The government is mulling plans to issue SARS-free certificates to exported goods in response to requests from foreign buyers. The buyers are concerned about the potential of the SARS infection being spread from the goods, a Ministry of Economic Affairs official said yesterday.
"Despite the fact that only a few foreign clients require such certificates at the moment, we will still implement this measure to ease their concerns," Wang Cheng-fu (
The SARS virus can survive up to four days without a host, according to a report the World Health Organization (WHO)released last week.
Wang Cheng-ching (
He also expressed concerns over viability to carry out the disinfections.
"Some sophisticated machines and devices could be damaged by disinfectants," Wang said.
"Also, it may be dangerous to use chemicals on perishable products, such as food," he said.
An official at the China Food GMP Development Association (
The official stressed that the association's member companies have already ensured proper hygiene during production, in order to avoid any food contamination.
Acknowledging the possible problems caused from product disinfection, Wang said the board is working with the Department of Health (DOH) to formulate a proposal which will specify methods of proper disinfection for different products.
After completing disinfection, companies can obtain a certificate from the board, Wang said.
Wang, citing a DOH report, said the SARS virus cannot live in room temperature for over 48 hours.
On April 11, the WHO issued a report saying that there is no information that suggests contact with goods, products or animals originating from SARS-affected areas has been the source of SARS infection in humans.
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