■ Banks raise interest rates
One day after the largest state-run bank, Bank of Taiwan (台銀), raised its interest rates, two major state-run counterparts -- Land Bank of Taiwan (土銀) and Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫) -- followed suit yesterday. The Land Bank raised its interest rates by between 0.075 of a percentage point and 0.125 of a percentage point. Taiwan Cooperative Bank also raised its interest rates by between 0.05 of a percentage point and 0.125 of a percentage point.
■ CPC seeks foreign oil supplier
Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) said it's seeking to buy 270,000 barrels of Indonesia's Duri crude oil or China's Qinghuangdao crude oil for loading or delivery in November. Chinese Petroleum wants potential suppliers to submit offers by today, the company said in an e-mail. Offers should be valid until tomorrow. Suppliers should offer to sell the cargo based on the Indonesian Crude Price of Duri crude oil, the company said. Duri and Qinghuangdao are low-sulfur crude oil with less than 0.5 percent sulfur by weight.
■ Oil production to be boosted
The nation's second largest oil refiner Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) plans to invest NT$10 billion (US$290 million) to boost oil refinery capacity at its Miaoli County plants, it was reported yesterday. Formosa Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), operates three refineries in Miaoli with daily production of 450,000 barrels. This would be increased to 600,000 barrels in 2006 after the expansion project is completed, a Chinese-language newspaper quoted company president Wang Wen-chao (王文潮) as saying. The company has projected 2004 sales at NT$283.8 billion and net profit at NT$27.5 billion, the report said.
■ FSC touts competitiveness
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) will do everything it can to maintain the nation's financial stability and competitiveness, commission Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng (龔照勝) said yesterday. At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Finance Committee, Kong gave an outline of the commission's work in the future, which includes the establishment of a regional financial service center, encouraging mergers among financial institutions, reinforcing financial supervision and promoting international cooperation in financial supervision. With regards to mergers among banks, Kong said the commission will limit the establishment of financial institutions and give high marks to those mergers that operate well.
■ Business forum gains steam
California Lieutenant-Governor Cruz Bustamante confirmed Tuesday that a California-Taiwan business forum organized by private businesses will soon begin operations in Taipei. Bustamante, who concurrently serves as chairman of the California Commission for Economic Development, noted that there was formerly a California trade office in the Taipei World Trade Center, but it closed due to an insufficient budget during the tenure of former governor Gray Davis. He pointed out that the business forum will help California businessmen solicit business opportunities in Taiwan, attend major exhibitions and provide services to Taiwan businessmen interested in opportunities in California.
■ NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar declined against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, losing NT$0.001 to close at NT$33.919. A total of US$730 million changed hands during the day's trading.
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