Computex Taipei’s organizers have canceled the annual computer and technology trade shows due to lingering concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic and large-scale travel restrictions, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said.
Originally scheduled to take place earlier this month, Computex was initially postponed to late September as the pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe.
“While Taiwan is no longer under the threat of COVID-19, the virus is still spreading in 187 other countries with more than 7.35 million cases worldwide,” TAITRA said in a statement
Photo: Lin Chin-hua, Taipei Times
Along with the heavy economic effects of the pandemic, travel restrictions and lockdown measures which are in place to prevent future transmissions of the virus might prevent overseas participants and press from traveling to Taiwan, it said.
“Preserving the health and safety of Computex’s participants remain our top priority... After careful deliberation, we have decided to cancel this year’s show,” TAITRA said.
Pointing to Taiwan’s closed borders, which greatly contributed to the nation’s success in combating the coronavirus, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said the potential risk of new cases from abroad remains high.
“Nobody can afford to shoulder this kind of responsibility” of new COVID-19 cases in the nation, Huang said.
Even if Taiwan has the capacity to test each and every one of Computex’s overseas visitors, the two-week quarantine is more than enough to dissuade the majority of participants, Huang said.
Nevertheless, the trade show in September would hold online exhibitions and forums, he added.
Computex, one of the largest trade shows of its kind, is cohosted by the Computer Association and attracts more than 40,000 visitors annually.
The next show is scheduled for June 1 to June 5 next year.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
RSS