■ Telecom
China to subsidize network
China may subsidize China's telecom equipment makers by 600 million yuan (US$72 million) to develop a home-grown high-speed mobile phone technology, Reuters reported, citing an official at an equipment maker. The offer may limit opportunities for competing Western systems. China plans to allocate the funds this year and would provide more financial assistance later for the technology known as time division-synchronous code division-multiple access (TD-SCDMA) standard, the report said, citing Yang Yigang, vice president of Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group.
■ Policy
Snow arrives for Asia tour
US Treasury Secretary John Snow arrived in Japan yesterday on the first leg of an Asian tour to meet with his counterparts in the region. Snow, visiting Japan for the first time since assuming his post in February, is due to meet Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa tomorrow. Their talks are expected to focus on the economic situation in both nations and the possibility of a loosening of the Chinese yuan's peg to the US dollar, according to Japanese officials. Snow is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to discuss financial aid for the reconstruction of war-torn Iraq, they said. He will also meet Economics and Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka and Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui. Snow will leave Japan for China on Tuesday and then is to join fellow finance ministers for APEC forum meetings at the Thai resort of Phuket.
■ Macroeconomics
Brazil slumps to recession
Brazil's economy has slumped to recession, with the GDP having fallen two quarters in a row, the state statistics bureau IBGE said Friday. Second quarter GDP fell by 1.6 percent from the first quarter figures. First quarter GDP fell by 0.6 percent over the previous quarter, worse than the original projection of a 0.1 percent fall for the first quarter. Growth fell across all industry branches between April and June, a result that was worse than had originally been anticipated, IBGE said. The second quarter GDP also fell by 1.4 percent compared to the same period last year. Analysts blamed the downward trend on high interest policies of the central bank. Interest rates reached up to 26.5 percent in the first six months this year. Although inflation has been wrestled down to below 10 percent, the policies have also hindered economic growth, observers said.
■ Semiconductors
Intel expands S Korea ops
Intel Corp, the world's biggest computer-chip maker, plans to open a research facility in South Korea this year to develop semiconductors for mobile telephones and consumer electronics, a spokesman said. The site will open by the end of the year, spokesman Chuck Mulloy said. He wouldn't say how many people will work there or give an exact location. Santa Clara, California-based Intel already has sales and marketing workers in South Korea, he said. The company said this week it would open plants in China and Malaysia. The chipmaker has said it will increase R&D spending to US$4.2 billion this year from US$4.03 billion last year while reducing expenditures on new factories and equipment to as little as US$3.5 billion from US$4.7 billion. Intel shares rose US$0.29 to US$28.59 at 4pm New York time on the NASDAQ Stock Market. They've increased 84 percent this 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