■ Citibank offers more cash back
Citibank Taiwan (花旗銀行) yesterday launched a promotional 5 percent cashback program for its platinum credit cardholders, the highest cashback rate in the market today.
Of the bank's 1.8 million credit cardholders, 400,000 hold platinum cards. The bank's consumer banking head, Victor Kung (管國霖), yesterday said that the bank aims to achieve a 30 percent to 40 percent growth in card applications through the cashback program, which lasts until July 31.
Kung added that surveys showed that cash rebates were the most popular credit-card benefit. Platinum cardholders already enjoyed 2 percent cashback, which encouraged them to spend an average of NT$10,000 on their cards every month, 32 percent higher than the overall market average of NT$7,000.
■ DHL to open center
DHL Express Taiwan on Wednes-day hosted a ground-breaking ceremony for its new Taoyuan Service Center in response to increasing business demands in the Greater Taoyuan area.
Phil Yang (楊斐), general manager of DHL Taiwan and host of the ceremony, said construction of the new Taoyuan Service Center was a part of a US$30 million "Taiwan Anchor Investment Program."
The NT$65 million center will be a two-story building, with the first floor allocated for operations and the second floor for office use. The drive-in warehouse will be able to handle 450 shipments per hour.
The 2,700m2 center is located in Lu Chu Hsiang and is based on DHL's global operational standard. It is scheduled to be completed in late September and will open in the fourth quarter of the year.
■ Perng plays up Taiwan
Central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) yesterday urged the Asian Development Bank to sign up major Taiwanese banks as the confirming banks for its regional trade finance promotion program to facilitate Taiwanese companies' drive to expand their market shares in the Asia-Pacific region.
Perng made the remarks when meeting with Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Tadao Chino on South Korea's Jeju Island to exchange views on promoting regional cooperation.
Besides briefing Chino on Taiwan's latest significant economic growth, Perng said Taiwan had made strenuous efforts in financial reforms since 2001, including adopting many measures to help its banks bring down their non-performing loan ratios, which has declined from a high of 8.26 percent in November 2001 to 3.82 percent in April this year.
Perng also welcomed the ADB's plan to send two senior financial experts to Taiwan later this month to preside over a seminar on the ADB's trade finance promotion plan with a view to attracting Taiwanese banks to join its syndicated loan projects to help boost regional trade and commercial exchanges.
■ Travel fair opens
The 2004 Kaohsiung Travel Fair opened at an industrial and business exhibition center in Kaohsiung yesterday.
A record 264 pavilions have been set up at the travel fair. This is the first year that tickets have been needed to enter the venue. Tickets cost NT$100 (US$3) and the stubs can be redeemed in any 7-11 convenience store for NT$50 worth of merchandise.
Thirteen tourism offices from Europe, the US and Southeast Asian countries as well as 10 cities and counties and four airlines are taking part in the travel fair that runs through Sunday.
■ NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.116 to close at NT$33.621 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$999 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],”
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