The South Koreans are way ahead in developing human embryonic stem cells to treat disease.
China meanwhile, which is now testing genetically engineered rice, looms as a threat to disrupt Monsanto Corp's broad grip on crop biotechnology if the world's most populous nation begins commercializing modified rice.
Stem cells and genetically altered crops are but two small sectors of the growing biotechnology industry, which remains overwhelmingly dominated by US companies and researchers.
Still, as 18,000 industry executives and scientists from around the globe began gathering in Philadelphia yesterday for the Biotechnology Industry Organization's (BIO) annual trade show, other countries are making significant inroads.
BIO anticipates some 6,000 attendees to be from outside the US for the the BIO 2005 Annual International Convention to be held until Wednesday in Philadelphia.
A South Korean delegation is expected at the convention to advertise Seoul's expanding biotech prowess. Sweden and Singapore are also sending delegations to boast of their openness to stem cell research.
A Taiwanese delegation will exhibit the country's diverse biotechnology development, such as gene technology, the development of new medicines, clinical experiments, biotechnology for agriculture, nanotechnology and traditional Chinese medicine research.
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