Executives at Hewlett-Packard Co said yesterday that new information-technology support meant to facilitate trade between Taiwan and China could be worth as much as NT$3 billion in new business by the end of next year.
As much as 75 percent of that business could be realized this year, according to Rosemary Ho (
From semiconductor foundries to notebook and desktop-computer makers, companies throughout Taiwan and China will be able to tap into a new system to connect companies with their operations throughout the "greater China" economic entity, which includes Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.
Companies already signed on under the plan include two Chinese chipmakers, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (
Although trade between the China and Taiwan are rapidly expanding, direct links are still banned by both governments.
Despite the continued restrictions, Taiwanese companies have invested an estimated US$70 billion in China over the past two decades. In November, China replaced the US as Taiwan's largest export destination, according to statistics provided by the Board of Foreign Trade.
Between January and April of this year, US$11.46 billion worth of goods flowed between the two economies via the port of Hong Kong and third-country locations, the board said.
As Taiwanese investment and manufacturing operations in China become more complex, smooth links to all parts of their businesses has become increasingly important.
Leslie Koo (
KG has a roaming deal with China Mobile (
HP-China president, Sun Chen-yao (
"Following WTO entry, China is moving on to the next step [in economic development]," Sun said.
He said huge growth opportunities exist in the telecommunications and government sectors.
Last year, HP's China operations brought in revenues of US$1.2 billion and purchasing orders worth US$3.5 billion between November 2000 and November 2001.
HP's business in China has grown an average of 25 percent per year for the past five years and it expects the trend to continue for the next several years, Sun said at a conference late last year.
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