PANEL MAKERS
TPK to lay off workers
Local touch-panel maker TPK Holdings (宸鴻) has confirmed that it plans to streamline its workforce in Taiwan and China to better cope with a reduction in orders. TPK spokesman Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) said the job cuts would be implemented by the end of the year. Liu declined to reveal how many workers would be laid off. Liu’s comments came after the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that TPK was involved in a labor dispute after it shut down a plant in China’s Xiamen, Fujian Province, without paying the workers severance fees. Liu dismissed any wrongdoing, saying the firm followed Chinese labor laws.
FINANCE
Hontai, Farglory censured
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday banned Hontai Life Insurance Co (宏泰人壽) and Farglory Life Insurance Co (遠雄人壽) from new real-estate investments after the two life insurers failed to meet the minimum capital adequacy requirements. All insurers are required to maintain a 200 percent capital adequacy ratio and the regulator ordered the two companies to increase their capital by the end of this year so that they would pass the requirement. Prior to that, the two insurers must not make new property investments, although they are allowed to invest in existing projects, the commission said. A day earlier, the regulator gave its go-ahead to plans by Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) to set up a branch in Singapore.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last