the project, which was still on target to meet its October 2005 deadline for launch."
The Taiwan High Speed executive said that bidding for the NT$28 billion contract to build the 345km rail track along which the train will run at around 300kph is still ongoing and "had no direct correlation with the choice of contractor for the core electrical systems."
"The railway system must meet with the requirements of the core system," she said.
"Under this principle, we of course are open to bids from contractors that are interested and can meet the specifications."
Toshihiko Nagao, general manager at Mitsui's Taiwan High Speed Rail project department, echoed that view. "The project is moving smoothly and there is no major gap between the Japanese and Taiwanese sides."
A delay would deal a blow to Japan's "Shinkansen" (bullet train) consortium, which outbid a European group for the deal that had been given priority negotiation rights in 1997.
Taiwan High Speed and Taiwan Shinkansen finalized the contract in December 2000.
Signing the contract with Taiwan High Speed Rail was a major breakthrough for Japan's renowned Shinkansen, which had never been exported.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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