DHL sees growth in 2004
Bolstered by robust worldwide economic growth in 2004, express operator DHL Worldwide Express has seen double-digit growth in revenue this year, Michael Hsu (許一鳴), director of marketing at DHL Taiwan Corp, said yesterday. Hsu refused to reveal the specific figure.
As the world economy is expected to slow down next year, Hsu said the effect on the logistics industry is not yet known, as companies may launch aggressive marketing strategies during the economic downturn. But the business capacity in Taiwan is reaching a limit due to industry migration to China, forcing the company to come up with integrated service to customers doing business in the greater Chinese region, Hsu said.
One important boost to the industry was the liberalization of cross-strait transportation, which the company has proposed to the government in recent years, Hsu said.
Investment in China approved
The nation has approved 12 applications for China-bound investment totaling US$239.42 million, the Investment Commission said.
The commission also approved five inbound investment applications by foreign investors and overseas Chinese for a total of US$140.94 million, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Of the applications for China-bound investment, electronics contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) was given approval to invest US$68 million in a unit in Yantai in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) was authorized to invest US$30 million in a unit in Kunshan in neighboring Jiangsu Province.
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