■ TSMC most coveted workplace
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufact-uring Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains the most sought-after domestic employer to work for among future graduates, according to the results of a survey released yesterday by the Chinese-language Cheers magazine.
The survey was conducted in the middle of last month on 1,771 students set to graduate this summer from universities and graduate schools. TSMC captured first place in a similar survey carried out by the magazine in 2000.
Also in the top five this year are Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Eslite Corp (誠品), in that order.
Corporate characteristics that are most attractive to future graduates are high salaries, opportunities for advanced study and training, prestige and the popularity of the company's products.
Meanwhile, Procter & Gamble Taiwan is the most desirable foreign company to work for among students, followed by Microsoft Taiwan Corp, IBM Taiwan, Ogilvy Taiwan and Citibank Taiwan, the survey showed.
■ Chang Hwa picks acting chair
Chang Hwa Commercial Bank's (彰化銀行) board yesterday elected Henry Kao (高志尚) as acting chairman, after chairman Chang Po-shin (張伯欣) was suspended for six months by the Financial Supervisory Commission last week over a dubious role in a share-sale scandal.
Kao, vice chairman of I-Mei Foods Co (義美食品), was previously a board supervisor at Chang Hwa appointed by Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), which owns a roughly 22.5 percent stake Chang Hwa. His chairmanship will last until Nov. 26, the lender said in a statement yesterday.
Taishin Financial hopes to increase its holdings in Chang Hwa to 30 percent by the end of this year.
Prosecutors investigated Chang and two other Chang Hwa executives in an alleged insider trading case involving the sale of Taiwan Development Corp (台灣土地開發) shares originally owned by the lender. The Financial Supervisory Commission suspended Chang for alleged misconduct that may have damaged the interests of Chang Hwa's shareholders.
■ Ocean research center to open
The nation's first center for deep ocean water research and development will become fully operational tomorrow and will provide key technologies to local companies, an Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) official said yesterday.
The center, based in Hsinchu County, is sponsored by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and ITRI.
The US was the first country to set up a similar center. The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii was built in 1974 to pump water up from approximately 1,000m below the surface for use in research and commercial production. Japan also established its own facility to study the "blue gold" -- a nickname for deep ocean water.
Besides commercial uses, deep ocean water can also be used in generating power and for air-conditioning.
The official said ITRI had worked with a local company last June to set up a pipeline off the coast of Hualien to draw water from 710m below the surface, adding that several other facilities would be established along the east coast in the coming years.
■ NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart yesterday, rising NT$0.019 to close at NT$32.019 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
A total of US$935 million changed hands during the day's session.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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