■ Credit Cards
New firm to manage debts
The Bankers Association of the ROC (銀行公會) will create an asset-management company to handle the country's growing credit card debt, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement. The company will manage all banks' non-performing loans to help them clean up their balance sheets, said a commission statement issued late on Friday on its Web site. The company won't force credit-card holders without income to repay loans, it said. Non-performing loans from credit cards totaled around NT$250 billion (US$7.7 billion), according to commission spokesman Lin Chung-cheng (林忠正). Rising defaults forced banks in Taiwan to write off NT$210.8 billion of bad loans and card purchases last year, up 30 percent from 2004, the commission said.
■ Franchises
NT$4bn injection expected
The nation's fast-expanding franchise industry is expected to be infused with NT$4 billion (US$123 million) in new investment this year and create more than 10,000 new job opportunities, according to a report released yesterday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Officials said the country's franchise industry is maturing fast and "performing brilliantly" following the introduction of a US-style franchising system and the know-how of the Japanese distribution network, as well as the entry of new international restaurant chains. As of last year, there were 1,424 franchises in Taiwan representing 180 different industries, with a total of 91,637 stores and sales amounting to NT$1.5 trillion, the ministry said. The figure accounted for 44.22 percent of the country's total sales in the retail and restaurant industries.
■ Auto industry
GM recalls 805,000 trucks
General Motors Corp has recalled more than 805,000 trucks because of defective tailgate cables, the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration said on Friday. The cables, which hold the tailgate in a horizontal position, have been shown to corrode over time and can fracture when loads are applied to them. While no injuries were reported, the federal safety administration warned that people could get hurt if they were sitting or standing on the tailgate when the cables broke. The recall affects 1999 and 2000 model years of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks.
■ Electronics
Chunghwa Picture in talks
Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) is in merger talks that may reach conclusion within six months, the Chinese-language Commercial Times and Economic Daily News reported, citing Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山), president of Tatung Co (大同), parent of Chunghwa Picture. Chunghwa Picture on Sept. 18 denied an Economic Daily News report saying it was in talks to combine with smaller rival Quanta Display Inc (廣輝電子). Quanta Display also denied the report.
■ Auto industry
Toyota, Fuji tackle hybrids
Leading Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp has agreed to jointly develop hybrid systems with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, a report said yesterday. The firms planned to use the technology in Subaru's Legacy models in two to three years, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said without citing sources. The firms' presidents would announce details tomorrow, it said. Toyota became the top shareholder of Fuji Heavy last year when it purchased Fuji Heavy shares from General Motors.
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