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■ Optoelectronics value up
The output value of the nation's optoelectronics industry will hit NT$1.02 trillion this year, a 38 percent jump from last year, the Opto-Electronics and Systems (OES) Laboratories of the semi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) said during a press conference yesterday in Tainan.
The OES Lab further predicted that the figure will keep climbing to NT$1.25 trillion next year and NT$1.62 trillion in 2006.
Currently, the optoelectronics industry focuses on exploiting the business potential of liquid crystal displays, while the demand for optical storage will gradually rise and become another promising sector that enjoys production value of over NT$1 trillion by 2008, the institute said.
The OES Lab made the forecast yesterday at the Southern Taiwan Science Park's incubator center in which it unveiled 20 different advanced technologies, such as those used in the inkjet printing process, that the OES Lab has developed in recent years.

■ New adviser for brokerage
President Securities Corp (統一證券), a brokerage controlled by the nation's largest food company, said it hired Pricewaterhouse Coopers International Ltd to advise on strategy, such as mergers and acquisitions, signaling a change in its expansion plans.
President Securities, a Taipei-based company controlled by Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), in November had ruled out acquisition targets and looking for a bigger rival for a takeover.
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Yuanta Core Pacific Securities Co (元大京華證券) and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) hope to acquire President Securities, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday.

■ Knowledge sector growing
The country is making strides as a knowledge-based economy with output of knowledge-intensive industries already contributing 29 percent of the country's GDP, Ministry of Economic Affairs officials said yesterday.
The officials were citing a report released by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research on Taiwan's global competitiveness in research and innovation.
While the nation's total investment in research and development amounted to 2.3 percent of GDP in 2002, which was the world's 11th-highest, the contribution of knowledge-intensive industries to GDP was 29 percent in 2002, following closely after Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany and the US, according to the report.
In 2002, the investment by the information technology sector alone amounted to 22.2 percent of the total, compared with 18.2 percent in 2001, the report says.

■ Taiwan to sell Trust stake
The government plans to start selling a 25 percent stake in state-owned Central Trust of China (中央信託局) next year, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing the bank's Chairman Shea Jia-dong (許嘉棟).
Shea also said a number of issues must be resolved before Central Trust's proposed merger with Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) can proceed, the newspaper said.
These include how to deal with Central Trust's non-financial operations, the report said. Land Bank approved the merger plan in early March.
Central Trust, in addition to banking and insurance, is also involved in trade and warehousing. The lender is currently 100 percent owned by the government.

■ NT dollar slightly up
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday maintained strength against its US counterpart, advancing NT$0.009 to close at NT$34.179 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$464 million.

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