Exchange reserves fall
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell at the end of last month on foreign capital flight, the central bank said yesterday.
The forex reserves at the end of last month were down US$8.81 billion from a month earlier at US$282.09, the central bank said.
Last month, foreign investors moved their gains from stock and bond markets out of the country, it said.
Canon to expand in Taichung
Japan’s Canon Inc said yesterday it planned to expand a factory in Taichung to produce lenses for high-end digital cameras as the market grows across the world.
Canon said it would invest ¥2 billion (US$18.8 million) to expand the site and create 600 jobs, bringing the total work force at the facility to 3,000.
“The continued growth of the global digital single-lens reflex market has led to a rapidly increasing demand for interchangeable lenses,” it said in a statement.
Construction is planned to begin this month with production to start in July.
Messenger goes traditional
Windows Live Messenger 9.0 will be available for download at the end of this month. This software will be Microsoft Taiwan’s first instant messenger software to use traditional Chinese characters. It has been almost a year since the company’s 8.0 version release.
Microsoft Taiwan’s live messenger software has over 8 million users nationwide, with 70 percent of its users in the 25 to 35 age range, the Chinese-language China Times reported yesterday.
The next generation MSN messenger will focus on social networking and allow registered users to share their favorite social Web sites instantly with anyone on their contact list.
Skype offers counseling
PCHome Online Inc (網路家庭) and Skype Technologies SA’s co-branded Skype software is offering psychiatric counseling services via the Internet, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday, citing the alliance.
Local callers can reach psychologists from the Taiwan Institute of Psychotherapy and receive 20 minutes of free counseling service, the report said.
Internet telephone offers a new medical solution platform for Taiwanese patients, providing privacy as well as professional interaction via voice and image data transfer anonymously.
HTC sales reach NT$12.7bn
High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), the global maker of Windows mobile phones, said yesterday its sales came in at NT$12.7 billion (US$397.3 million) last month, a growth of 33.6 percent from the NT$9.51 billion reported for the same period last year.
The Taoyuan-based company reiterated its third quarter objective of NT$38 billion in sales. Accumulated revenue for the first eight months reached NT$91.5 billion, which was an increase of 32.53 percent from a year ago.
NT dollar continues to fall
The New Taiwan dollar fell to the lowest level in almost seven months as global funds sold local stocks on concern growth is slowing.
“There’ll be a lot of funds coming out of the equity market and giving pressure to the Taiwan dollar, so this thing is going to continue for a while,” said Daniel Soh, an economist at Forecast Pte in Singapore. “Investors will exit first and see how it goes because of rising concerns about falling growth in China, while hopes of a domestic revival may be dashed for now.”
The local currency declined 0.4 percent to close at NT$31.875 against the US dollar in Taipei. It earlier fell as much as 0.5 percent to NT$31.908, the weakest since Feb. 13. It dropped 1.1 percent this week.
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