CHINA, MALAYSIA
China-Malaysia trade to triple
China and Malaysia agreed yesterday to elevate bilateral ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” aiming to boost military cooperation and nearly triple two-way trade to US$160 billion by 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak spoke soon after US President Barack Obama cancelled a week-long tour of four Asian nations, including Malaysia, due to the US government shutdown. Najib said he agreed with Xi, who is visiting Malaysia ahead the APEC summit in Indonesia that Obama was to have attended, to encourage more joint military exercises and visits between the nations. China is already Malaysia’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade last year totalling 181 billion ringgit (US$57 billion). Trade between the two countries is expected to hit US$70 billion by the end of this year.
US ECONOMY
US Treasury talks recession
The US Department of the Treasury has warned that the economy could plunge into a downturn worse than the Great Recession if Congress fails to raise the federal borrowing limit and the country defaults on its debt obligations. A default could cause the nation’s credit markets to freeze, the value of the US dollar to plummet and US interest rates to skyrocket, according to the Treasury report released on Thursday. Treasury officials hope by laying out potential consequences they will be able to bring pressure on Congress to act. US Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew has said he will have used up the extraordinary measures at his disposal for avoiding a breach of the debt ceiling by Oct. 17. After that, the government will have about US$30 billion of cash on hand. Private economists said that the Treasury’s report did not overstate the potential fallout if Congress does not raise the current US$16.7 trillion borrowing limit and the government defaults on its debt payments.
BANKING
JPMorgan boss gives up title
JPMorgan Chase & Co chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon has given up the title of chairman of the company’s main bank subsidiary to conform with a new internal policy on multiple roles. Dimon has been under regulator scrutiny since the company last year disclosed it was losing billions of US dollars on derivatives in what has become known as the “London Whale” trades. At this year’s annual meeting, he won a vote of confidence called, in part, because of a breakdown in risk controls. Dimon turned over the title of chairman of the deposit-taking unit, JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, to a fellow director, William Weldon, on July 1, a JPMorgan Chase & Co spokesman said.
IRELAND
Lottery sells for half a billion
Ireland has agreed to sell a 20-year national lottery operating licence for 405 million euros (US$552 million) to a joint venture that includes the owner of British operator Camelot, Ireland’s spending minister said yesterday. The deal is the first step in a privatization drive agreed under Ireland’s EU-IMF bailout that aims to bring in 3 billion euros, which will be used to pay down debt and to fund a jobs stimulus program. A joint venture between Ireland’s state-owned postal service, An Post, and Camelot’s owner, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, has been selected as the preferred bidder with a deal due to be finalized by the end of the year, a government statement said.
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],”