■ Taiwan leads in nanospending
Taiwan led the world in per capita government research and development spending in nanotechnology last year at US$9.40, nearly twice the amount of per capita spending by the US, which invested US$5.42, according to a report released by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) yesterday. Nanotechnology has been applied in various information technology products, including semiconductors and liquid crystal display parts. As of February this year, Taiwan had been issued 12 patents of application of nanotechnology, mostly for carbon nanotube display applications, the report said, citing a study from Lux Research. According to estimates from the Nanotechnology Research Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the annual output of Taiwan's nanotech industry is expected to top NT$1 trillion (US$31.4 billion) by the year 2010, representing 3 percent of the global market, the report said.
■ Local bank invites bids
Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), a lender 44 percent owned by the government, said it has started inviting bids from local and foreign investors as part of the government's plan to speed up financial consolidation. "We have hired a financial adviser to handle this," Lee Chun-sheng (李俊昇), executive vice president of the bank, said yesterday.
■ NT dollar closes lower
The New Taiwan dollar remained weak against its US counterpart, dropping NT$0.100 to close at NT$31.966 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$805 million.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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