SFC chairman resigns
Chu Jaw-chyuan (朱兆銓), chairman of Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), resigned yesterday, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement. The commission is responsible for the development, regulation and supervision of Taiwan's capital market.
The statement gave no reason for Chu's resignation and no comments were available from Chu's office yesterday.
Ding Ke-hwa (丁克華), vice chairman of the commission, will take over Chu's position on Monday, the ministry said.
Ding, 50, had held the post since 1995. He said yesterday that he would continue working to foster the sound development of the domestic capital market in line with international standards.
"I'm not surprised at the news because Chu had said he wanted to resign several times last year," said Rebecca Chen (陳月姿), vice president of investment management department at the Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise.
Chen also said she didn't think Chu's resignation would have any impact on the domestic capital market, as Ding is viewed a well-seasoned securities regulator.
Chu, 61, joined the Ministry of Finance in 1973. He served as vice president of Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp between 1989 and 1999, and vice chairman of SFC between 1999 and 2000.
Ford hopes to boost sales
Ford Motor Co plans to boost new auto sales in Taiwan by 5 percent to 67,000 this year, Jeffrey Shen (沈英銓), president of Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和), said yesterday at a press gathering.
Ford Lio Ho, the nation's fourth-largest automaker, is the local joint venture in which the US automaker has a 70 percent stake. It sold 63,931 new vehicles last year.
Shen said total vehicle sales this year in Taiwan are expected to, at best, be the same as last year's figures, because no big change is expected in the nation's economic fundamental.
But Shen said that recreational vehicles (RV) will play a bigger role in auto sales this year, with the Ford Escape continuing to lead in this segment.
Ford sold around 17,300 Escape RVs over the past 13 months and is expected to deliver another 2,900 units to customers this month, said York Chen (陳遠清), vice president of marketing and sales.
To remain competitive in the domestic market, Ford will introduce two new models -- Explorer RV and Focus ST170 wagon -- in the second quarter, as well as enhance its after-sales service to customers, Shen said.
Far EasTone sells bonds
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the country's third-largest publicly traded mobile-phone company, sold US$15 million of bonds convertible to its shares, increasing an earlier sale by 15 percent to meet demand.
Like the US$100 million of convertible bonds sold by Far EasTone in January, the zero-coupon securities can be converted into the company's shares at between NT$35.19 and NT$36.72 each, yielding 0.5 percent to 1 percent, said Morgan Stanley, the sale's manager in a statement.
Chunghwa sales rise
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan's largest phone service provider, said January sales rose 0.6 percent from a year earlier.
Sales rose to NT$14.8 billion (US$424 million) from NT$14.7 billion. Sales declined NT$14.97 billion in the previous month.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, dropping NT$0.002 to close at NT$34.819 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$389 million, compared with the previous day's US$283 million.
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