Government efforts to promote start-ups and innovative technology is seeing some success, with AP Plasma Corp applying plasma technology to shoe manufacturing, and PicSee becoming a must-have tool for uploading one’s daily life onto social networking platforms.
The traditional shoe industry has long used a highly toxic chemical to glue the sole to the shoe, a practice that is very damaging to the environment, AP Plasma manager Wang Hung-yi (王弘壹) said on Thursday.
By using plasma to treat the original materials, their base characteristics are changed, altering the chemical bonds, Wang said, adding that applying non-toxic resin to shoes removes the need for highly toxic chemical glues.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
The company is collaborating with Pou Chen Industry and hopes to apply the same technology to all macromolecule rubber products, Wang said.
The introduction of the technology could make the traditional shoemaking industry cleaner and more eco-friendly, as well as more competitive, Wang said.
PicSee cofounder Ray Wei (方選) said there is great market potential in Southeast Asia for his firm.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
PicSee’s services shorten the length of Web addresses for easier sharing on social Web sites and can help increase the amount of “likes” on social networking services, Ray said.
Vietnam has 45 million Internet users, 2.6 times that of Taiwan at 17 million, Ray said, adding that Taiwanese YouTube channel This Group of People has about 2 million subscribers, while the most popular YouTube channel in Thailand has more than 10 million subscribers.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and Technology is scheduled to take nine leading start-ups to the Echelon Asia Summit at the Singapore Expo on Thursday and Friday.
Both AP Plasma and PicSee are to attend.
The ministry is to have a Taiwan pavilion at the expo for the first time this year and hopes to break into Southeast Asia’s innovative technology industry, ministry official Chiu Chiu-hui (邱求慧) said.
The nine companies would include start-ups in the fields of smart technology in medicine, artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing and statistical analysis, Chiu said.
921 EARTHQUAKE: The magnitude 7.3 quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged The Central Weather Bureau yesterday received about 50,000 views on Facebook after it posted the data that it collected on Sept. 21, 1999, when the nation was devastated by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. The data showed that the 921 Earthquake hit the nation at 1:47am, with the epicenter being 7km southwest of the bureau’s quake detection center in Nantou County’s Yuchi Township (魚池) at a depth of 8km. The quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged, with the cost of the damage estimated at NT$300 billion (US$10.8 billion at the current
British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reported that Prince Charles met with Bruno Wang (汪家興), a Taiwanese fugitive who describes himself as a Chinese philanthropist and donated ￡500,000 (US$683,522) to the prince’s charity, the Prince’s Foundation. The newspaper reported that Wang is wanted in Taiwan on charges related to money laundering and being a fugitive from justice, allegations he denies, and drew comparisons between Wang and the Russian banker Dmitry Leus. Investigation and cooperation with foreign authorities have found that Bruno Wang’s father, Andrew Wang (汪傳浦), had stashed proceeds from a scandal involving the procurement of Lafayette frigates in 61 bank accounts,
AT ODDS: The KMT called on the government to seek bilateral dialogue with Beijing to resolve the issue that led to the ban on custard apple and wax apple imports Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials and lawmakers yesterday condemned China’s sudden ban on imports of custard apples and wax apples from Taiwan as “obvious political retaliation,” while the opposition called for a scientific investigation into Beijing’s claim to have found pests in imports of the fruits. China earlier yesterday announced a ban on the importation of the two fruits from today, citing repeated discoveries of Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug. The announcement follows a similar ban on Taiwanese pineapples imposed in February. At least Beijing gave a few days’ notice when it banned pineapple imports, an unnamed government official said yesterday. This time
BY OTHER MEANS: China could see CPTPP membership as a means of circumventing trade restrictions imposed by the US, amid an ongoing trade dispute between them The US could invoke a clause in its trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to block China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a government official said yesterday. Under Article 32.10 of the Exceptions and General Provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), if either Canada or Mexico enter a free-trade agreement with a nonmarket economy — such as China — the US could withdraw from the agreement. “If that clause applies to multilateral free-trade agreements such as the CPTPP — which Mexico and Canada are members of — that might be cause for the two
RSS