CURRENCY
Forex reserves increase
The nation’s foreign-exchange reserves totaled US$444.45 billion as of the end of last month, up US$2.51 billion from the end of the previous month, due to a rising euro and an increase in returns on the funds managed by the central bank, according to data released on Friday. The central bank said the nation’s foreign reserves are adequate to cover the holdings of Taiwanese assets held by foreign investors.
TRANSPORTATION
Gogoro 2 boosts sales
Electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) last month delivered 4,042 scooters, thanks to the launch of the Gogoro 2 in late May, Gogoro chief marketing executive Chen Yen-yang (陳彥揚) said on Friday. More than 5 million battery swaps had occurred as of the end of last month, he said.
LENSES
Largan revenue down
Handset camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Saturday reported revenue of NT$4.44 billion (US$147 million) for last month, down 3.27 percent from a year earlier, but up 15.09 percent from the previous month. In the first seven months of the year, consolidated revenue totaled NT$326.56 billion, Largan said.
GOVERNMENT
FSC appointments approved
The Executive Yuan on Friday approved several key appointments to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), with Jean Chiu (邱淑真) taking over as head of the commission’s Banking Bureau, Wang Li-chuan (王儷娟) assuming the post of director-general of the Examination Bureau, and Wu Quei-mao (吳桂茂) becoming new head of the Insurance Bureau. The changes are to take effect next month.
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