FSC meets with top FHC heads
Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) yesterday held a closed-door meeting with eight of the nation’s leading financial institutions to discuss how the commission could help them develop new business opportunities and further expand their presence in Asia.
Local media reported the commission might provide incentives and assistance to help the nation’s financial holding companies (FCH) to expand, including lowering risk-based capital ratio requirements and revising capital charge rates for brokerage firms.
The heads of the eight financial holding companies are Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) chairman Tsai Hong-tu (蔡宏圖), CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) chairman Yen Wen-long (顏文隆), Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) chairman Wang Rong-jou (王榮周), Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠), First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) chairman Joseph Tsai (蔡慶年), Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) chairman Mckinney Tsai (蔡友才), Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控) chairwoman Lee Chi-chu (李紀珠) and Chen Mu-tsai (陳木在), chairman of China Development Financial Holding Co (中華開發金控).
Korea FTA outpaces goods pact
Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) yesterday said that chances are low that the nation’s negotiations with China over a trade in goods agreement would be concluded before the signing of a China-South Korea free-trade agreement (FTA), which is expected by the end of this year.
The negotiations were suspended after mass protests erupted in Taiwan in March over the service trade pact Taipei and Beijing signed in June last year pending legislative approval, which included the occupation of the legislature by Sunflower movement activists.
The next round may be held early next month, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Cho (卓士昭) said yesterday.
After the China-South Korea agreement comes into force, 20 percent of Taiwanese exports to China will be affected, and Taiwan can be expected to lose 5 percent of its market share in China to South Korea, the ministry said.
R&D boosts bamboo industry
The nation’s bamboo industry has been revitalized by domestic research and development into finding new uses for bamboo charcoal, the Council of Agriculture said on Tuesday.
Bamboo charcoal, with its unique micro-structure, can be used to purify water, eliminate organic impurities and smells, shield electromagnetic waves and emit infrared rays, the council said, adding that its forestry bureau has developed 300 products using bamboo charcoal that have a combined annual output of NT$3 billion (US$99.5 million).
Taiwan has 58 different kinds of bamboo species that grow on more than 150,000 hectares of land, the bureau said.
AT&T to sell new HTC One M8
AT&T Inc, the second-biggest US wireless carrier, confirmed yesterday that it will sell the Windows version of the HTC One M8, a day after its bigger rival, Verizon Wireless, began selling the new smartphone.
Further details on pricing and availability of the phone have yet to be announced, but AT&T has created a sign-up page for pre-orders, the company said in a statement.
HTC launched the new smartphone on Tuesday in New York. The device’s sales began on the same day exclusively through Verizon Wireless, the biggest US carrier, for US$99.99 on a two-year contract.
S&P affirms Hong Kong rating
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services yesterday affirmed its “AAA” long-term and “A-1+” short-term credit ratings on Hong Kong, saying the ratings reflect the economy’s above-average growth prospects for a high-income economy, consistently healthy fiscal performance, sizable fiscal reserves and strong external position.
S&P said it forecast Hong Kong’s GDP per capita at about US$40,500 this year, adding that its economic growth estimate of 2.7 percent is well above the median for peers with similar GDP per capita.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to