VIETNAM
PM eyes sustained growth
Vietnam seeks to sustain economic growth next year at about 6.8 percent amid a projected 7 percent rise in exports, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said. Inflation should stay below 4 percent next year, Phuc told legislators in a speech in Hanoi aired live on television. Overseas sales are set to gain 7.9 percent this year, while inflation will likely average 2.7 to 3 percent this year, he said. Growth in the Southeast Asian economy accelerated to 7.31 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, surpassing expectations to reach the fastest pace since the start of last year. Vietnam is benefiting from rising foreign investment in manufacturing as businesses shift production from China to bypass higher tariffs.
ECUADOR
Oil exports resume
Ecuador on Sunday said it had resumed crude oil exports curbed by violent protests that forced several wells in the Amazon to halt operations. The country was hit by 12 days of demonstrations, led by indigenous groups, against fuel price hikes until President Lenin Moreno reached a deal with protest leaders on Oct. 13. “Oil production has recovered, so the operation of the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System has been standardized,” Petroecuador, the national oil company, said in a statement. “All suspended exports will be rescheduled in the coming days.”
RIDE-HAILING
Gojek announces new CEOs
Indonesian ride-hailing and payments company Gojek said two senior officials would jointly take over running operations of the US$10 billion firm after chief executive officer and cofounder Nadiem Makarim resigned to join Indonesia’s Cabinet. Gojek president Andre Soelistyo and the other cofounder, Kevin Aluwi, would be the joint CEOs, the company said. It had “planned for this possibility and there would no disruption to its business,” it said in a statement. Soelistyo has been at the firm since 2016 and previously headed Singaporean private equity firm Northstar Group, while Aluwi runs the company’s data science and analytics teams.
OIL RIGS
Temasek plans takeover
Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte plans to take control of Keppel Corp for about S$4 billion (US$3 billion) and undertake a review of the oil-rig builder’s business that could involve a board shakeup. The state-backed investor, which already owns about one-fifth of Keppel, offered to buy an additional 30.6 percent stake at S$7.35 a share, according to a statement yesterday. That is 26 percent higher than what Singapore-based Keppel traded at before its shares were halted. Temasek said it plans to keep Keppel traded on the Singapore stock exchange. Keppel also has businesses involved in real estate and infrastructure.
AIRLINES
Strike cancels flights
Cabin crew at four Lufthansa subsidiary airlines staged a day-long strike on Sunday, causing dozens of cancelations at German airports in a battle for better pay and conditions. The walkout, called by the UFO cabin crew union, at Eurowings, Germanwings, SunExpress and Lufthansa CityLine led to more than 100 flight cancelations, mainly hitting short-haul journeys at Hamburg airport, Munich, Berlin-Tegel, Cologne and Stuttgart, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported. Frankfurt airport, the country’s busiest, reported “only a few” cancelations, affecting CityLine flights.
UNSTABLE? Downplaying geopolitical concerns, Mark Liu said that Taiwan can help usher in a bright, new era for the chip industry with its tech and manufacturing skills There are probably not many people who believe that Taiwan is unstable because of geopolitical factors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said yesterday in Taipei in response to comments by Intel’s top executive. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger on Wednesday told the Fortune Brainstorm Tech summit in California that the US government should support a sustainable semiconductor supply chain in the US, in part because “Taiwan is not a stable place.” With China sending 27 military warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on Sunday, Gelsinger asked: Does that “make you more comfortable or less if you’re now
Toyota Motor Corp is to launch an all-electric small sedan in China late next year, having turned to local partner BYD Co (比亞迪) for key technology to finally make an affordable yet roomy runaround, four sources said. Two of the four people with knowledge of the matter described the car as an electric holy grail for Toyota, which has struggled for years to come up with a small electric vehicle (EV) that is competitive on cost in China and does not compromise on comfort. The sources said the breakthrough was chiefly down to BYD’s less bulky lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) Blade batteries and its
Danish wind turbine maker Vestas A/S yesterday said it has invested NT$1 billion (US$36.07 million) in its local supply chain to supply components for its 9.5 megawatt (MW) V174 turbine. The project has helped created 1,500 jobs, including 150 jobs by Vestas itself, Vestas country manager Alex Robertson said. The turbine is to be used in four offshore wind farm projects for a total of 123 wind turbine generators, or 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of total capacity, he said. “This is localization like I’ve never seen before,” Robertson told a media briefing in Taipei. Vestas highlighted 10 Taiwanese supply chain partners that are
Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and integrated circuit designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) are optimistic about the “metaverse” concept, expecting it to create major opportunities for the semiconductor industry. At a tech forum last week to commemorate former finance minister K.T. Lee (李國鼎), who has been dubbed the father of Taiwan’s economic miracle and who helped build Taiwan’s semiconductor sector in the second half of the 20th century, TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said he expects the metaverse to grow quickly in the next decade. Over the next 10 years, data computing power and transmission speeds are forecast to increase
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