■ Taiwan's reserves down
The nation's foreign exchange reserves last month totaled US$260.35 billion, down from US$260.94 billion at the end of May, the central bank said yesterday.
The central bank attributed the decline to the repatriation of foreign capital.
Foreign investors were net sellers of NT$46.26 billion (US$1.44 billion) worth of shares in June, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
■ Internet phones taking off
Taipei City expects to have 200,000 people using wireless Internet phones by the end of this year, providing a much cheaper alternative to the traditional mobile phones, officials said yesterday.
"This is the world's first Internet phone system using the whole city, rather than a spot, as a wireless operation environment," said Daniel Wongg, spokesman for the Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會).
Before the end of nest month, hundreds of elementary and high schools will be installed with the Internet telephony system and 400,000 school children, parents and teachers will be encouraged to use the new system under the so-called "Taipei Easy Call" initiative.
For the 10 companies jointly promoting the highly ambitious initiative, "it also offers an excellent platform for a more comprehensive use of Internet and other wireless communication," Wongg said.
■ Solar energy forum wraps up
The experts who attended the Taipei International Photovoltaic Forum indicated that the demand for solar energy will remain strong in the coming years, with a compound annual growth rate of 22 percent to 35 percent before 2010, according to a press release from the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) yesterday.
The forum -- conducted by the TAITRA -- concludes today, with dozens of top executives of leading photovoltaic companies around the world having attended. The companies included Hemlock Semiconductor Corp in the US, Germany's Q-Cells, Taiwan's Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) and Japan's Kyocera Corp, Tokuyama and Sharp Corp.
A TAITRA spokesman said that although solar energy only comprises 1 percent of global energy generation -- or 1.8 gigawatts -- the ratio will rise to 25 percent by 2040, with a total volume of 9,000 trillion watt-hours.
However, he noted that the growth rate may be curbed by a shortage of raw materials through 2008, adding that since most companies have already started expansion plans, material supply will become loser after 2008.
■ Inotera buys from ASMI
ASM International NV, Europe's second-largest maker of equipment used to make semiconductors, won an order from Taiwan's Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) for machines used in processing the silicon slices from which chips are cut.
Financial details for the order for "multiple" so-called vertical furnaces were not disclosed by Bilthoven, Netherlands-based ASMI in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The machines will be delivered to Inotera in the final two quarters of the year, ASMI said.
Taoyuan-based Inotera is a joint venture between Infineon Technologies AG and Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技). The company produces dynamic random access memory chips, the main memory used in personal computers.
■ NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, decreasing NT$0.142 to close at NT$32.390.
A total of US$876 million changed hands in trading.
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