■ Low-cost loans offered
The Council for Economic Planning and Development said it plans to offer NT$200 billion (US$6.3 billion) in low-cost loans to boost redevelopment in the capital Taipei and other cities. The loans, which would help generate a combined production value of NT$567.2 billion in the next three years, would fund some 50 redevelopment projects, mostly in districts close to rail stations and mass rapid transit centers, the council said in a statement issued late Monday. Districts selected for development have a population of more than 200,000, with more than 50 percent of properties owned by the government, the council said. Houses more than 40 years' old totaled 1.75 million, or about one-fourth of the nation's total, prompting a need for redevelopment to improve living quality, the council said.
■ Neihu business booms
Business transactions in Taipei's Neihu and Nankang science parks totaled NT$1.69 trillion (US$52.9 billion) last year, with the number of employees reaching 85,400 by the end of May, according to statistics from the Taipei City Government. An official from the city's Bureau of Commerce and Economy said that the employees hired in these two science parks were engaged in manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing, as well as technology services. In the Neihu science park alone, business transactions reached NT$1.51 trillion last year, an increase of 29 percent over the previous year, with the number of employees totalling 73,300. The transactions in the Nankang Software Park totaled NT$170 billion last year, with the number of employees reaching 12,000.
■ Bank opens new China branches
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp yesterday announced that it has opened new branches in Chongqing and Chengdu in China, expanding its network to 12 branches in China, the UK-based lender said in a statement. "The opening of the Chongqing and Chengdu branches has enabled HSBC to expand into Western China for the first time," Richard Yorke, chief executive office of the lender's China operation, said in the statement.
■ Ex-Fubon official joins Citigroup
James Wu (吳均龐), former president of Fubon Commercial Bank (富邦銀行), has joined the Citigroup Taiwan as a vice chairman for corporate and investment banking, the US-based lender said in a statement yesterday. The new position takes effective immediately, the statement said. Wu, who has more than 20 years experience in the nation's banking industry, will be in charge of merger and acquisition planning, customer relationship development as well as product strategies and cross-marketing, the statement added.
■ Six firms eye bank stake
E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) and five other financial firms are interested in bidding for the government's stake in Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), according to a report in a local paper yesterday. Firms interested in bidding on medium-sized Taiwan Business Bank begin the process yesterday, according to the newspaper's report, which did not identify the other prospective bidders.
■ NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar continued losing ground against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.02 to close at NT$31.992 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$1.03 billion, up from US$732 million the previous day.
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],”
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
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