■ Computers
ProMOS invests in China
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德), the country's second-largest maker of memory chips, signed an investment agreement with the authorities of Chongqing in central China to build a semiconductor plant. The factory will manufacture chips from silicon wafers measuring 8 inches in diameter, the Hsinchu-based company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. There was no information about the investment amount or production capacity. The company, together with Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶), Taiwan's largest memory-chip maker, and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光), last month received approval from the government to set up operations in China.
■ Currency
Yuan under pressure to rise
The Chinese yuan will continue to face pressure to rise this year due to an expanding trade surplus, an official from the country's foreign-exchange regulator said. "As China's surplus of international payment, a majority of which is made up of rising trade surplus, is likely to sustain this year, market expectation for the renminbi to rise further will remain throughout this year," Xie Hemin (謝和民), deputy director of the current account department at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a trade conference in Beijing yesterday. The yuan rose 0.31 percent to close at 7.7739 against the US dollar in Shanghai on Friday. It has risen 6.3 percent since a fixed exchange rate of 8.30 to the US dollar ended in July 2005.
■ Internet
Another library joins project
Google announced on Friday that another major US college library had joined its controversial project to put the world's books online. The more than one million written works at the University of Texas library in the city of Austin will be converted to digital format and added to Google Books Library Project. The university's collection includes rare books and manuscripts from early Latin American history, Google said. The Google Book Search project was initiated in 2004. Google has partnerships with the New York Public Library and major universities to add their collections to its virtual book shelves.
■ Trade
Business leaders call for FTA
Powerful US and Japanese business leaders called on Friday for a free-trade agreement to link the world's two largest economies. After day-long talks in New York, the US Business Roundtable organization and Japan's Keidanren group also pledged to work together on taking advantage of China's rapid growth, and on climate change. The groups said their proposed "Economic Partnership Agreement" held "tremendous potential" for the US and Japanese economies, and urged their governments to start negotiations as soon as possible.
■ Finance
Citigroup's Q4 profits drop
Citigroup announced a 26 percent drop in its latest quarterly profits on Friday, attributing the earnings slowdown to a one-time gain a year ago and the scaling back of its Japanese operations. However, Citigroup -- one of the world's largest financial institutions -- still posted hefty fourth-quarter net profits of US$5.13 billion, more than the combined profits of Merrill Lynch, Apple and American Airlines. Citigroup reported earnings per share of US$1.03, US$0.02 better than most Wall Street analysts had anticipated.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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