Government annuls APTC seal
The battle over the ownership of the Asia-Pacific Telecom Co (APTC, 亞太電信) ended yesterday when the Ministry of Economic Affairs annulled the effectiveness of a seal held by one of the company's overseers that would have allowed shareholders to change the official registration of management.
Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) Vice Minister Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒) confirmed yesterday that Sophia Chiu (邱純枝), vice president of TECO Electric and Machinery Co (東元電機), is now the chairperson of APTC.
Ho added that government shareholders had tried to enter the company on Monday to check if there was any hidden debt accumulated during the former APTC chairman Springfield Lai's (賴春田) term. Staff at the company's accounting department, however, had denied their entry, he said.
Ho said that he is not in the position to tell Chiu what to do about the company's troubled financial situation. He simply noted that everything is done according to the legally required procedures.
"I can only say we are taking one step at a time," he said. "I will let [Chiu] handle the rest of the affair."
Fubon to hire 300 employees
Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行), the banking arm of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), Taiwan's second-largest financial services company by market value, said it will hire 300 new employees this year for its wealth management unit.
The bank will increase its wealth management consultants to 1,000 this year, it said in a statement. It now has 700, Chen Yi-fen (陳怡芬), vice president of Taipei Fubon Bank, said by phone.
Fubon Financial's profit jumped to NT$14 billion (NT$434 million) last year, based on unaudited figures, compared with NT$8.4 billion a year earlier.
TAITRA plans visits to fairs
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) plans to invite local firms to participate in 60 international fairs in 30 countries this year to intensively introduce Taiwanese enterprises to foreign buyers, according to a TAITRA statement yesterday.
TAITRA estimated that more than 1,000 local firms will participate in these market exploring activities which are expected to create opportunities for local firms to engage in trade talks with at least 20,000 foreign buyers and create US$120 million in trade.
The plan will cover 40 professional fairs to be held in emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Russia, Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt and Mexico.
Economic freedom ranks 25th
Taiwan ranks 25th in the world in terms of economic freedom, while Hong Kong ranks first overall, according to the results of the "2008 Index of Economic Freedom" assessment released yesterday by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.
Taiwan's economy is rated as 71 percent free, which makes it the world's 25th freest economy, the same overall ranking it received last year.
Taiwan's overall score is 0.8 percentage points higher than last year, reflecting improved scores in four of the 10 economic freedoms listed in the rankings.
Taiwan also ranked 6th out of 30 countries and areas in the Asia-Pacific region, with an overall score much higher than the regional average.
The index shows that Taiwan scored well on investment, trade and monetary freedoms, property rights and government size. At the same time, labor and financial freedoms ranked comparatively poorly.
"More needs to be done to dismantle high trade barriers and further liberalize the economy," the resort said.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six