CHINA
Pork prices to get support
The National Development and Reform Commission yesterday said that central and local governments would start buying pork for state reserves to support prices that have plunged in the past few months. Prices last week entered an “excessive decline,” the agency said in a notice on WeChat, without providing details on volumes to be purchased. The move comes after live hog prices at the world’s top pork producer plunged 65 percent from January to early this month, eroding profits for farmers and raising concerns that many would stop farming, triggering shortages later on.
INDONESIA
Value-added tax to rise
The government plans to increase its value-added tax (VAT) rate to 12 percent from 10 percent, and begin imposing the levy on some essential goods and services as part of a wider tax overhaul. The 12 percent VAT would be a general tariff covering most goods and services, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Monday, as parliament began deliberating the proposal. The VAT would also be broadened beyond the existing single-tariff structure so that certain items could carry a rate of 5 to 25 percent — for example, depending on the price of the products.
APPAREL
Burberry CEO to step down
British luxury fashion house Burberry Group PLC yesterday said that its chief executive officer, Marco Gobbetti, would leave the group at the end of the year and return to Italy. It comes one month after the pandemic-hit group announced a strong sales recovery. “The board and I are naturally disappointed by Marco’s decision, but we understand and fully respect his desire to return to Italy after nearly 20 years abroad,” chairman Gerry Murphy said in a statement. Gobbetti is to leave after nearly five years in the role. “With Burberry re-energized and firmly set on a path to strong growth, I feel that now is the right time for me to step down,” Gobbetti added in the statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
UK, Singapore to cut barriers
The government has started negotiations with Singapore on cutting barriers to digital trade, seeking to go further than the rollover free-trade agreement that they struck when Britain left the EU. The two sides want to make it easier for companies to trade by using technology such as e-contracts and e-signatures, the Department for International Trade said in a statement. Singapore is the kingdom’s 21st-largest trading partner globally, accounting for 1.2 percent of the kingdom’s total trade. “Our ambition is to make the UK a global hub for services and digital trade,” Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss said.
BANKING
Kakao Bank plans IPO
Kakao Bank, the Internet-only lender backed by South Korea’s Kakao Corp, is planning to raise as much as US$2.3 billion in an initial public offering (IPO). The bank is selling 65.45 million new shares at between 33,000 won and 39,000 won (US$292 and US$35) apiece, a company filing showed yesterday. At the top end of the range, the company would raise 2.55 trillion won and have a market capitalization of more than US$16 billion, based on the total outstanding stock after the debut. The listing could make Kakao Bank the third most-valuable lender in South Korea, after KB Financial Group Inc and Shinhan Financial Group Co.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day