THAILAND
Inheritance tax approved
The military government has passed the nation’s first inheritance tax bill as part of tax reforms to broaden the tax base and boost revenue in the lackluster economy. The bill, approved by the National Legislative Assembly late on Friday, will require inheritors of assets worth more than 100 million baht (US$3 million) to pay tax above that threshold — at 5 percent for descendants and 10 percent for others. The bill is to be effective 180 days after it is announced in the Royal Thai Government Gazette.
BRAZIL
Budget to be frozen
The government is freezing 69.9 billion reals (US$22.6 billion) in spending from this year’s budget, the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management said on Friday. The government made the announcement hours after it said it would raise taxes on profits at banks, brokerages and credit-card processors to 20 percent from 15 percent. The tax measure, which becomes effective on Sept. 1, is to boost tax collection by about 750 million reals this year and 3.8 billion reals next year, according to the tax agency.
GERMANY
Business confidences dips
A closely watched survey shows German business confidence has slipped slightly as companies expressed satisfaction with their current situation, but increasing worries about the future. The Ifo Institute for Economic Research on Friday said its business climate index dipped to 108.5 points for this month from 108.6 points last month. The survey of about 7,000 firms in manufacturing, construction, wholesaling and retailing showed a rise in their evaluation of their current situation to 114.3 points from 114.0 last month.
BANKING
Transportny to issue payout
Depositors in a Russian bank that collapsed due to the economic crisis are to receive a record insurance payout of nearly 40 billion rubles (US$799.8 million), an official said on Friday. The total paid out to account holders at Transportny Bank “will be close to 40 billion rubles,” state-run Deposit Insurance Agency deputy director Andrei Melnikov said.
BANKING
ABN shares to be sold
The Dutch government is proceeding with plans to sell shares of ABN Amro Group NV to the public as soon as this year, helping to recoup the state bailout seven years after rescuing the lender. The bank has been valued at 15 billion euros (US$16.5 billion) in earlier estimates, the government said in a statement on Friday. With the sale, which might be the nation’s largest initial public offering, Dutch Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem is seeking to recover the Netherlands’ 22 billion euro investment in the lender.
TELECOMS
Time Warner said to eye sale
Time Warner Cable Inc is in talks about a potential sale to either Altice SA or Charter Communications Inc, people with knowledge of the matter said. Talks are expected to continue through the weekend, and an agreement with either suitor could be reached as soon as next week, said the people who asked not to be identified, because they were not authorized to discuss private information.
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],”
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
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