BUSINESS
SME loan target increased
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday announced it would raise its annual growth target for state-run banks’ loans to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to NT$270 billion (US$9.21 billion) each year, from the NT$240 billion growth target set five years ago. The last time the commission raised the target was in 2013, when it increased loan growth targets from NT$220 billion to NT$240 billion. Last year, total SME loans extended by state-run banks grew NT$366.9 billion year-on-year to NT$6.1 trillion, accounting for 60.66 percent of all loans extended to the public and private sectors last year, the commission said.
INSURANCE
Coverage third-highest in Asia
The nation’s deposit insurance coverage is the highest in Asia and the third-highest in the world, indicating that the nation is keen to protect local consumers and their assets, William Su (蘇財源), executive vice president of government-run Central Deposit Insurance Corp (中央存保) said at a public function yesterday. Taiwan’s deposit insurance coverage of NT$3 million per depositor follows the US, which provides up to US$250,000 in deposit insurance coverage, and the EU at 100,000 euros (US$123,214).
TRADE
AmCham welcome TPP talk
The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) yesterday welcomed US President Donald Trump’s willingness to study the possibility of re-entering the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Joining the pact would be a huge benefit for the US and for Taiwan if it could enter in the second round, AmCham Taipei said in a statement. “We believe Taiwan will have a better chance of gaining membership if the US joins the TPP,” the trade group said.
TECHNOLOGY
Ichia reports losses
Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday released unaudited operating results for last quarter showing pretax losses of NT$124 million due to the negative impacts of seasonal factors and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. Pretax losses per share were NT$0.4 for the first quarter, compared with earnings per share of NT$0.01 in the previous quarter, the company said in a statement. Ichia reported gross margin of 1 percent and operating losses of NT$74 million in the first quarter.
MANUFACTURING
Altek IoT prototype ready
Altek Corp (華晶科技) on Thursday said it would be the first original design manufacturer to offer reference designs based on Qualcomm Inc’s vision intelligence platform for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The company said in a statement that it has completed the development of the first VR 360 prototype camera and commercial surveillance prototype camera based on Qualcomm’s new chips system, which is aimed at supporting powerful computing across a wide range of IoT applications.
CHIPMAKERs
Powerchip resumes supply
Memory chipmaker Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) on Thursday said it had resumed DRAM chip supply to clients after fixing equipment problems. The Hsinchu-based company said it had identified malfunctioning manufacturing equipment following recent maintenance work. After adjusting production lines, the company is able to fully supply DRAM chips to major clients, Powerchip said.
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