CHINA
Key tasks critical to growth
The nation’s economy can grow this year if key tasks set out by the government, including ensuring employment and people’s livelihoods, are achieved, Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) said yesterday. It is “practical and realistic” to not set a numerical growth target this year, as the nation is not immune from the economic shocks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Li told a news conference as the annual session of the National People’s Congress in Bejing closed. The government has the ability to take further action should the outlook deteriorate, he said.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan posts US$6.2bn loss
Nissan Motor Co yesterday reported a staggering ¥671.2 billion (US$6.2 billion) annual net loss, its first in more than a decade, as it battles weak demand and the effects of the pandemic. The automaker said that it was slashing global production by 20 percent and confirmed that it would close a plant in Barcelona, Spain, that employs 3,000 people as it tries to return to profitability. The net loss for the year to March compares with net profit of ¥319.1 billion a year earlier. It declined to issue a forecast for the current fiscal year because of ongoing uncertainty.
TELECOMS
Singtel slashes dividend
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) yesterday cut its expected dividend after profit slumped to the lowest since 1993. The carrier booked a charge for costs related to its investment in an India-based carrier and said that the pandemic crimped mobile service revenue. Net income plunged 65 percent to S$1.08 billion (US$760.5 million) in the year ended March, the company said in a statement. That compares with the S$1.28 billion average of analyst estimates. The carrier is to pay a dividend of S$0.1225 per share for the year, compared with its previous outlook for S$0.175.
LIGHTING
GE to sell light bulb division
General Electric Co (GE) is getting out of the light bulb business, shedding a foundational enterprise from the days of Thomas Edison, the company announced on Wednesday. The 128-year-old company, in belt-tightening mode due to the effects of the pandemic, is to divest GE Lighting to smart home company Savant Systems LLC. The GE logo would still appear on light bulbs sold by Savant under a licensing agreement included in the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple buys start-up Inductiv
Apple Inc has bought machine learning start-up Inductiv Inc, adding to more than a dozen artificial intelligence-related acquisitions by the technology giant in the past few years. The engineering team from Waterloo, Ontario-based Inductiv in the past few weeks joined Apple to work on Siri, machine learning and data science. Inductiv developed technology that uses artificial intelligence to automate the task of identifying and correcting errors in data.
UNITED KINGDOM
Brexit discussions to resume
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to resume Brexit talks in Brussels next month, the Times reported yesterday. The newspaper cited Downing Street’s negotiator with the EU, David Frost, as saying that Johnson would meet the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council to formally assess the state of the talks.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI