TELECOMS
Vodafone told to pay deposit
Vodafone Group PLC, the world’s biggest mobile phone company by sales, was ordered by India’s Supreme Court to pay a deposit while it challenges a tax bill for the country’s largest cross--border deal. A Supreme Court panel headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia told Vodafone yesterday it has to set aside 25 billion rupees (US$554 million) with the court within three weeks and submit bank guarantees for 85 billion rupees in eight weeks. India is seeking 112 billion rupees on Vodafone’s purchase of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd’s (和記黃埔) local mobile phone unit three years ago.
REAL ESTATE
China limits foreign buyers
China has limited foreigners to buying one property for residence purposes to curb rising real estate prices in the country, according to a statement issued by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange yesterday. Overseas companies and institutions will only be able to buy properties in cities in which they are registered, the statement said. Foreigners will have to provide proof of at least a year’s employment in China to purchase property, the statement said.
AUTOMOBILES
SAIC, GM agree to deal
China’s SAIC Motor Corp Ltd (上海汽車) has agreed to take a stake in General Motors Co (GM) if Chinese regulators approve a deal to deepen an existing alliance between the two automakers, four people familiar with the matter said. The potential investment from SAIC is part of a surge in investor interest in GM that is expected to push the pricing of its shares to US$29 or above in the the US automaker’s initial public offering, one of the sources said. Another source said SAIC, GM’s partner in China, would take a stake of around 1 percent in the automaker, majority owned by the US Treasury after a bailout last year.
IRELAND
Talks with Europe confirmed
The government is in talks with European officials about current “market conditions” as Germany pushes it to accept a bailout and help reverse a bond sell-off among the euro-region’s deficit-laden nations. “Ongoing contacts continue at official level with international colleagues in light of current market conditions,” a Finance Ministry spokesman said in an e-mail late yesterday. “Ireland has made no application for external support” and the government is “fully funded till well into 2011.” The confirmation of talks comes as euro-region finance ministers prepare to meet in Brussels today. Allaying investor concerns about Irish finances would help advance German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plan to require investors to help pay for future rescues, a German government official said.
TELECOMS
Indian minister resigns
Indian telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja has resigned amid allegations that his handling of the 2008 sale of licenses for cellphone airwaves resulted in massive losses for the government. Raja, who belongs to a southern Indian political party that is a key ally of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress party, came under heavy pressure to resign after a government inquiry reportedly alleged that the sale of second generation (2G) wireless spectrum had resulted in a 1.76 trillion rupees loss to the treasury. Critics charge that Raja’s allocation of 2G spectrum was improperly based on 2001 prices and unfairly awarded licenses on a first come, first served basis, rather than by auction.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy