ENERGY
Tajikistan pipeline planned
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) signed a deal at a regional summit to build a gas pipeline through the impoverished ex-Soviet country of Tajikistan, Tajik television reported on Saturday. The pipeline will transport gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to China in as part of a huge supply deal. “Carrying out this project will allow us to attract more than US$3 billion of direct investments from China into the economy of Tajikistan,” the press service of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonv said. It will supply China with between 25 billion and 30 billion cubic meters of oil per year, the press service said. China is eyeing the vast oil and gas resources of ex-Soviet Central Asia for its fast-growing domestic economy and is also keen to assert political influence in a region that was dominated by Moscow for decades. The new pipeline is due for completion in 2016 and will run for more than 400km within Tajikistan.
EUROPEAN UNION
Finance tax work goes on
The European Commission rebuffed on Saturday an EU legal opinion that questioned the legality of a planned financial transaction tax and said work on the levy in 11 countries would go on. The legal services of the European Council, the institution which represents governments of the 28-nation union, said in their 14-page legal opinion dated Sept. 6 that the commission’s transaction tax plan “exceeded member states’ jurisdiction for taxation under the norms of international customary law.” Finance ministers discussed the financial transaction tax briefly on Saturday, with the commission saying there was a misunderstanding on the opinion. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia were planning to adopt the tax on stocks, bonds, derivatives, repurchase agreements and securities lending. European Commissioner Algirdas Semeta, who is responsible for taxation, said first reading of the proposal by the member states was already concluded.
BALKANS
Trade resumes
Goods from Kosovo and Macedonia crossed their border yesterday, ending a trade dispute that closed the frontier between the neighbors to goods and vehicles for six days. The dispute started in July, when Macedonia limited the import of wheat and flour from all members of the Central European Free-Trade Agreement, including Kosovo, in an effort to protect domestic production. Kosovo first responded by banning imports of Macedonian food, beverages and cigarette products, and then introduced a blanket ban on Macedonian goods from midnight on Sunday last week, after Skopje introduced a levy on Kosovars entering Macedonia. After days of talks between the two countries failed to break the deadlock, the ban ended only after the Macedonian limit on flour expired yesterday and Kosovo lifted its restrictions.
UNITED STATES
Home purchases likely fell
Purchases of previously owned homes probably fell last month as mortgage rates at a two-year high began to slow the progress in residential real estate, economists said before a report this week. Contract closings fell 2.6 percent to a 5.25 million annualized rate from the highest level since November 2009, according to the median forecast of 62 economists in a Bloomberg survey ahead of National Association of Realtors data due on Thursday. Another report is projected to show home construction starts rose last month.
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],”