Solar cell maker Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) said yesterday it had been accepted as a member by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), becoming the first Taiwanese solar company to join the group.
The EPIA is the world’s largest industry association devoted to the development of the solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity market. Its main priority is to assist its members in developing their businesses in the EU and promoting exports in other markets.
“We are taking this opportunity to gain a greater understanding and increase our involvement in the policies that have and will continue to shape this market,” Motech chief executive officer Chang Peng-heng (張秉衡) said in a statement.
“In addition, our membership in the EPIA assures our worldwide partners of our continued presence in the market,” Chang said.
Motech’s admission into the association follows its establishment of a representative office in Europe at the beginning of this year to provide better service and support to its customers there.
The company has seen its fortunes improve this year, posting NT$2.8 billion (US$93.70 million) in net profit in the first nine months, compared with a net loss of NT$387 million recorded during the same period last year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chip maker, currently holds about a 20 percent stake in Motech as part of its efforts to diversify into the renewable energy sector.
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],”
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
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