HUMAN RESOURCES
Most firms raising wages
The majority of Taiwanese companies have offered pay raises to their employees this year, with an estimated average annual increase of 4.3 percent, according to the results of a survey released yesterday. Citing the results of the survey, online job bank yes123 said that 78.6 percent of Taiwanese companies have raised salaries for their employees. The average pay raise represents an additional NT$1,661 (US$50.23) per month, it added. However, only 16.2 percent of companies raised the salaries of all their employees, while 62.4 percent offered pay raises only to employees who performed better, according to the survey gauging companies’ pay raises and operations this year. A monthly pay raise of NT$1,661 means an increase of NT$55 per day, yes123 said. The survey also found that 49.6 percent of Taiwanese companies described their business operations this year as similar to last year, while 29.9 percent felt they performed worse than last year. Only 20 percent thought their business performance this year was better than last year, the survey showed. Regarding possible pay raises next year, 29.9 percent of the companies said they have no plans for increases, the survey found.
BREWERS
Taiwan Beer eyes Vietnam
Gold Medal Taiwan Beer, a century-old brand brewed by state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒), is to open a brewery in Vietnam in the near future, according to a source familiar with the matter. After more than two years of market surveys and assessments, the state-owned enterprise has decided to partner with a company called Sapporo Vietnam Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Sapporo International Inc, which is to handle the production of its beer in Vietnam, the source said on Sunday. The Taiwanese and Japanese companies are to sign a contract on Thursday at the Taiwan Trade Center at the nation’s representative office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Representative to Vietnam Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬) is to be present, the source said. Under the deal, Sapporo Vietnam is to be responsible for the production of Taiwan Beer in the southern province of Long An near Ho Chi Minh City, while a Vietnamese company is to handle the marketing, the source said. Taiwan Beer is expected to hit the Vietnamese market before March next year, in the first overseas venture by the state-run firm involving alcoholic products. The company is also aiming to expand its sales to other ASEAN markets via the deal, the source said.
EQUITIES
Heavy US losses hit shares
Shares in Taiwan yesterday moved lower in the wake of heavy losses on Wall Street and European markets on Friday last week, dealers said. The TAIEX closed down 75.73 points, or 0.93 percent, at 8,040.16, after moving between 7,980.59 and 8,068.98 on turnover of NT$74.66 billion. The bellwether electronics sector closed 1.15 percent lower and the financial sector was down 0.91 percent. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the local bourse, dropped 0.36 percent to close at NT$139. Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) finished 0.11 percent higher at NT$45.55, while ChipMOS Technologies (南茂) was up by 8.09 percent at NT$34.75 following the announcement that China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Inc (清華紫光) plans to invest in both companies.
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