■ NPLs now NT$7 billion
As of October, the nation's non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio for credit-card businesses amounted to NT$7 billion, or 3.12 percent, a finance official told a press conference yesterday.
According to Chang Ming-daw (張明道), deputy director general of the Bureau of Monetary Affairs, the top five banks with the highest credit-card NPL ratio are Chung Shing Bank (中興銀行) with 42.24 percent, Kaohsiung Third Credit Co-operative (高雄三信) with 40.28 percent, Taichung Commercial Bank (台中商銀) with 32.52 percent, Asia Trust (亞洲信託) with 26.7 percent and Pan Asia Bank (泛亞銀行) with 21.77 percent.
The top five banks with the lowest credit-card NPL ratio are the Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) with 0.91 percent, Citibank N.A. (花旗銀行) with 1.06 percent, Taishin Bank (台新銀行) with 1.13 percent, ABN AMRO Bank (荷蘭銀行) with 1.37 percent and Standard Chartered Bank (渣打銀行) with 1.41 percent.
■ Goldman Sachs criticized
Companies expected to make an offer for SinoPac Holdings Co (建華金控) have criticized Goldman Sachs Group Inc for lack of transparency in the way it handled the process of finding potential buyers, the local media reported yesterday, citing Tsai Cheng-yu (蔡鎮宇), deputy honorable chairman of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控).
Tsai said Goldman Sachs, SinoPac's financial adviser, should disclose to the public how many proposals it has received from interested buyers. A lack of transparency surrounding the process has resulted in widespread speculation in the market.
Goldman Sachs wouldn't comment on Tsai's remarks.
■ Chemical sector to grow
The production value of Taiwan's chemical industry is expected to reach NT$2.9 trillion (US$85 billion) in 2008 from NT$1.95 trillion last year, and the percentage of its high value-added products should rise to 40 percent, according to sources from the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
Cheng Wu-hsiun (鄭武順), chief of ITRI's laboratory on materials and chemical engineering, announced the estimate at the inauguration ceremony of the Taiwan Chemical Industry Association.
Cheng noted that the production of the nation's chemical and textile industry accounts for 30 percent of the total production in the manufacturing sector, trailing only the electrical and electronics industry.
However, although the production of the chemical industry is quite large, the percentage of its high value-added products only accounts for 20 percent of its total production, compared to the 50 to 60 percent registered by industrially advanced countries.
The chemical industry hopes to increase the percentage of its high value-added products to 40 percent in 2008, Cheng said.
■ AmCham elects female head
Andrea Wu (吳王小珍), country manager of United Airlines Taiwan, has been elected by the board of governors of the American Chamber of Commerce (美國商會) in Taipei as the organization's president for next year, the organization said in a statement.
Wu is the first woman to head AmCham since the organization was established in 1951. She has been general manager of United Airlines Taiwan since 2000.
In the statement, Wu said there are many important issues that need attention, including continued improvement in IPR enforcement, further financial reform, and fairer participation for foreign companies in government procurement projects.
■ NT dollar slightly lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.001 to close at NT$34.016 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$417 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