PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Total, Exxon ink LNG deal
The Pacific Island nation yesterday signed a deal with energy giants Total SA and Exxon Mobil Corp on a proposed new project that would significantly boost its liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. The parties hope to finalize the Papua LNG project by the first quarter of next year, Total said in a statement. The new project, if realized, would complement production from a US$19 billion LNG plant developed by Exxon Mobil that began shipping gas throughout Asia in 2014.
ENTERTAINMENT
Apple signs film agreement
Apple Inc has signed a multi-year film production deal with A24, the New York-based studio behind Moonlight and Lady Bird, people close to the deal said on Thursday. Apple is investing in scripted content with the intention of competing with the likes of Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc. Neither Apple nor A24 commented on Thursday.
AVIATION
JetBlue CEO calls for change
US and European regulators should review joint ventures that have allowed big airlines to dominate the market through their global alliances, JetBlue Airways Corp chief executive officer Robin Hayes said on Thursday. Consumers are at risk of decades of high fares because of legacy transatlantic partnerships, said Hayes, speaking at an airline industry event in New York.
BANKING
Credit Suisse mulls job cuts
Credit Suisse Group AG is considering hundreds of job cuts as chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam’s drive to reduce expenses extends into a fourth year, people with knowledge of the matter said. The dismissals could start as soon as this year and help the bank achieve its expense targets for next year, the people said. The Zurich-based bank’s International Wealth Management business and Swiss Universal Bank might be among the businesses affected, the people said.
INDIA
Tata asked to help airline
The interests of the government and the nation’s biggest conglomerate are converging over a teetering airline. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has approached Tata Group’s salt-to-software empire to help rescue Jet Airways India Ltd, people familiar with the matter said. To aid the process, the government is talking to Tata about a potential haircut to state-run banks on Jet’s loans and writing off some of its dues to the state-run airports operator, one of the people said. Tata’s board was deliberating a takeover yesterday.
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
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