TRADE
Christensen criticizes China
China is aggressively using market-distorting subsidies and other practices such as intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers that harm the global economy, including the economies of the US and Taiwan, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen said yesterday. “We must defend the international rule-based order and sometimes take steps to dissuade those who flout global rules,” he said in a speech at the annual congress of the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Taipei. The US is committed to open markets and free trade in the Indo-Pacific region and globally, common values that the nation shares with Taiwan, he said. The free and open Indo-Pacific strategy, introduced by the administration of US President Donald Trump in November last year, encompasses an area stretching from the US west coast to Japan, through Southeast Asia to Australia, and west to India, he said. “We are looking to work more closely with Taiwan on the Indo-Pacific strategy’s priority initiatives of energy, infrastructure and the digital economy,” he said. In the years ahead, as business relationships evolve in the Indo-Pacific region, the role and importance of Taiwanese businesses would continue to grow and expand around the world, he added. Christensen announced that the AIT would escort a delegation of Taiwanese companies to the Indo-Pacific Discover Global Markets event on aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Dec. 10 to Dec. 12. The congress was also attended by former US vice president Dick Cheney and Stephen Yates, a former deputy national security adviser to Cheney.
TELECOMS
MOD subscribers at 1.9m
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, yesterday said that subscribers to its multimedia-on-demand (MOD) Internet TV business climbed to more than 1.9 million this month. That means the company is well on track to hit its target of 2 million subscribers by the end of this year. The company attributed the growth to its broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup and Asian Games. Chunghwa Telecom is set to broadcast more sports events next month, including the Chinese Taipei Open organized by the Chinese Taipei Badminton Association.
ENERGY
Research center founded
Denmark’s Orsted A/S yesterday donated a 1 megawatt energy storage system to National Changhua University of Education to further the school’s green energy curriculum. The system features energy storage equipment built by Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) and is to be installed by the Taiwanese company. Orsted also founded a research center at the university to help students develop the next generation of energy storage solutions.
PROPERTY
TLDC inks Hualien deal
Taiwan Land Development Corp (TLDC, 台灣土地開發) yesterday inked a cooperation pact with Vieshow Cinemas and VR Live for a mixed-use commercial building, the second phase of a larger development project in Hualien County. TLDC chairman Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生) signed the agreement at the site near Hualien Bay (洄瀾灣), where TLDC is to open a building that is to house VR facilities, movie theaters, restaurants and other sports activities, the Taipei-based developer said in a statement. The building has five stories above ground and one basement, and is equipped with the latest technologies in a bid to entice visitors to the area.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”