CHINA
US firms pessimistic
US businesses are increasingly pessimistic about their prospects as a bilateral trade dispute rumbles on, with growing numbers of companies expecting their revenues and investment to shrink, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said yesterday in its annual China Business Report. The report said that 75 percent of US firms opposed Washington’s use of punitive tariffs to force Beijing into a trade deal and market-access reforms. About half of companies surveyed said they expect this year’s revenues to increase year-on-year, while just over a quarter expect them to fall — compared with just 6.1 percent in the previous year’s survey.
ELECTRONICS
University slams Foxconn
The University of Wisconsin says it has received just US$700,000 of the US$100 million that Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) pledged to fund engineering and innovation research at the school’s Madison campus. The Wisconsin State Journal on Tuesday reported that progress has been slow since the company made the promise in August last year. University spokesman John Lucas said that there had been “no significant progress in discussions” on the investment that was touted at the time as the largest research partnership in the university’s history. The official partnership agreement did not mention a specific dollar figure or when the company would provide the funds. Foxconn declined to confirm how much money it has invested in the university, but said it remains committed to engineering and research there.
SINGAPORE
Public housing planned
Supply of public housing could increase next year as the city-state on Tuesday introduced measures aimed at making such homes more affordable. Minister of National Development Lawrence Wong (黃循財) said the measures would help more citizens from lower to upper-middle income households buy their first homes. The Housing & Development Board would probably have to increase supply next year to meet the additional demand expected to stem from the changes, the Ministry of National Development said. The new measures, which do not apply to the private sector, took effect yesterday.
GERMANY
Fiscal stimulus ruled out
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said that the government is sticking to its balanced budget policy, tempering expectations for fiscal stimulus in Europe’s largest economy. “As a federal government, we take seriously the responsibility for a solid budget policy,” Merkel told an event organized by the taxpayers’ federation. “I can assure you that we are sticking to the goal of a balanced budget.” Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz earlier in the day said that the government was ready to pump “many, many billions of euros” into its economy to counter any significant slowdown in growth.
VIETNAM
Trade surplus grows
The nation’s trade surplus last month widened dramatically from July, backed by a strong increase in smartphone shipments, as its surplus with the US continued to increase, Customs Department data released yesterday showed. The surplus came in at US$3.435 billion, up from US$43 million in July and beating a government forecast for a surplus of US$1.7 billion, the department said. Exports rose 12.6 percent from the July to US$25.885 billion, while imports fell 2.1 percent to US$22.450 billion, it said.
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
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last