Tatung University president Chu Wen-chen (朱文成) yesterday became the first outsider to become Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) president in the state-run company’s 60-year history, but he is facing a long list of challenges.
These challenges include the controversial construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), losses of NT$193.6 billion (US$6.56 billion) and the rising cost of fuel and electricity.
“Taipower must operate more efficiently to rebuild its broken image,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新) said yesterday at a handover ceremony.
Photo: CNA
“We expect Chu to run Taipower from a new perspective and with a new approach,” Liang said.
Chu replaced Lee Han-shen (李漢申), who retired yesterday.
Chu said he agreed with Lee’s business philosophy that Taipower should operate effectively to achieve sales growth without being hindered by a bureaucratic system.
“Taipower is in the service sector, not the manufacturing sector. Taipower’s duty is to provide satisfactory service to its customers. The company should work to achieve this goal,” Chu said.
Chu said his priority after taking office is to improve communication with the public.
Taipower needs to publicize information about electricity supplies as soon as possible to clarify misunderstandings, he added.
“Taipower has to fix many of the ways its business performs, but it was never as bad as some have claimed,” Chu said.
Asked by reporters for his views on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, Chu said: “Taipower will seek alternative solutions if a referendum shows a majority of people do not want a new nuclear power plant.”
“We don’t mean to threaten the society. The problem is that if the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant does not become operational, everyone will have to suffer an electricity supply constraint, but we are confident we could solve the problem,” Chu said.
Chu said he would demand that Taipower employees do not collude with contractors, adding that if anything illegal is discovered, the company would report the matter to prosecutors immediately.
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