Fuhwa Bank plans purchases
Fuhwa Bank (復華銀行), an affiliate of the Fuhwa Financial Holding Co (復華金控), said yesterday that it may buy one to two more credit cooperatives each year in the next few years in a bid to expand its number of local branches from the current 58 to its goal of 100 offices.
The bank last Wednesday paid NT$289 million (US$9 million) to buy Tainan Seventh Credit Cooperative (台南七信), which gave it eight more branches.
The bank said that these acquisitions offer a cheap and efficient way of expanding its market presence, since the government has put a curb on opening new bank branches.
Hsinchu Science Park to expand
The Hsinchu Science Park will expand by 52 hectares to include three chipmaking and optoelectronics plants, with investment totaling NT$431 billion (US$13 billion), a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing unidentified government officials.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電), the world's largest supplier of made-to-order chips, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶), the nation's largest memory-chip maker, and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) will between them invest a total of NT$366 billion and take up 22.5 hectares of the new park, the newspaper said.
The three chipmakers will create combined annual production valued at NT$140 billion in the new zone in 2008, the paper said.
Fees on donations waived
The Bankers' Association (銀行公會) yesterday reached a consensus with the nation's bank members, waiving the 3 percent transaction fees charged on tsunami-relief donations made via credit cards.
The decision will be retroactive to donations made after Dec. 26 and transaction fees will be refunded.
Fertilizer shares selling well
On the second day of its five-day auction, 200 million shares in Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥) were sold yesterday.
The share sale liquidated a total of NT$6.39 billion (US$200 million) into the government's coffers with a closing price of NT$32 -- slightly higher than it floor price of NT$31.3 per share, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TSEC).
The stock regulator said that foreign investors appeared to be the biggest buyers since the state-owned enterprise is rich in its land assets.
Topping other competitors, Credit Suisse First Boston bought 61.7 million shares, followed by Deutsche Bank's 22.9 million shares. In its first trading day, a total of 65.7 million of Taiwan Fertilizer's shares were sold on Monday with an averaged price of NT$31.84 per share.
Lin tipped for vice premiership
Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) was tapped by the local Chinese-language media to be the possible candidate for vice premiership after the Cabinet is reshuffled next month.
But Lin told the legislature yesterday that he "has never been informed of such appointment," saying the media report is groundless.
The media have speculated that President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration is having difficulty in finding candidates with financial expertise for the vice premiership to assist the yet-to-be-appointed premier, who may not have a financial and economic background.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday strengthened against the greenback and rose NT$0.141, closing at NT$32.13 on the Taipei Foreign Exchange. Turnover was US$623 million. The greenback opened at NT$32.263 and fluctuated between NT$32.105 and NT$32.285.
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