Taiwan is Asia’s No. 7 economy
Taiwan was the seventh-largest economy in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of GDP for 2009, according to a recent report by US think tank the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.
The report carried the Republic of China’s national flag, with a caption saying the nation’s modern, developed economy is one of the richest in Asia.
The report cited statistics released by the World Bank in October last year as showing that Japan was the largest Asia-Pacific economy in 2009, with a GDP of US$5.689 trillion.
China was second, with a GDP of US$4.9847 trillion. However, China overtook Japan as the top Asia-Pacific economy in the third quarter of last year, the report said, citing World Bank statistics.
India ranked third, with a GDP of US$1.2369 trillion in 2009, followed by Australia with US$994.2 billion, South Korea with US$832.5 billion and Indonesia with US$539.4 billion.
Investment funds gain 3.27%
The nation’s investment funds gained 3.27 percent last month from a month earlier, while dollar-cost averaging portfolios fell 17 percent amid weaning sentiment, JPMorgan Asset Management Taiwan Ltd (摩根富林明投信) said in a statement yesterday.
Investment funds totaled NT$1.89 trillion (US$65.5 billion) last month, up from NT$1.83 trillion in March, but the number of DCA investors fell from 648,000 to 643,000, the fund manager said.
JPMorgan attributed the cautious sentiment to the downgrade of US government bond ratings and the expected end of the latest US quantitative easing next month.
Nan Ya restarts four factories
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) has restarted four of its 12 factories in Mailiao (麥寮) after a fire on Thursday, the Greater -Kaohsiung-based company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The rest of the facilities remain closed, with estimated losses of NT$8.7 million a day from the shutdown, it said.
Cathay Life buys SPHC shares
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) bought 13.44 million shares in Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co (SPHC, 上海醫藥) in its Hong Kong share sale at HK$23 (US$2.95) each, parent Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday.
Wan Hai sells six-year bonds
Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運) sold NT$2.9 billion of six-year unsecured domestic bonds at an annual interest of 1.75 percent, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday.
Proceeds will be used to fund mid to long-term capital, repay bank loans and purchase ships and cargo containers, it said.
NT dollar drops NT$0.1
The New Taiwan dollar dropped against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.1 to close at NT$28.888.
Turnover totaled US$964 million.
Dealers said a weakening euro against the US dollar dragged down Asian currencies amid lingering concern about debt problems in Europe. Renewed worry comes as finance ministers of the eurozone were to meet in Brussels later yesterday to discuss measures to rescue debt-ridden Greece from default on its bailout loans.
The arrest in New York of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn for sexual assault has made currency traders jittery about the IMF’s efforts in the bailout, they said.
As a result, the greenback staged a technical rebound right after the foreign exchange market opened as foreign banks and exporters resumed buying in the unit.
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