Chunghwa Telecom Co (
China is expected to open its telecommunications market to foreign investors to meet its requirements as a new member of the WTO. Beijing is also expected to award third-generation, or 3G, licenses to foreign firms next year.
Taiwan now bans infrastructural investments by Taiwanese telecom companies in China, but can be expected to relax the restrictions under pressure by businesses hoping to cash in on the massive business opportunities in China ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics games, said Hochen Tan (賀陳旦), who heads Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's sole integrated telecom company.
"We want to invest in telecom infrastructure in China, like delivering broadband, and may set up joint ventures or invest directly in local operators," he said in an interview on Wednesday with the Dow Jones Newswires.
"An experienced operator like us can also provide technical support for 3G," he said.
Taiwan's government has a 35.6 percent stake in Chunghwa.
Hochen said Chunghwa Telecom's board will finalize an investment budget for next year in December, which will include funds for various investments as well as mergers and acquisitions. He declined to give specific details.
Chunghwa Telecom provides roaming services in China, but next year it will cooperate with China Telecom Corp (中國電信) -- China's largest fixed-line operator by subscribers -- to allow its Chinese subscribers to access Chunghwa's Hinet Web site.
This could help Chunghwa retain its business customers and maintain relationships with Chinese carriers, Hochen said.
Meanwhile, Hochen said a long-awaited move to reduce the company's capital is ``highly likely'' to happen next year.
Analysts have been urging Chunghwa Telecom for years to return excess capital to shareholders to improve returns.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS