MANUFACTURING
Hong Fu opens in Caribbean
A major local footwear manufacturer has opened three factories in the Dominican Republic with production forecasts of 1 million shoes monthly and the creation of 11,000 jobs, according to a press release issued by the Republic of China embassy in Santo Domingo. Hong Fu Footwear Group (宏福鞋業) held an inauguration ceremony on Wednesday last week at the Tamboril industrial processing zone in Santiago. The company, one of the world’s largest footwear producers, began its investment in the Dominican Republic in September last year. The new plants are the first stage of the firm’s investment, Hong Fu chairman Chang Tsung-yuan (張聰淵) said.
TECHNOLOGY
Tablet sales to rise: Gartner
Worldwide shipments of tablet computers will continue to grow this year, according to Gartner Inc. Tablet shipments will reach 270.7 million units worldwide this year, up 38.5 percent from 195.4 million units last year, the researcher said. Gartner said the recent consumer trend of substituting tablets for notebooks will start to fade this year, as consumers and businesses align the right device with the right usage pattern.
TRADE
Fairs to focus on ‘smart’ tech
Four motor vehicles and auto parts shows to be held in Taipei from Wednesday through Saturday are to showcase telematics and electric vehicles at the Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1 and the Nangang Exhibition Hall, organizers said. The four shows are the Taipei International Auto Parts and Accessories Show, the Taipei International Automobile Electronics Show, the Taiwan International Motorcycle Show and the Taiwan International Electric Vehicle Show.
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