The start date for the planned trading link between the stock markets of Hong Kong and Shanghai is to be revealed soon, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) said after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“I can share good news with you here,” Leung told journalists in Beijing. “Relevant authorities will announce a formal launch date in the near future.”
China is counting on the market link, which is to allow a net 23.5 billion yuan (US$3.8 billion) a day in cross-border purchases, to help liberalize its financial system and increase international use of the nation’s currency.
Regulators have signaled that work has been completed for the trading link. Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang (曾俊華) said in his blog yesterday that the territory has “basically finished” preparations, while Xinhua news agency’s Shanghai Securities News publication cited China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Yao Gang (姚剛) on Oct. 30 as saying the arrangements were in their final stages.
“The central government attaches great importance to and supports the Shanghai-Hong Kong Connect,” Leung said. “However, the rule of law and social order are also important to financial market development.”
Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that have blocked some of the territory’s major roads are heading into their seventh week, after talks between student leaders and the government stalled. The protesters say China must reconsider its decision to exercise control over nominating procedures for the territory’s first leadership election in 2017, a reversal the government has said is impossible.
“Occupy Central has impacted Hong Kong’s rule of law and severely affected social order,” Leung said, while adding that he is confident Hong Kong can handle the protests by itself.
Hong Kong’s government still aims to provide universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017, Leung said. Xi also reiterated China’s “unwavering support” for the territory’s democratic development, in accordance with the law.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six