MACROECONOMY
Current-account surplus falls
The central bank yesterday said the nation’s current-account surplus fell by US$760 million, or 3.5 percent, to US$20.72 billion from a year earlier. The decline came as smaller deficits on the services and secondary income accounts and a wider primary income surplus were more than offset by the contraction in the goods trade surplus, the bank said in a statement. The bank’s latest statistics also indicated an increase of US$18.92 billion in net assets on the financial account and an increase of US$3.85 billion in its reserve assets.
BANKING
Citibank Tianmu reopens
Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) yesterday announced the re-opening of its branch in Taipei’s Tianmu (天母) area, which is also the bank’s first “smart branch” in Taiwan, to offer better customer experience. The Tianmu branch is the US bank’s 11th branch in Taiwan, and features a cozy lobby that makes customers feel at home, Citibank said. The bank also launched its new consulting service for better asset allocation in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, Yunny Lee (李芸), head of retail banking at Citbank Taiwan, told a news conference in Taipei.
BANKING
CTBC loans to rise: Capital
As domestic banks have began expanding in the Asian markets, Capital Investment Management Corp (群益投顧) expects CTBC Bank’s (中信銀行) loan growth momentum to persist this year due to its active deployment in overseas businesses. In the first quarter, CTBC Bank saw first quarter loans rise 2.73 percent sequentially, while recording a 1 basis point gain in net interest margin and maintaining robust asset quality, the brokerage said in a recent report, adding that the bank’s parent is awaiting acquisition approvals from regulators in China, Malaysia and Thailand.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Brogent to expand business
Brogent Technologies Inc (智崴資訊) yesterday said the company is moving to expand its virtual reality (VR) business as well as develop platforms for VR and augmented-reality technologies. The visual effects production company said it plans to launch VR headsets with somatosensory simulators in Taiwan before the end of this year. The company plans to first showcase the upcoming VR products in its headquarters in Kaohsiung and then other locations in Taiwan before moving on to the global market. Brogent said it will also seek cooperation with other VR hardware companies in a bid to expand its reach in the fast-growing industry. In the first quarter, the company reported revenue of NT$167 million (US$5.1 million), up 41 percent year-on-year, with net income of NT$9.5 million, or earnings per share of NT$0.22. Gross margin was 44.9 percent.
SMARTPHONES
Global sales rise 3.9%
In the first quarter, global smartphone sales grew 3.9 percent from a year earlier to 349.25 million units, according to statistics released by research firm Gartner Inc on Thursday. Samsung Electronics Co accounted for nearly one in four smartphones purchased by consumers around the world in the first quarter, widening its lead against the second-place Apple Inc. In the first quarter, Samsung held a market share of 23.2 percent in the global smartphone market, followed by Apple’s 14.8 percent, Huawei Technologies Inc’s (華為) 8.3 percent, Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp’s (歐珀移動) 4.6 percent and Xiaomi Corp’s (小米) 4.3 percent, Gartner said in a statement.
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained