TAXES
License plate taxes to grow
The government is on Monday next week to start the annual collection of license plate taxes, with a total of 7.37 million vehicles subject to the levy this year, up 1.92 percent from 7.24 million vehicles last year, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The tax collection is to continue until April 30 and the government expects to add NT$62.66 billion (US$2.03 billion) to the national coffers this year, 1.03 percent more than last year’s NT$62.01 billion, the ministry said at a news conference. Vehicle owners can pay the tax with a credit card, through bank transfers or at convenience stores, it said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
VIS transfer to unit approved
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (VIS, 世界先進) yesterday received approval from the Investment Commission to transmit US$290 million to wholly owned Vanguard International Semiconductor Singapore Pte Ltd. The unit is to use the funds to acquire an 8-inch fab in Tampines, Singapore, from GlobalFoundries Inc, a deal set to close on Dec. 31. The transaction includes buildings, facilities and equipment, as well as intellectual property associated with GlobalFoundries’ microelectromechanical system business.
OPTOELECTRONICS
Genius to pay cash dividend
Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光), a camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday said that its board has approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3.5 per share and capital spending of NT$1.88 billion for equipment purchases. Based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$9.38, the dividend represents a payout ratio of 37.3 percent. Shareholders are to vote on the proposals on June 26.
AIRLINES
Scoot to add more flights
Singapore-based budget carrier Scoot Tigerair Pte Ltd yesterday said that it would add flights from June 1 to its two routes connecting Kaohsiung with Singapore and Osaka, Japan. The airline is to operate three more round-trip flights on the two routes, which have an average ridership of about 85 percent, Scoot Taiwan general manager Victor Lee (李育修) said. The increased services would bring the total number of round-trip Scoot flights in Taiwan to 56 flights per week, connecting Taipei and Kaohsiung with Singapore, Seoul and Japan’s Tokyo, Sapporo and Osaka.
SOLAR POWER
Gigastorage to slash capital
Money-losing solar wafer maker Gigastorage Corp (國碩) yesterday said that its board has approved a proposal to reduce capital by NT$1.33 billion to offset the company’s accumulated net losses. The decision came as the company reported net losses of NT$1.43 billion for last year, with combined losses of NT$4.07 billion over the past two years. Gigastorage plans to cut its capitalization by 39.27 percent to NT$2.06 billion, a regulatory filing said. Gigastorage last year saw its revenue tumble 25.5 percent year-on-year to NT$9.38 billion due to an oversupply-driven slump.
INTERNET
Google launches job search
Alphabet Inc’s Google has rolled out a new search function on its Taiwan platform for users to more easily find job opportunities across Web sites. The new search service shows job listings from across the Web based on the distance from the user’s location, Google said. It also allows searches for jobs based on when they were posted and for the user to filter the results, it added.
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