South Korea’s government yesterday announced a US$2.2 billion plan to prop up the farm sector, which has been hit by a global economic slowdown and weak domestic consumption.
The agriculture ministry said the government would inject 3.25 trillion won into the sector next year to support food and agricultural businesses, bolster rural development and strengthen forestry resources.
South Korea has protected its rice market to support the farmers, allowing imports of only 7 percent of total consumption last year.
But farmers have called for larger state subsidies, as many are suffering from chronic debts because of a steady drop in the country’s overall rice consumption.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor yesterday unveiled new cost-cutting steps such as early retirement, unpaid leave and lower pay aimed at saving 100 billion won as the global downturn bites.
The move came after the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker asked for about 500 billion won in financial assistance from creditor banks.
Hynix said it would retire about 30 senior officials and cut remaining managers’ pay by up to 20 percent.
Its union has also agreed on an early retirement program targeting those who have worked for more than 10 years, and on two-week unpaid leave between next month and April.
“We hope to save about 100 billion won through our new steps,” a spokeswoman said, adding the move would affect 18,000 workers in South Korea.
Knowledge Economy Minister Lee Youn-ho has said that the government would not consider active state support for Hynix because this would breach WTO guidelines.
Hynix is suffering from falling demand and chip prices amid a global economic downturn.
In the third quarter of this year, the company’s net loss rose sharply to 1.65 trillion won, the fourth straight quarterly deficit.
Hynix shut down two older domestic production lines this year. It has also extended a payment deadline for a partner company’s investment.
Numonyx, a joint-venture company run by Intel and STMicroelectronics NV, has agreed to invest US$100 million by Dec. 31 for a 10 percent stake in Hynix’s plant in China.
Numonyx paid US$50 million to Hynix in October.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
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