TECHNOLOGY
Early warning system begins
A Philippine charity said yesterday it had launched a novel early warning system for disaster-prone areas using BlackBerry devices and laptops. The devices are hooked to a text message system that would immediately alert communities to typhoons, storm surges, tsunamis, landslides and earthquakes, the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) said. The US$200,000 project was carried out with the World Bank and one of the country’s leading mobile phone operators, said PBSP, which is funded by the country’s top chief executives. The areas covered by the project are all in Leyte province in the central Visayas region, which lies along a fault line and is also often battered by powerful typhoons.
PROPERTY
Mumbai home prices drop
Mumbai home prices have declined 20 percent from their peak this year as lower sales, higher land values and increased borrowing costs forced developers to reduce prices to woo buyers, according to Jones Lang LaSalle India. Home prices, which increased 30 to 60 percent last year, have returned to 2008 levels, Sanjay Dutt, chief executive officer of business at the Indian unit of Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle Inc said in a report yesterday. Dutt expects prices to remain at these levels until the monsoon season ends in September. The central bank’s eighth interest rate increase this year to curb inflation has led to tighter liquidity and higher borrowing costs for developers. Many property companies raised capital at interest rates of between 21 percent and 25 percent from finance companies, Dutt said, while sales volume dropped by about 50 percent.
AVIATION
New Boeing jet takes off
US aerospace giant Boeing’s newest and biggest jumbo jet, the 747-8 Intercontinental, made its maiden flight on Sunday, watched closely by aviation fans and European rival Airbus. The new version of the classic double-decker 747 took off into nearly cloudless skies at 9:58am from Paine Field Airport near Boeing’s Seattle headquarters. Boeing’s largest passenger plane, the 747-8, can carry 467 passengers in a three-class configuration and is designed for long-haul routes. The plane is a longer and more fuel-efficient update of Boeing’s double-decker 747 jumbo jet and it will compete with Airbus’ A380, the world’s biggest passenger plane.
AUTOMOBILES
Fuel subsidy policy delayed
Indonesia said yesterday it would hold off implementing a plan to exclude private cars from using subsidized fuel, amid concerns over a sharp rise in global oil prices. The policy, which was scheduled to be rolled out next month, has been pushed by the IMF and the World Bank as a means of unlocking funds for infrastructure development in the country. However, Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Darwin Zahedy Saleh told parliament: “The government considers it necessary to consider the appropriate timing for the implementation of subsidized fuel policy.” Oil prices have soared in the past two months as oil-rich countries in the Middle East and North Africa have been hit by protests, leading to supply fears.
RETAIL
Tesco halts Japan fish sales
Tesco PLC’s South Korean unit plans to halt sales of some fish imported from Japan because of consumer concern about radiation in Japanese fresh foods, it said in an e-mailed statement. The retailer will halt sales starting today, Homeplus Co, the unit, said in the statement.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts