■ Displays
Chunghwa, Quanta in talks
Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) is in talks to combine with Quanta Display Inc (廣輝), several Chinese-language newspapers reported yesterday, citing Chunghwa Picture Chairman and President Lin Chen-hung (林鎮弘). Lin is in discussions with Barry Lam (林百里), chairman of Quanta Display, the newspapers said. Chunghwa Picture is the nation's third-largest flat-panel display maker, while Quanta Display is the fifth largest. Quanta Display is a unit of Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world's biggest notebook computer maker.
■ Trade
Thai exports set to boom
Thailand's exports, ranging from automotive parts to jewelry, are expected to grow by at least 20 percent over the next two years due to the government's aggressive policy to stimulate the sector, the national news agency said yesterday. Commerce Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told the Thai News Agency he believed exports would meet government targets of 20 percent growth this year and 25 percent next. He said demand for Thai products on the global market was continuing to rise.
■ Media
Web site apologizes to Lees
A financial news Web site has apologized to Singapore's top leaders for an article that described investment company Temasek Holdings as "the Lee family trust." Two letters, one addressed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, and the other to Temasek Holdings, were posted Friday on FinanceAsia's Web site and will remain for two weeks. The letters appeared yesterday in Singapore media. The editors of the Hong Kong-based Web site acknowledged that the allegations were completely false and without foundation. They also agreed to pay undisclosed damages by way of compensation to the three ministers, Temasek Holdings and its board members.
■ Appliances
Seven arrested in China
The chairman and six other executives of troubled electrical appliance maker Guangdong Kelon have been arrested in south China on suspicion of economic crimes, state media reported yesterday. The company had announced earlier that its chairman, tycoon Gu Chujun (顧雛軍), and four other company executives had been detained by the authorities for unspecified economic offenses.
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