■ Semiconductors
ASE, Powerchip ink pact
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光), the world's biggest semiconductor packaging and testing services provider, announced late on Friday that it had signed an agreement with Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) to establish a joint venture for IC packaging and testing. In a filing made to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, ASE said the company will invest US$30 million in the US$50 million venture, Power ASE Technology Inc (日月鴻科技), while the nation's largest memory chipmaker Powerchip will contribute US$20 million. ASE said its chairman Jason Chang (張虔生) will lead Power ASE, which is expected to start commercial operations in the fourth quarter of this year on a 2,052 ping (6771.6m2) plant in Jhongli (中壢) in Taoyuan County, according to the filing.
■ Real estate
Malaysia luring expats
Malaysia hopes to persuade 100,000 expatriates to set up second homes in the Southeast Asian country by the end of next year, news reports said yesterday. The "Malaysia My Second Home" program has attracted 8,574 people from the UK, Australia, the US and across Asia since its launch in 1992. A participant must have 300,000 ringgit (US$81,800) to deposit in a Malaysian bank, up to 250,000 ringgit of which can be spent on housing, education or medical treatments. Successful applicants in the program are issued a renewable 10-year social visit pass.
■ Finance
Pair convicted for skimming
A pair of New York Stock Exchange specialists were convicted on Friday of securities fraud in a case where they were accused of stealing US$1 million apiece by skimming small amounts of money from stocks they were entrusted to oversee. Michael Hayward and Michael Stern, who worked for Van der Moolen Specialists USA LLC, were each convicted by a Manhattan federal jury of a single count of securities fraud. They now face up to 20 years in prison. In closing arguments one week ago, Assistant US Attorney Anthony Barkow said the two defendants repeatedly stole pennies until it added up to US$1 million apiece. The pair continued the practice from January 1999 to June 2003, Barkow said.
■ Labor
Singapore to lift worker levy
Singapore will raise the foreign-worker levy paid by employers in order to lower demand, the Ministry of Manpower said. The skilled foreign-worker levy will be raised to S$150 (US$94) a month from S$100 from Jan. 1, the ministry said in a statement on Friday. The levy was reduced during the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and 1999 to stimulate the then-struggling economy.
■ Oil
PDVSA changes plans
Venezuela's state oil company said it was downgrading plans to expand a refinery in Uruguay, and announced it will study boosting capacity at a Paraguayan facility. Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, signed a memorandum of understanding with Uruguay's Ancap to increase the capacity of the La Teja refinery by only 20 percent to 60,000 barrels a day, the company said in a statement late on Friday. PDVSA also announced on Friday that it would send technical experts soon to study the possibility of expanding Paraguay's Villa Elisa refinery. The company said it hopes to boost capacity from 7,000 barrels a day to as many as 12,000, and let it process heavy crude.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last