Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) yesterday gave an optimistic outlook on its consumer and corporate banking business this year despite an uncertain global economic climate, as more firms in Taiwan would seek to survive seasonal corrections through mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
The world’s two largest economies — the US and China — likely gained progress over some issues in their trade talks last week, but it is difficult for them to reach an agreement on structural issues, such as intellectual property protection, before March 1, when a 90-day truce is due to expire, Citi Taiwan chairman Paulus Mok (莫兆鴻) said at a media gathering in Taipei.
Hence, the US-China trade dispute is likely to persist for a while, and Taiwanese firms must prepare for it and learn that they cannot place too much reliance on the Chinese market, Mok said.
Photo: Grace Kao, Taipei Times
Despite the uncertainty linked to the trade dispute, Citi Taiwan is optimistic about this year, as the bank, with a history of 55 years in the nation, has a solid foundation, the chairman said.
With an eye on the younger generation, the bank would optimize its Web site and apps, and offer a better digital experience for consumers this year, encouraging them to “bank on the hand,” Mok said, adding that the bank plans to hire 60 employees.
The bank not only helped top-notch clients raise funds from the local and international capital markets, but it also advised many significant M&A transactions and completed several deals last year, including strategic loan deals, Citi Taiwan president Christie Chang (張聖心) said.
Last year saw Taiwanese firms become more open to M&A discussions with prospective buyers or sellers, Chang said, adding that she expects this passion to continue this year.
Although Taiwan is a highly competitive market, the bank saw its wealth management and credit card customer bases expand last year, consumer business manager Dennis Hussey said.
He added that the bank has pursued customer-centric, rather than headline, growth, meaning it is not focused on stimulating short-term spending or customer base growth, but cares more if consumers are happy with using Citi Taiwan’s credit cards.
The bank plans to launch a new credit card program to attract new customers, Hussey 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