China hopes to finish talks on creating an Asian free-trade bloc estimated to cover 28 percent of the world economy by the end of this year, Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng (高虎城) said yesterday.
Gao said on the sidelines of China’s annual session of parliament that Beijing would work hard to wrap up talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) before the end of this year.
The RCEP is made up of ASEAN’s 10 nations plus six others — China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
ASEAN comprises Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia and Brunei.
The US has been leading negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade plan that involves 12 nations, not including China.
Gao said China was closely monitoring and assessing the impact of the TPP deal on global trade, and that the Chinese government welcomed any trade framework that was open and transparent.
China would “continue to unswervingly push forward and quicken the pace of China’s free-trade agreement strategy,” Gao said at a news conference.
He reiterated that China was confident of growing trade by about 6 percent this year, as targeted by the government, even though he warned that the nation’s import and export growth likely shrank last month.
China is set to release last month’s trade data today, and exports are forecast to recover after a grim January reading.
The median forecast of 16 analysts polled by Reuters showed exports growth probably surged 14.2 percent on an annual basis last month, recovering from a 3.3 percent contraction in January that surprised analysts.
Imports are seen declining again, however, dropping 10 percent, although still an improvement compared to January’s 19.9 percent plunge.
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