Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (
Ho made the remark at a seminar attended by lawmakers serving on the legislative Economics and Energy Committee.
Ho said she couldn't say with certainty whether Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) would hike prices next month, given the unpredictable situation on the crude-oil market.
As for electricity rates, the ministry tended to increase rates gradually, but no timetable has yet been set, she said.
CPC has said that it would maintain its domestic gasoline prices at their current levels as long as crude oil prices stay below US$60 per barrel.
Yet the company said yesterday that it would "give thought" to adjusting prices if crude oil prices remain at or surpass US$60 per barrel for seven to 10 consecutive days, the Central News Agency reported, citing CPC president Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎).
The recent soaring energy prices have again posed a threat to Taiwan's economic growth, which already saw exports lose steam in recent months, David Hong (
Citing a study conducted by Academia Sinica, Hong said that raising electricity prices by 10 percent would result in a 0.1 percent decline in GDP growth and a 0.3 percent rise in consumer prices.
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
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