SOUTH KOREA
Seoul eyes tax expansion
The government yesterday proposed expanding its capital gains taxes to include a larger number of affluent stock investors, in its push to reduce inequality by levying more from the wealthy and less from general share trading. Starting in 2023, the government would impose taxes on annual capital gains exceeding 20 million won (US$16,624) for retail investors, Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki said in a policy meeting. That would affect about 300,000 people or the top 5 percent of all stock investors in the nation, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said.
GERMANY
Consumer mood improves
The mood among consumers is brightening further as the country emerges from a months-long COVID-19 lockdown, pollsters GfK said yesterday. “Rapid reopening of the economy and society in Germany is helping consumers get over the corona shock more and more,” GfK said, as its monthly forward-looking barometer predicted minus-9.6 points for next month, up nine points on this month. The measure had fallen as low as minus-23.1 points, an all-time low, last month.
AVIATION
EU approves bailout
The European Commission yesterday approved the German government’s massive bailout of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, saving the airline from bankruptcy, but with conditions. The commission said that Berlin’s injection of 6 billion euros (US$6.74 billion) to keep the company afloat was allowed, but Lufthansa would have to give up prized slots at the Frankfurt and Munich airports to ensure fair competition. Its shareholders were to vote on the plan later yesterday.
MULTINATIONALS
Softbank plans buyback
Softbank Group Corp said it would buy back as much as ￥500 billion (US$4.7 billion) of its own stock, continuing a repurchase effort that has boosted its share price after heavy losses earlier this year. The Tokyo-based company said it would buy back up to 5.75 percent of its shares. It said this month that it had finished an earlier repurchase program, also for ￥500 billion. Meanwhile, founder Masayoshi Son yesterday announced that he is stepping down from the board of e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
CANADA
Fitch downgrades nation
The country on Wednesday lost its “AAA” debt rating, after Fitch downgraded it a notch to “AA+,” warning that its fiscal position is deteriorating amid efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Fitch said the country is poised to “emerge from recession with much higher public debt ratios.” Although the rising debt and deficit levels “will support recovery, the economy’s investment and growth prospects face challenges,” Fitch said. It sees gross government debt surging to 115 percent of GDP this year from 88.3 percent.
COSMETICS
Unilever to rename brand
Unilever plans to rename Fair & Lovely, a melanin suppressing face cream that is one of its best-sellers in India, as the backlash against branding that trades off racial stereotypes grows. The Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, which derives more than US$500 million in annual revenue from the brand in India alone, would also remove “fair,” “whitening” and “lightening” from its packaging and marketing material and feature women of all skin tones in advertising campaigns. The brand is sold in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan and elsewhere in Asia.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
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