TRADE
Christensen criticizes China
China is aggressively using market-distorting subsidies and other practices such as intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers that harm the global economy, including the economies of the US and Taiwan, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen said yesterday. “We must defend the international rule-based order and sometimes take steps to dissuade those who flout global rules,” he said in a speech at the annual congress of the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Taipei. The US is committed to open markets and free trade in the Indo-Pacific region and globally, common values that the nation shares with Taiwan, he said. The free and open Indo-Pacific strategy, introduced by the administration of US President Donald Trump in November last year, encompasses an area stretching from the US west coast to Japan, through Southeast Asia to Australia, and west to India, he said. “We are looking to work more closely with Taiwan on the Indo-Pacific strategy’s priority initiatives of energy, infrastructure and the digital economy,” he said. In the years ahead, as business relationships evolve in the Indo-Pacific region, the role and importance of Taiwanese businesses would continue to grow and expand around the world, he added. Christensen announced that the AIT would escort a delegation of Taiwanese companies to the Indo-Pacific Discover Global Markets event on aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Dec. 10 to Dec. 12. The congress was also attended by former US vice president Dick Cheney and Stephen Yates, a former deputy national security adviser to Cheney.
TELECOMS
MOD subscribers at 1.9m
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, yesterday said that subscribers to its multimedia-on-demand (MOD) Internet TV business climbed to more than 1.9 million this month. That means the company is well on track to hit its target of 2 million subscribers by the end of this year. The company attributed the growth to its broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup and Asian Games. Chunghwa Telecom is set to broadcast more sports events next month, including the Chinese Taipei Open organized by the Chinese Taipei Badminton Association.
ENERGY
Research center founded
Denmark’s Orsted A/S yesterday donated a 1 megawatt energy storage system to National Changhua University of Education to further the school’s green energy curriculum. The system features energy storage equipment built by Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) and is to be installed by the Taiwanese company. Orsted also founded a research center at the university to help students develop the next generation of energy storage solutions.
PROPERTY
TLDC inks Hualien deal
Taiwan Land Development Corp (TLDC, 台灣土地開發) yesterday inked a cooperation pact with Vieshow Cinemas and VR Live for a mixed-use commercial building, the second phase of a larger development project in Hualien County. TLDC chairman Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生) signed the agreement at the site near Hualien Bay (洄瀾灣), where TLDC is to open a building that is to house VR facilities, movie theaters, restaurants and other sports activities, the Taipei-based developer said in a statement. The building has five stories above ground and one basement, and is equipped with the latest technologies in a bid to entice visitors to the area.
‘BIG LOSS’: This year might see the last generation of Huawei’s Kirin chips, as their production would stop next month because they are made using US technology Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) is running out of processor chips to make smartphones due to US sanctions and would be forced to stop production of its own most advanced chips, a company executive has said, in a sign of growing damage to Huawei’s business from US pressure. Huawei, one of the biggest producers of smartphones and network equipment, is at the center of US-Chinese tension over technology and security. Washington last year cut off Huawei’s access to US components and technology, and those penalties were tightened in May, when the White House barred vendors worldwide from using US
’WHITE BOX’: The open platform would give local firms access to Cisco’s cloud-based mobile network to develop 5G telecom equipment and tap into the global market The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday introduced a new 5G “open lab” in collaboration with US-based information technology and networking giant Cisco Systems Inc to address the rapidly growing “white box” 5G networking equipment market. The open lab will be a platform where Taiwanese manufacturers can access Cisco’s cloud-based mobile network to develop their own 5G telecom equipment, such as small-cell base stations, network switches, modems and Internet of things (IoT) devices, a ministry statement said. The open platform would allow Taiwanese manufacturers to tap into the lucrative 5G telecom equipment market, which was previously monopolized by Nokia Oyj, Ericsson AB
CORPORATE SCANDAL: Cathay Life has invested NT$13.3 billion in Bank Mayapada since 2015, but the latest loss of NT$8.8 billion has completely written off its investment Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) yesterday said it would recognize an investment loss of NT$8.8 billion (US$298.1 million) in Indonesia’s Bank Mayapada Internasional Tbk PT due to concerns about the lender’s operations amid a corporate scandal. The company said it would revise its earnings result for June, from a net profit of NT$6.52 billion to a net loss of NT$520 million, its first monthly loss over the past 17 months. After booking an investment loss of NT$5.2 billion in Bank Mayapada earlier this year, Cathay Life has so far recognized total investment losses of NT$14 billion in the lender, executive vice president
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported that revenue last month expanded 25 percent annually, but fell 12.8 percent month-on-month to NT$105.96 billion (US$3.59 billion). In the first seven months of this year, the chipmaker’s revenue surged 33.6 percent to NT$727.26 billion, compared with NT$544.46 billion a year earlier. TSMC has said it aims to grow its revenue by more than 20 percent this year. The company has since May 15 stopped taking new orders from Huawei Technologies Co (華為), its second-biggest customer after Apple Inc, due to the US’ restrictions on exports containing US technologies. TSMC has no plans to
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