■ 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.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
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