FTA talks to be held
Delegates from Taiwan and Nicaragua are slated to hold a second round of free trade agreement (FTA) talks next week in San Francisco, Ministry of Economic Affairs officials said yesterday.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) and his Nicaraguan counterpart Alejandro Arguello will conduct the negotiations on behalf of their respective governments in the meeting, which will open Monday, the officials said.
The two countries are expected to reach agreement on issues related to plant and animal quarantine, investment and the protection of intellectual property rights during the new round of talks, which will be divided into five panels, the officials said, adding that the ministry hopes to conclude all the talks and sign an FTA accord by the end of the first half of next year.
Animation needs improvement
The nation's animation industry could learn from Japan and South Korea -- some of whose animation products tell profound and dramatic stories -- to sharpen its competitiveness in the world market, a Taiwanese official said yesterday.
Huang Kuo-chun (黃國俊), director of the digital content industry promotion office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said at a workshop that Taiwan's digital creations, including video games and animation films, display scenes lacking drama.
Forging cooperative relations with Japanese animation creators, whose products have already successfully made inroads into world markets, could be a good way to develop Taiwan's animation industry, he said.
Opto Tech cuts 240 jobs
Shares of Opto Tech Corp (光磊科技) tumbled 6.7 percent to NT$6.3 after the company said it had laid off 240 of its 1,500 staff.
Opto Tech, which makes flat-panel displays used in mobile phones and hand-held computers, said the layoffs were aimed at remedying losses in a display screen technology unit.
The company, which has spent NT$3 billion (US$93.2 million) to develop organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, displays, has been losing about NT$7 billion a year since starting production of the screens last year.
Gold price increases
The spot price of gold marched above US$455 yesterday, setting fresh 16-year high points as the US dollar tumbled to a fresh record low against the euro.
Gold's spot price jumped by US$3.61 per ounce to as high as US$455.30 compared to late Thursday and was the highest level since June 1988.
Shares down on profit taking
Shares ended lower yesterday as investors pocketed gains on concerns a stronger local currency would damp exporters' earnings, analysts said.
The TAIEX finished 76.59 points, or 1.3 percent, lower at 5,778.65 in dealings valued at NT$87.1 billion (US$2.71 billion).
Decliners well outnumbered advancers 556 to 110, while 110 issues ended the day unchanged.
The decline in South Korean shares also weighed on the market, dealers said. Taiwan's main index tends to follow South Korea's due to the similar development of their economies. South Korea's main stock index, the KOSPI, was down 1.7 percent at 858.12.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), ended 2.3 percent lower at NT$47.2. Electronics contract manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) finished down 0.8 percent at NT$126.5.
Liquid-crystal-display screen maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), gained 3.9 percent to NT$13.4.
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],”
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
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