■ AUO raises Toppan investment
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world's third-largest maker of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels, said yesterday that it had boosted its holdings in Japanese color filter maker Toppan Printing Co's local subsidiary to NT$1.43 billion (US$43.17 million) to further improve its cost structure.
AU Optronics now owns 49 percent in Toppan CFI (台灣凸版國際採光), up from the 39.7 percent it bought for NT$6.1 billion last month.
Color filters are a key component of LCD panels and account for about 25 percent of the total cost of a 32-inch LCD TV panel, according to market researcher DisplaySearch.
■ Foxconn to build `city' in China
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康集團), a subsidiary of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), said it would invest at least US$1 billion in the Huaian Economic Development Zone located in eastern Jiangsu Province in China, a news release from the Huaian City Government revealed yesterday.
Foxconn would invest in facilities for making electronic products in the zone, the city government's statement said on its Web site.
The Taiwan-based business group would spend five years building a Foxconn (Huaian) industrial city there, the site said.
Huaian government officials have voiced support for the Foxconn investment, while company head Terry Gou (郭台銘) said he has confidence in the investment environment there.
■ Chang Hwa enters partnership
Western Union Financial Services Ltd, a US-headquartered money-transfer service company, yesterday announced a partnership with Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) that will offer cross-border express remittance services at the bank's 45 branches nationwide. Including its previous deals with Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) and Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), the number of the firm's service branches in Taiwan has surpassed 100, said Chris Yau (姚新元), director of Western Union's Taiwan branch.
Company statistics show that Taiwanese people wired US$18.2 billion to China last year in a 70.31 percent increase over the level in 2004. Remittances sent from China to Taiwan in the same period totaled US$23.8 billion, up by 62.7 percent over a year ago.
■ Uni-President targets China
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), Taiwan's leading food-manufacturing company, is considering a further expansion in China that could account for almost half of the company's revenue, company spokesperson Selina Wu (吳旭慧) said yesterday.
Uni-President had decided not to increase its Southeast Asian investments but instead focus on China for future overseas development, Wu said.
"China is a growing market for Uni-President. The company's top priority is to make good use of the resources there to grow," Wu said.
Since 1992, Uni-President has invested US$342 million in its operations in China, close to 40 percent of the company's net worth as allowed by Taiwanese law.
■ Koo family to raise stake
At the urging of the government, the Koo family will raise its stake in China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) to up to 20 percent in order to keep control of the nation's fifth-largest financial company.
Company president Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) has said his family would raise its share holdings in accordance with the government's request, said Joanne Yang, vice president of China Development, relayed in an interview yesterday.
The government made the request as part of its drive to strengthen the nation's financial industry.
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