■ China trade rose in 2004
Total trade between Taiwan and China last year rose 33.1 percent to US$61.64 billion on the back of China's rapid economic expansion, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said yesterday. China accounted for 18 percent of Taiwan's total trade last year, compared with 17.1 percent a year earlier, the bureau said. "Despite China's implementation of controls [to slow the economy] its exports continued to grow, prompting strong demand for Taiwan-made items such as machinery and component parts," the board said in a statement. Last year Taiwan enjoyed a surplus of US$28.28 billion, up 15.9 percent, on its trade with China, its largest export market. Exports to China rose 27.2 percent to US$44.96 billion, accounting for 25.8 percent of total exports last year, compared with 24.5 percent in 2003. Imports from China grew 52.2 percent to US$16.68 billion.
■ Hon Hai inks HP deal
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the nation's largest electronics company, said it has signed a contract with Hewlett-Packard Co (HP). The contract will strengthen Hon Hai's relations with HP and may be the start of joint development projects by the two companies, Hon Hai Precision said yesterday in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Hon Hai didn't provide details on the contract. HP is the world's second-largest maker of PCs.
■ Morgan Stanley lowers rating
Morgan Stanley lowered its rating on Taiwanese financial stocks to "in-line" from "attractive," saying bad-loan write offs will limit earnings growth next year. Morgan Stanley analyst Lily Choi lowered Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and E.Sun Financial Holding Co's (玉山金控) rating to "equal-weight" from "overweight" and SinoPac Holdings Co (建華金控) to "underweight" from "overweight," the brokerage said in a report dated yesterday. An index tracking financial stocks fell 2.2 percent this year, lagging the TAIEX's 1.4 percent gain. Fees generated from wealth management services are likely to slow amid rising interest rates and uncertainty about the stock market's performance, the report said.
■ Bank employees buy stock
Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫) employees applied to buy a 12 percent stake in the lender offered by the government, lowering the state's holding to below 50 percent, the nation's threshold for a bank to qualify as privatized. Bank workers applied for slightly more than the 304.8 million shares offered in the government sale, which gives employees priority before stock is sold to the public, the lender said in a statement. The stake is valued at NT$8 billion (US$258 million) based on Taiwan Cooperative's closing share price of NT$26.10 on Tuesday. The government plans to reduce its 60 percent stake in the bank in a drive to reduce the budget deficit and cut record national debt.
■ Japanese index asks Taiwanese
The Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Index has asked several Taiwanese companies, including Hon Hai, Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), to join, a Chinese-language business daily reported, citing index officials. Smaller companies with potential for growth are welcome, the newspaper reported, citing Tokyo Stock Exchange adviser Kurita Shinmei. Taiwan's plan for an index that would list overseas companies may be ready by mid-year, adding to competition among financial markets, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified officials from the Financial Supervisory Commission.
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