■ Govrnment coffers filling
The national coffers took in NT$787.9 billion (US$23.4 billion) worth of taxes in the first six months of this year, accounting for 59.1 percent of the target set for the whole of this year, the Ministry of Finance reported yesterday.
Hsu Kuo-chung (許國忠), director of the ministry's statistics department, said that it will be very possible for the ministry to achieve the target designated for the full year, which will be the first time it has done so in five years.
The figure represents an increase of NT$104.7 billion compared to the year-earlier level, or a rise of 15.3 percent, Hsu said, adding that it is hard to estimate for the time being the impact on tax revenues caused by the damage from Tropical Storm Mindulle.
Last month alone, the national coffers collected NT$143.7 billion, down by NT$33.3 billion, or 18.8 percent, from the previous year's level. Income taxes ran the largest reduction of NT$36 billion last month, including NT$35.9 billion from corporate taxes and NT$0.1 billion from composite taxes.
■ Chi Mei screens find market
Toshiba Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co will follow other Japanese consumer electronics makers in buying flat-panel displays for their televisions from Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), a Chinese-language newspaper reported.
Chi Mei this year targets raising its share of the global market for flat-panel television screens to more than 20 percent, with shipments exceeding 2 million panels, the company said earlier this year.
Chi Mei already sells TV screens to Japanese makers including Sony Corp, Sanyo Electric Co and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. The company this month will start shipping screens measuring as large as 37 inches diagonally, the report said.
■ Ikea to invest NT$8 billion
Ikea plans to invest about NT$8 billion (US$237 million) here, aiming to control the nation's burgeoning home-improvement market reported, citing a top company official, said Brian Tuson, president of Ikea Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The investment, to be made over five years, will include what's expected to be the nation's biggest home-furnishing store, a NT$300 million outlet to be opened in December in Taoyuan, Tuson said.
Ikea now has one store in Taipei, where the company plans to add two more, Tuson said.
The Swedish company also plans to have a store in Taichung and Koahsiung, he added.
■ Promotion in DuPont
DuPont's Taiwan president Walt Cheng (鄭憲誌) was promoted Thursday as chief of the DuPont Global Microelectrical Circuit Department.
DuPont Global Vice President Craig Naylor, who flew into Taipei on Thursday to announce the promotion, said Cheng's new appointment is an affirmation of Taiwan's leadership in the field of electronic technology and proof of DuPont's emphasis on Taiwan and Asia.
Naylor said his company attaches great importance not only to its customers in Taiwan but also to the overseas customers of its Taiwan customers.
Cheng said DuPont will expand its research center here and will set up a new research center at the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (新竹科學園區) soon.
■ NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rose against its US counterpart, up NT$0.027 to close at NT$33.716 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$391 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