AmCham stresses copyrights
A six-member delegation from the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) yesterday called on Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to discuss upcoming legislative bills considered crucial to Taiwan's business climate.
At a meeting with Wang, Am-Cham emphasized the importance of passing the proposed amendments to the Copyright Law (著作權法) during the fall legislative session.
"This is the single most important thing that the Taiwan government can do this year to increase investment confidence," AmCham president Andrea Wu (吳王小珍) said in a statement.
This is something Washington is watching very closely as well, Wu said, noting that the fate of this bill would affect the progress of bilateral trade relations.
The delegation also advised Wang about another AmCham priority item: a bill to safeguard the confidentiality of proprietary data submitted by pharmaceutical companies in the course of registering their products in the local market.
Quanta to buy back shares
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's largest notebook computer maker, said it plans to spend as much as NT$1.3 billion (US$38.06 million) on a share buyback.
Quanta Computer may buy as many as 20 million shares at up to NT$65 each, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The buyback period started yesterday and will last until Oct. 5.
The plan follows the company's announcement on May 6 that it planned to buy as many as 40 million shares at up to NT$90 each during a two-month period ending July 5.
Chi Mei sales soar
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp's (奇美電子) sales last month rose to NT$7.7 billion (US$225.5 million) from NT$4.7 billion in July last year, the company said yesterday in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
On Thursday, Chi Mei told investors that last month's sales figures would be lower than June's NT$9.9 billion as screen prices started to slide.
Prices of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) used in computers and televisions have fallen by more than 10 percent since last month because of oversupply, according to the Taipei-based market researcher WitsView Technology Corp (聯景科技).
Prices of screens measuring 17 inches diagonally, which are used in computer monitors, have dropped to US$250 from US$280 in July, according to WitsView.
Hualien-Seoul flights instituted
TransAsia Airways (復興航空) will inaugurate charter flight services between Hualien and Seoul tomorrow, the Civil Aeronautics Administra-tion (CAA) said yesterday.
It will mark the first time that an international charter flight will take off from Hualien Airport since the CAA opened the airport for full-fledged international charter flight services in April last year.
In the past, Hualien Airport was only allowed to operate charter flights to Japan.
TransAsia will use an Airbus A321 plane for its maiden Hualien-Seoul charter flight, CAA officials said.
The carrier will operate 12 round-trip Hualien-Seoul charter flights from tomorrow until Aug. 22.
The Sunday flight will also be the first international charter flight since Hualien Airport's new passenger terminal was inaugurated last year.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday turned weak against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.001 to close at NT$34.156 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$365 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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six