■ New GDP target set
Taiwan's highest economic planning agency said yesterday it has set its target next year for gross domestic product (GDP) at 5 percent, in part to be boosted by 10 new construction projects.
The revised target compares with 4.72 percent target set in October and 3.15 percent in the previous year, according to the cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD).
"We feel the need to mark up the target growth as international economies showed signs of steady growth, coupled with the increase in domestic investment and the 10 new mega investment projects," a CEPD official said.
The CEPD also targets unemployment of 4.50 percent and a 0.70 percent year-on-year increase for the consumer price index next year.
But CEPD warned that a reduction by another 0.80 percentage point may be inevitable if government plans for the NT$500 million-worth projects fail to proceed as scheduled in the next five years.
■ TSMC approves plant project
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said its board approved US$1.4 billion of spending for expansion of its most advanced production capacity.
The money will be used to make chips with 90-nanometer circuits, the smallest in the world, the company said in a statement. TSMC hasn't set a schedule to spend the money, spokesman Tzeng Jinnhaw (曾晉皓) said.
The company also plans to invest in production of silicon wafers measuring 300mm in diameter, which produce more than double the number of chips that can be made from standard, 200mm discs and cut production costs by about a third.
The company expects to spend US$1.2 billion on new plants and equipment this year, compared with US$1.65 billion last year.
■ Currency reserves on the up
Taiwan's foreign-currency reserves, the third-highest in the world after only China and Japan, may rise to more than US$200 billion by May 19 when President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) term ends, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said in a speech.
The reserves rose to a record US$196.6 billion in October because of foreign capital inflows, receipts from the state's overseas share sales, and investment income from the reserves, the nation's central bank said last month. The reserves rose 3.1 percent from September.
Taiwan's reserves have risen from US$106.7 billion at the end of 2000. An increase in reserves suggests the central bank is buying US dollars, which will stem an appreciation in the NT dollar and boost the nation's export competitiveness.
■ Chinatrust eyes share buyback
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) plans to buy back as much as NT$36.4 billion (US$1.1 billion) of its shares in the next two months, starting today.
Chinatrust expects to buy as many as 100 million shares, or 1.8 percent of its outstanding shares, at between NT$25 and NT$40, it said in a stock exchange filing.
The company on Monday cut its full-year forecast for profit before tax to NT$9 billion, from the NT$19 billion it estimated in February. It said the reduction was due to a NT$10.1 billion write-off for goodwill and bad debt acquired when it bought rival Grand Commercial Bank (萬通銀行) in July. The write-off will lower the bank's bad loan ratio to 2.4 percent from 3.9 percent, the bank said.
■ NT dollar continues gains
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued to gain ground against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.019 to close at NT$34.148 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$366 million.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”