FINANCE
Taiwan taken off tax list
The EU has removed Taiwan from the bloc’s gray list of tax havens, acknowledging the nation’s efforts to implement measures against tax avoidance, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday. Taiwan was first listed in December 2017 as a potential tax haven by the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council, which consists of economy and finance ministers. In its latest update on Tuesday, the council delisted 25 jurisdictions, including Taiwan, while adding 10: Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu and Dominica.
E-COMMERCE
PChome, Rakuten ink deal
PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) signed an agreement with Japanese firm Rakuten Inc on Thursday to bolster exchanges between their members, and provide joint services and content, with the aim to build customer loyalty. Under the deal, their members will be allowed to accumulate and exchange PChome’s P-coins and Rakuten points for online transactions in both countries, while consumers in Taiwan will be able to shop for Rakuten products on PChome’s consumer-to-consumer marketplace.
CHEMICALS
Formosa dividend approved
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) on Friday said its board of directors had approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$6.2 per common share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$8.36, a payout ratio of 74.16 percent. The proposed cash dividend, if approved by shareholders on June 5, would be lower than last year’s NT$7 per share, as the company saw its net profit last year decline 10.37 percent year-on-year to NT$48.77 billion (US$1.58 billion).
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],”