British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday boasted that Britain would become a post-recession flagship this year, in what was reported as a swipe at France’s “disastrous” economic policies.
Writing in the Times newspaper, Cameron said Britain was a country on the rise as he warned against “the great mistakes that led up to the great recession — more borrowing, more spending and more debt.”
Though Cameron did not name the “countries currently following that approach,” the Times said it was a “swipe at France” and an “apparent gibe” at French President Francois Hollande.
“Cameron’s dig at France in warning over debt,” the paper said on its front page.
His remarks “will be widely interpreted as an attack on Mr Hollande, who is under pressure as France’s economy continues to struggle,” the daily said.
Cameron wrote: “2014 is when we start to turn Britain into the flagship post-great recession success story.
“With record numbers of new businesses, we can be the enterprise capital of Europe,” he wrote.
NO GOING BACK
“We must not resurrect the dangerous thinking that got us into the mess from which we are now recovering,” the center-right Conservative leader said.
Blaming the previous center-left Labour government, which lost power in 2010, he said the British economy contracted by 7.2 percent during the economic downturn.
“If you doubt how disastrous a return to Labour-style economics would be, just look at countries that are currently following that approach,” he wrote.
“They face increasing unemployment, industrial stagnation and enterprise in free-fall. The opposite of what’s happening here,” he said.
“Our recovery is real, but it’s also fragile, and there are more difficult decisions ahead. A return to that economic madness would devastate this country,” he said.
FRENCH OUTLOOK
While Britain is predicting economic growth of 1.4 percent for last year and 2.4 percent this year, France’s national economics statistics institute INSEE predicted growth of 0.2 percent for last year, while the country’s belt-tightening budget is based on projected growth of 0.9 percent this year.
France’s economy contracted 0.1 percent in the third quarter of last year.
Socialist French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said last month that his government would not copy British economic policies, saying they had created poverty and inequality.
In Britain, unemployment has hit a four-year low, at 7.4 percent.
INSEE said the French unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percent in the three months to September last year to 10.5 percent.
Cameron said his government would reduce the national deficit further this year, cut income taxes, slash red tape for small businesses and invest in infrastructure projects.
He pledged to cap Britain’s overall welfare budget.
“New year is a time for resolutions. Here’s mine: to make 2014 the year in which Britain begins to rise,” he said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is