Nan Shan says policies OK
Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), a Taipei-based subsidiary of troubled American International Group Inc (AIG), yesterday said the rights of local insurance policyholders would be honored despite its US parent company’s financial difficulties.
Nan Shan said yesterday that the local life insurance subsidiary is operating normally, unaffected by the US parent company’s credit problems.
The company, however, admitted that it was unaware of the US parent company’s latest finances and refused to comment.
Survey highlights data fears
Fears of a virus attack and data loss are prompting firms in the Asia-Pacific region to adopt disaster recovery plans, a survey said yesterday.
Conducted by Symantec Corporation, the survey showed that 42 percent of firms queried worry about a virus attack and 41 percent fear data loss.
Natural disasters emerged as the next biggest headache spurring disaster recovery investment at 31 percent, followed by accidental or malicious employee behavior at 30 percent.
The survey included more than 1,000 IT professionals globally. Nearly 30 percent of the respondents were from the Asia-Pacific region, including India, Malaysia and Singapore.
Fifty-two percent of the firms carry out tests once a year or less, the survey said.
HK airport numbers down
Passenger numbers at Hong Kong’s international airport fell by more than 5 percent in August when the city staged Olympic equestrian events, figures showed yesterday.
Statistics from the Hong Kong Airport Authority showed passenger volume for the month was down 5.3 percent compared with August last yeaAr at 4.2 million people.
The fall came as Hong Kong staged the equestrian games of the Beijing Olympics, which many hoteliers believe kept people away from the city of 6.9 million.
Airport Authority chief executive Stanley Hui (許漢忠) blamed falling passenger numbers on fuel prices, rising inflationary pressure and global financial volatility.
However, he added: “The tightening of visa applications [to enter mainland China] due to the Olympics also contributed to the lower passenger and cargo figures.”
Hong Kong is a popular gateway to China but new visa restrictions put into effect from March have made it difficult for people to get onward visas.
Singaporeans still spending
Singapore’s retail sales rose at the fastest pace in more than a year in July as consumers increased purchases of vehicles and spent more at gasoline stations and department stores.
The retail sales index increased 11.8 percent from a year earlier after dropping a revised 3.4 percent in June, the Statistics Department said yesterday.
Rising demand for construction services is helping hold up Singapore’s domestic demand by adding jobs to the Southeast Asian economy. That may counter a decline in export orders as growth in the nation’s biggest markets slow.
“Singapore is still in reasonably healthy shape and consumers are still spending,” said David Cohen of Action Economics in Singapore. “Going forward, everyone is still quite nervous on how the global economy will perform and we may see some easing then.”
Singapore’s companies added 144,600 jobs in the first six months of the year, a report by the Ministry of Manpower showed yesterday.
NT dollar gains slightly
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday gained slightly by NT$0.002 to trade at NT$32.039 against the US dollar on turnover of US$1.38 billion.
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A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
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