Taiwanese companies reported fewer economic crimes than their global or regional peers, but more cases of bribery and procurement fraud, a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan showed on Wednesday last week.
A quarter of Taiwanese respondents said they were the target of economic crimes, far fewer than their global peers’ 50 percent and the Asia-Pacific region’s 46 percent, PwC’s annual crime and fraud survey showed.
This might be because Taiwanese firms are generally cautious when responding to fraud, but it might also indicate that they are less aware of the risks associated with fraud and economic crimes, the firm said, adding that it might also indicate that control measures are relatively ineffective.
Misappropriation of assets is still the most common type of fraud in Taiwan, accounting for 39 percent of all fraud, followed by bribery and corruption at 35 percent, the survey showed.
Bribery and corruption is higher than the global 25 percent rate and the Asia-Pacific region’s 30 percent, it found.
Of economic crime victims, 17 percent said they have suffered from procurement fraud, it showed.
Bribery, corruption and procurement fraud in Taiwan could be higher, PwC said, adding that about 31 percent of Taiwanese respondents believe they have lost business opportunities due to competitors’ bribery practices, higher than the global 22 percent and 26 percent in the region.
In addition, 26 percent of Taiwanese economic crime victims reported being the target of intellectual property theft, much higher than the world’s 7 percent and the region’s 6 percent, the survey showed.
This might be because 40 percent of the Taiwanese respondents are in the technology and manufacturing industries, compared with 17 percent in the world and 20 percent in the region, PwC said.
“Taiwanese companies, regulators and law enforcement agencies should pay attention to the issue, because the science and technology industry makes great contributions to the nation’s economy,” PwC Taiwan head Joseph Chou (周建宏) said.
Sixty-eight percent of local respondents that reported being victims of economic crimes said that the most devastating type come from within, as 79 percent were committed by middle and high-level managers.
The high ratio of ranking perpetrators poses a challenge to fraud control, because they are privy to a company’s confidential information, the company 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],”
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
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