■ Energy
Vietnam warns China on rig
Vietnam has asked China not to position an oil drilling rig into an area it claims is under Vietnamese sovereignty, state-run media reported yesterday. "That China puts its oil drilling rig into operation in this area is a serious violation against the sovereign rights and national jurisdiction of Vietnam," Vietnam's press spokesman said in a statement. The Chinese KANTAN 3 drilling platform is headed to a position 117km off the coast of Vietnam, and 124km off the coast of China's Hainan island, the ministry of foreign affairs spokesman said. "Vietnam has contacted China and requested her to strictly abide by the agreements reached between the two parties," the press spokesman said.
■ Taxation
Internet levies blocked
Congress on Friday blocked state and local governments from taxing connections that link consumers to the Internet for the next three years. "Enacting this legislation is a big win for the majority of American Internet users,'' House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner said. The bill, passed by voice vote and sent to the president for his signature, blocks taxation of all types of Internet connections, from traditional dial-up services to high-speed broadband lines. States that had started taxing Internet access before the first ban, enacted in 1998, can continue collecting those fees. States that tax speedy DSL lines must start phasing out the levies. The tax moratorium ends in November 2007. The House voted last year to permanently ban taxes on Internet access, but it could not find enough support in the Senate.
■ Automakers
Honda discusses CRV fires
Honda officials met with US federal regulators in Detroit on Friday to discuss an engine problem that has led to about 80 fires in Honda CRV sport utility vehicles. While Honda has previously blamed careless service mechanics, the company told regulators on Friday that faulty gaskets made by a Chinese supplier are a major factor. The gaskets were used by one of several suppliers of oil filters. Filters from that supplier were installed in some of the vehicles, starting in the 2003 model year. Honda officials recently changed the material used in the gaskets. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Honda, however, continue to discuss how to resolve the problem in existing vehicles.
■ G20 Summit
Dollar slump worries EU
European officials are increasingly alarmed by the US dollar's slump against the euro -- but they aren't likely to get help from the US or Asian countries at the G-20 meeting of industrial and developing countries that opened yesterday. The annual meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, which ends today, followed a week in which worries over the US trade and budget deficits pushed the euro to a new all-time high of US$1.3074. US Treasury Secretary John Snow has met increasingly sharp complaints from Europeans -- worried that their export-led recovery will be hurt -- with a clear message that Washington won't act to prop up the dollar. Instead, Snow suggested, Europe should do more to boost its own economy. German officials have played down hopes of action this weekend, insisting that exchange rates aren't formally on the agenda. Finance Minister Hans Eichel called this week for a "joint position" from the US, Europe and Japan, but avoided the issue in an opening address yesterday.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts