Cross-strait tensions and the rise of China's economy remain the two biggest challenges for domestic enterprises intending to take their businesses to the next level, according to a poll of the nation's top CEOs released yesterday.
More than 70 percent of Taiwanese firms said tensions between Taiwan and China would be the biggest concern for their business operations over the next three years, according to the survey conducted by the Chinese-language Commonwealth biweekly magazine, which questioned the CEO's of the nation's top 1,000 enterprises.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents said that the emergence of China's domestic vendors to compete internationally was also set to pose another threat.
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), the Chinese PC giant which acquired the US-based IBM Corp's ailing PC unit in May last year, is an example.
In view of the looming hurdles, domestic firms called for the government to speed up the opening of direct links and better manage relations with China, the survey said.
These issues have become vital as 56 percent of the firms that responded to the survey have already made investments in China, and nearly 44 percent of financial institutions are eyeing similar moves in the next five years.
However, rushing to China may not guarantee a positive result.
Late last year reports said that Dbtel Inc (
The glory days of 2000, when the company beat local rivals to gain Beijing's approval to sell its own-brand handsets in the world's largest market, appeared to have ended.
The survey's results also indicated that a quarter of respondents are mulling listing their companies overseas.
Fifty-seven percent said Hong Kong was the most ideal overseas destination for a public listing.
If this figure is combined with the 16 percent of firms considering listings in other places in China, up to 73 percent of firms here would opt for China for a listing, despite the potential risks, according to the magazine.
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