BANKING
First Bank plans Laos branch
First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), the flagship banking arm of First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), has obtained the green light from the Financial Supervisory Commission to open a branch in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. First Bank said in a statement yesterday it would seek approval from financial authorities in Laos to open the branch as soon as possible.
TECHNOLOGY
Hon Hai sells patents
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the major assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPad, has sold a number of its communications technology patents to Google Inc for an undisclosed sum. The company said in a statement that it would continue to invest in research and development, “transforming such investments into valuable intellectual property assets.” Pennsylvania-based MiiCs & Partners facilitated the sale, Hon Hai said.
INVESTMENT
Chinese input plummets
Chinese investment in Taiwan in the first quarter plummeted 90.83 percent to US$12.75 million from a year earlier, and investments from other foreign countries also fell in the first quarter by 33.82 percent to US$833.7 million, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission said on Monday. Meanwhile, Taiwanese investment in China grew 28.97 percent in the first quarter from a year ago to top US$2.8 billion, the commission said.
More than 20,000 employees at Apple Inc supplier Foxconn Technology Group’s (富士康) huge Chinese plant, mostly new hires not yet working on production lines, have left, a Foxconn source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The departures from the world’s largest iPhone factory dealt a fresh blow to the Taiwanese company, which has been grappling with strict COVID-19 restrictions that have fueled worker discontent and disrupted production ahead of Christmas and January’s Lunar New Year holiday. Concerns are mounting over Apple’s ability to deliver products for the busy holiday period as the worker unrest lingers at the Zhengzhou plant, which produces the
Two US Federal Reserve officials reinforced expectations the central bank would slow their pace of interest rate increases next month, even as they stressed the need to keep tightening. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said during separate remarks on Monday that inflation remains too high and policymakers have a way to go before completing their tightening campaign. However, they both characterized the need for officials to be judicious as they calibrate policy. “I think we can slow down from the 75 at the next meeting, I don’t have a problem with that,” Mester said during
‘SEASONED’: Chiang Shang-yi is to help guide Hon Hai’s global semiconductor development strategy as the firm accelerates the pace of capacity deployment Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海科技集團) has hired former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) cochief operating officer Chiang Shang-yi (蔣尚義) as a strategy officer to assist its semiconductor business development, the group said yesterday. Chiang’s appointment took effect immediately. He is to report directly to Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉). Chiang was the central figure in TSMC’s technology advancement, and once considered a potential successor to TSMC founder and former chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀). He spent the past few years in China assisting Chinese chipmakers Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際) and Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Corp (武漢弘芯半導體). Chiang on Oct. 18 attended a
’INHERENT VULNERABILITIES’: The country has been working with the US to build its own lithium and rare earth mines in a bid to curb China’s dominance in the market Australia is vowing more assertive scrutiny of foreign investments in key commodities tied to electric vehicles and clean energy, in a potential warning to China which dominates the market. Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has asked the country’s Treasury to work with the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board and other stakeholders to undertake a review of foreign investment in sectors such as lithium and rare earths, he told a conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’ll need to be more assertive about encouraging investment that clearly aligns with our national interest in the longer term,” Chalmers said. Although Chalmers did not directly identify China investment as
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