ELECTRONICS
Wistron to invest in Vietnam
Contract electronics manufacturer Wistron Corp (緯創) said on Thursday last week that its board of directors has approved an investment of US$45 million to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Vietnam to meet its long-term investment needs. The new subsidiary, Wistron InfoComm (Vietnam) Co Ltd, is expected to spend up to 5.43 trillion dong (US$233.98 million) to purchase machinery, equipment and build plants, Wistron said in a regulatory filing.
APPLICATIONS
New EasyCard app coming
EasyCard Corp (悠遊卡) plans to launch a mobile payment service next year. The EasyWallet app is to be upgraded on Jan. 6 among 500 test users and become available to the wider public for payment service by the end of the first quarter, the company said last week. The app allows users to manage up to 20 EasyCards on a single account and automatically top up their cards when the balance drops below a designated amount. The range of services to be provided include in-store payments and money transfers, with single transactions of up to NT$50,000 and a monthly limit of NT$300,000, the company said.
START-UPS
Logo for Taiwan start-ups
Taiwan’s national Startup Island Taiwan logo is to be displayed globally for the first time at the 2020 CES consumer electronics show early next year, the National Development Council (NDC) said on Wednesday last week. Taiwanese start-ups showcasing their innovative products at the event are to all use the logo to promote Taiwan during the Jan. 7 to 10 trade fair in Las Vegas, the council said. The logo is for use by all Taiwanese start-up companies and their products.
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
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