The 2001 Taipei International Master Forum on Biotechnology is scheduled to open today. The meeting will bring together industry and academic leaders from around the world to discuss the future of biochips, bioinformatics and biopharmaceuticals.
A total of 24 papers will be presented at the three-day conference, which is organized by the Biomedical Engineering Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute and GeneMaster Lifesciences Co.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (
David Flores, president of BioCentury, which specializes in providing information on the biotechnology industry, is scheduled to speak at the conference on the current paradigm of the industry.
In related news, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will address a biotech conference to be held in the US in mid-September via live teleconference, further underlining his administration's support for the development of biotechnology as Taiwan's next big high-tech industry, the US-ROC Business Council announced in mid-August. The event is dubbed the US-Taiwan Biotechnology Initiative. The business council and the American Institute in Taiwan organized a delegation of 20 Taiwanese government officials and business leaders to tour five states on the US east coast as part of the initiative.
The 10-day trip will begin on Sept. 10, and includes stops in Virginia and New Jersey, and culminates with a trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is known for its research in a number of disciplines, in Boston, Massachusetts.
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