AUTOMAKERS
Tesla to unveil new model
Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that the company’s next vehicle would be unveiled on Thursday next week. The Model Y is a sports utility vehicle and is expected to share many of the same underpinnings as its lower-cost sedan, the Model 3. That shared technology should help expedite production. It would also be about 10 percent bigger than a Model 3, so cost about 10 percent more, Musk said in a series of tweets. Prices for a Model 3 start at about US$35,000. Musk has told investors that the Model Y would share about 75 percent of the same components as the Model 3. The company has been trying to move beyond its niche as a maker of luxury cars with a wider array of new products.
JAPAN
Official eases trade woes
The country’s top currency official said the nation’s current account surplus is a result of investments abroad rather than the exchange of goods, and it should not become a trade issue. It is not uncommon for the country’s savings to grow because of its aging population, Vice Finance Minister of International Affairs Masatsugu Asakawa told a conference in Tokyo. His remarks came after the country’s trade negotiator Toshimitsu Motegi urged bilateral talks with the US as soon as possible, following US President Donald Trump complaining about years of “unfair” trade.
FRANCE
Web giants to be taxed
The country intends to tax the revenue of about 30 Internet giants, such as Amazon.com Inc, to help ensure “fiscal justice,” Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire said. The levy of as much as 5 percent of sales would be retroactive from Jan. 1 and potentially raise about 500 million euros (US$570 million) for the state, Le Maire told Le Parisien newspaper. Under the plan, which the Cabinet is to discuss tomorrow, the tax would apply to any company with global revenue of more than 750 million euros and French sales above 25 million euros, Le Maire said.
APPAREL
Ted Baker CEO resigns
Ted Baker PLC chief executive officer Ray Kelvin resigned amid an investigation of his conduct, including allegations of behavior that was demeaning to employees of the British apparel chain. Kelvin had taken a voluntary leave of absence from the chief executive officer role in December last year as the board hired law firm Herbert Smith Freehills LLP to investigate allegations of behavior, including unwanted hugs and asking female employees to sit on his knee. He has denied the accusations. Acting chief executive officer Lindsay Page is to continue in the role. Chairman David Bernstein would “provide additional support” as executive chairman, the company said.
UAE
Dubai to help SMEs
Dubai plans to expedite government payments to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an effort to revive economic growth. The government would pay SMEs within 30 days instead of 90 days, state-run WAM news agency reported. The measure is expected to result in 1.6 billion dirhams (US$435 million) of additional liquidity to the companies, the news agency said without elaborating. The plan also includes a reduction in insurance costs for SMEs that would not affect their eligibility for government tenders.
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