More than 200 representatives from global stock exchanges have arrived in Taipei to attend the World Federation of Exchanges’ (WFE) 52nd general assembly and annual meeting next week.
The WFE is the trade association of regulated exchanges and helps develop and promote standards, fair trade and transparency in markets. It has 54 members representing more than 100 global stock, futures and options exchanges with Ronald Arculli, director of Hong Kong Clearing and Exchanges, serving as the WFE chairman.
“The organization supports reform in the regulation of over-the-counter derivatives markets and international cooperation and coordination among regulators for the even implementation of laws and regulations across jurisdictions,” WFE secretary-general Huseyin Erkan said yesterday in Taipei.
“Each issue being discussed at the WFE general assembly and annual meeting will have a major impact on where stock exchanges are heading, as market participants, policymakers, regulators and other stakeholders seek to balance both innovation and financial stability,” Erkan added.
The meetings are set to take place on Monday and Tuesday.
It is the first time Taipei has hosted the annual WFE event.
Erkan praised Taiwan as an advanced and mature market where listed firms operate a total market capitalization larger than the nation’s GDP.
The past three years has seen 51 foreign firms list on the local bourse, which is an impressive record, Taiwan Stock Exchange chairman Schive Chi (薛琦) said.
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