World foreign investment flows are projected to recover to the pre-crisis level of US$1.4 trillion to US$1.6 trillion this year, although debt crises in the rich world could hurt the recovery, the UN warned on Tuesday.
“The recovery of FDI [foreign direct investment] flows will continue in 2011 and will reach a total of some US$1.4 trillion to US$1.6 trillion, thus returning to the pre-crisis average,” according to the annual world investment report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
“Thereafter, flows are forecast to rise to US$1.7 trillion in 2012 and US$1.9 trillion in 2013,” it added.
However, the forecast could be scuppered by debt crises in the developed world and overheating in emerging economies.
“If there is a double-dip recession, there will be serious effects” on the world economy, said James Zhan (詹曉寧), who heads UNCTAD’s investment and enterprise division.
However, while poor economic indicators could hurt investment, Zhan said they could also spark opportunities.
“If governments are in heavy debt, one measure is to sell state assets,” he said.
“That may generate opportunities for transnational corporations to get in to acquire these assets,” he said.
In addition, Zhan said that some governments which have injected funds into companies may also begin to “accelerate their exit from these firms” in the next few years.
“That creates further opportunities for investment entry for FDIs,” he said.
After all, large corporations are sitting on a mountain of cash.
“Firms have a record level of cash in their pockets, it reached close to US$5 trillion — a historic high and even twice as much as pre-crisis levels,” Zhan said.
Overall, the US remained the biggest foreign investor country as well as the largest receiver of inflows last year.
China was the second largest recipient of inflows, followed by Hong Kong.
German companies, meanwhile, advanced to second place in terms of FDI last year behind US firms, passing French and outspending Chinese companies, according to the report.
FDI by German firms rose 35 percent to US$105 billion, while French companies invested US$84 billion, 18 percent less than a year earlier, the report said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”