Local businesses with less than US$10 million in annual turnover are more optimistic about the nation’s economic prospects as the sector’s confidence monitor reached 98 points last quarter from 66 points two quarters ago, a bi-quarterly survey by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) found.
Although the composite index was still below the 100-point neutral level, the 32-point increase outperformed the results of 12 emerging markets, whose index climbed to 107 points from 92 points in the fourth quarter of last year, the survey showed.
Only 22 percent of the 300 respondents remained bearish about prospects in six-month’s time, down from 65 percent six months ago, while 23 percent said that they would increase capital expenditures, up from 11 percent.
“Warming ties with China have provided a silver lining to these businesses, 35 percent of which expects cross-border trades with China to pick up in the next six months,” HSBC said yesterday.
Some 92 percent of businesses said they have no plan to lay off employees and 8 percent of those plan to expand staff by more than 20 percent, the survey found.
For the next six months, the top three issues of concern to small businesses in Taiwan are the value of the New Taiwan dollar, the cost of raw materials and the pace of the US and global economic slowdown, the survey found.
Among the 12 emerging markets surveyed, small businesses in Vietnam were the most optimistic about their nation’s economy, with the confidence index of 150 points. India placed second with 128 points, China had 105 points, Indonesia had 101 points and Malaysia had 99 points.
The index for small businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong lagged behind that in Taiwan at 93 points and 83 points respectively.
“The more mature and open markets [were], the lower their business confidence was,” HSBC said, adding that the less export-dependent they were, the higher the business confidence.
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