ECONOMY
Bolivia to tighten spending
Bolivian President Evo Morales warned Bolivians to start tightening their belts on Saturday because plunging oil prices are likely to lead to hard times over the next year. Bolivia’s economy has been growing at a rapid pace over the past two years, thanks in part to natural gas exports to Argentina and Brazil. “Unfortunately, due to the drop in oil prices, I am sure this year or the next we will have economic problems,” he said in a speech at a university in northern Bolivia. Morales, a leftist who nationalized the oil industry in 2006, said he had asked his Cabinet to come up with an austerity plan. At the same time, he said the Andean country was still positioned well to handle a downturn, cushioned by US$15 billion in reserves, the greatest in Latin America as a percentage of GDP.
TELECOMS
Etisalat opens to investors
Foreign individuals and institutional investors are to be allowed for the first time to buy shares of United Arab Emirates (UAE) telecoms giant Etisalat from Tuesday next week, the company said in a statement yesterday. Etisalat, the second-largest Arab telecoms firm after Saudi Telecom, serves 145 million customers in 15 countries. Previously only Emirati individuals were allowed to own shares in the firm, which is 60 percent owned by the UAE government. It decided in June to open up ownership to foreign individuals and investors of the 40 percent of the firm in private hands. “Trading in Etisalat Group’s shares on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange by non-UAE individuals will start on Tuesday, 15 September 2015,” said a statement from the firm’s board posted on the exchange’s Web site. It specified that under the new rules shares would be open to “foreign individuals, foreign corporate entities, UAE free zone entities and UAE incorporated entities.” Total foreign ownership in Etisalat will not be allowed to exceed 20 percent.
AUTOMAKERS
Fiat orders second recall
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has issued its second recall in six weeks over flaws that left vehicles vulnerable to hacking, spotlighting concerns that increasingly sophisticated electronics in cars might allow criminals to interfere with their operation. The flaw, affecting 7,810 2015 Jeep Renegade SUVs, relates to 6.5-inch touchscreens. The recall is to “protect connected vehicles from remote manipulation,” Fiat Chrysler said. The vehicles are to get a software update to make them more secure. “The software manipulation addressed by this recall required unique and extensive technical knowledge, prolonged physical access to a subject vehicle and extended periods of time to write code,” the company said. The company’s first recall, announced in July, followed a report in Wired magazine showing hackers could manipulate a Jeep Cherokee using a laptop in a remote location. The hackers were able to control the SUV’s electronic control units, cutting power as it drove on a Missouri freeway.
INVESTMENT
Japan-Iran trade talks begin
Japan and Iran are to start talks today to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty, as Washington moves to ease sanctions against Tehran, and Tokyo looks to step up its interests in the resource-rich nation. Japanese and Iranian officials are to meet in Tehran from today through to Wednesday to secure a deal, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Friday, as other energy consumers also rush to explore Tehran’s commercial potential.
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
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],”