South Korea, which topped the Bloomberg Innovation Index in January, is now dominating Asian stock markets with seven of the 10 best performers this year.
Shares in Hanmi Science Co and affiliate Hanmi Pharm Co soared 919 percent and 681 percent respectively after clinching deals to sell lung cancer and diabetes treatments overseas.
Amorepacific Corp shares climbed 107 percent as its Air Cushion foundation cream won positive reviews, driving a 51 percent jump in its net profit in the nine months to September, while those in Celltrion Inc, which developed an arthritis medicine, more than doubled.
Research-driven companies are spearheading a “creative economy” envisioned by South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, helping revive growth in a country dominated for decades by family-owned conglomerates.
“Park’s pledge resonated with the more agile and innovative firms in South Korea, which explained the investor confidence in their future growth,” said Bernard Aw, a strategist at IG Asia Pte in Singapore.
In the Bloomberg Innovation Index for this year, South Korea ranked No. 1 in measures of research and development, patents and post-secondary education and fourth in high-tech companies.
Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd, which reported record earnings last quarter thanks to sales in new export markets, convenience store operator BGF Retail Co and furniture maker Hanssem Co also made the top 10 list.
Taiwanese footwear maker Feng Tay Enterprise Co (豐泰鞋業), Japanese cosmetics maker Kose Corp, China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co (輝山乳業) and Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd (恆大地產集團) were the other top performers.
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],”
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
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