SOUTH KOREA
June trade surplus rises
The nation yesterday reported its biggest trade surplus in 21 months as rising exports to the Middle East and Southeast Asia offset falling demand from the US and Europe. Exports last month rose 1.3 percent from a year ago to reach US$47.4 billion, after shrinking for three straight months. Imports fell sharply by 5.4 percent to US$42.4 billion, the Knowledge Economy Ministry said in a preliminary tally. That resulted in a trade surplus of US$4.96 billion in June — the biggest since US$6.34 billion posted in October 2010, the ministry said. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected exports to grow 1 percent and a trade surplus of US$3 billion. Increased sales of cars, machinery and semiconductors as well as solid demand in emerging economies in Latin America and Asia helped offset shrinking sales in advanced markets, particularly debt-hit Europe.
ENERGY
Softbank plans solar plant
Softbank Corp, Japan’s third-largest mobile phone company, said it would build the nation’s biggest solar plant as the country begins an incentive program for “clean” energy. The facility in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, will start operations in fiscal 2014 and have the capacity of 111 megawatts, Softbank spokesman Naoki Nakayama said yesterday. The Tokyo-based company held a ceremony yesterday to mark the start of operations at a 2.1 megawatt solar plant in Kyoto, Nakayama said. The carrier also announced plans to build solar plants in Tottori, Nagasaki and Kumamoto prefectures as well as a wind power power plant in Shimane Prefecture, he said. Under the incentive plan, Japan’s utilities are required to buy electricity from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal at above-market rates to increase the country’s clean power use and diversify its energy mix.
VIETNAM
Central bank trims rates
The central bank said it would trim key interest rates beginning yesterday, its fifth cut so far this year as inflation cools amid signs of weakening economic growth. The State Bank of Vietnam said it would lower the refinancing rate — charged on loans to commercial banks — to 10 percent from 11 percent. Other measures include lowering the discount rate from 9 percent to 8 percent, and the overnight inter-bank lending rate to 11 percent from 12 percent, the bank said in a statement posted on its Web site following the decision on Friday. This is the fifth time this year the bank has cut rates, following similar reductions in March, April, May and last month. By repeatedly hiking rates last year, Hanoi successfully reined in double-digit inflation, which peaked at 23 percent in August last year, but was down to 6.9 percent year-on-year last month, its lowest rate in three years. Standard & Poor’s revised the nation’s outlook to stable from negative last month, citing the government’s successful fiscal tightening measures.
AEROSPACE
Bombardier sells eight jets
Canadian planemaker Bombardier announced on Saturday it had received an order for eight large business aircraft worth US$507 million from an undisclosed customer. The client, who according to Bombardier asked not to be named, ordered three Global 6000 and five Global 8000 jets. “Sales momentum for the Global product line is strong and we are experiencing tremendous success with the new Global 7000 and Global 8000 jets,” Steve Ridolfi, president of Bombardier Business Aircraft, said in a 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
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