Firms to invest at home
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it has approved 11 applications by overseas Taiwanese businesses to invest in Taiwan since the beginning of the year, with the combined proposed investments totaling more than US$4 billion.
The applications reflected the success of measures implemented to expand domestic investments to boost export momentum, the ministry said in a statement on Friday, adding that the companies planning to make the investments play a crucial role in the global supply chain.
The total value of the new investment projects was assessed at NT$126 billion (US$4.36 billion) and they are expected to create about 16,000 jobs, the ministry added.
The 11 businesses that have secured government assistance include metal casings manufacturer Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), suitcase producer Eminent Luggage Co (萬國通路) and tire maker Kenda Rubber Industrial Co (建大輪胎).
New car sales on the rise
Sales of new cars during the first 10 days of the month rose 108 percent compared with the same period last month to 9,612 units as car vendors continued promotions started last month, the latest industry data released last week showed.
However, sales showed were down 40.4 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
Out of the 9,612 cars sold in the period, 2,316 units were imported, up 107 percent from a month earlier, but down 35.2 percent from a year earlier, statistics show.
Hotai Motor Corp (和泰汽車), the local sales agent for Toyota Motor Corp, said sales for the rest of the month are expected to accelerate because of the Lunar New Year holiday, which will take place from Feb. 9 to Feb. 17.
SinoPac Securities Investment Service (永豐金投顧) on Saturday said car sales this month are expected to reach 43,000 units, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier.
Myanmar ‘unripe:’ businessman
A Myanmar-based Taiwanese businessman on Saturday said that the investment environment in the formerly isolated state is not ripe because of its immature legal and banking systems, as well as its underdeveloped infrastructure.
The businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters that despite Myanmar having established the general principles of investment law, detailed regulations have not been drawn up, leaving investors somewhat lost.
There are also no foreign banks in the country, only representative offices for foreign banks, he added.
The only bank from Taiwan with a representative office in Myanmar is First Commercial Bank (第一銀行).
TAITRA leads firms to US profit
Twenty Taiwanese firms attending the Consumer Electronics Show this month in Las Vegas, Nevada, were estimated to have generated millions of US dollars in business, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said.
TAITRA led the 20 companies to participate in the annual show from Tuesday to Friday last week and the firms are estimated to have generated more than US$10 million in sales, the council said in a statement.
The 20 companies included Keep Pace Electronics Corp (今達電子), Chou Chin Electronic Ltd (洲進電子), Sunlike Display Technology Corp (上靖光電) and Benz Electronic Co (三仁電子), the statement added.
HTC makes innovative firm list
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) was ranked 24th in the Most Innovative Companies 2012 survey published by the Boston Consulting Group, making it the only Taiwanese company to be listed among the world’s top 50.
HTC did not make it to the top 50 in 2011, but saw its standing improve 23 notches to 24th from 2010, the US-based management consulting firm said.
US giant Apple Inc maintained its No. 1 ranking for last year, followed by Google Inc in second and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co in third, the consulting group said in its report released on Thursday.
Each year, the group surveys more than 1,500 senior executives, asking for their views on their own innovation plans as well as their opinions of other companies’ innovative efforts.
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to