To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) once again joined the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” initiative. Led by chairman Wu Tzu-hsin (吳自心) and chief executive officer Chou Chien-lung (周建隆), female executives and managers gathered in support at the exchange in Taipei on Friday, reaffirming TAIFEX’s commitment to gender equality and inclusion under the “TAIFEX Cares” spirit.
The “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” campaign is a collaborative effort by the WFE in partnership with several international organizations, including UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges, UN Global Compact and UN Women. This year, more than 110 exchanges and clearinghouses worldwide participated, underscoring the capital markets’ ongoing focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
TAIFEX has long integrated environmental, social and governance (ESG) and corporate social responsibility into business strategy, fostering a fair and inclusive workplace. As of this year, women represent approximately 34 percent of the exchange’s workforce and 45 percent of its management positions, and hold half of executive roles. TAIFEX also encourages domestic futures commission merchants to increase female board representation to one-third to enhance diversity at the decision-making level and support the industry’s long-term development.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Futures Exchange
Beyond workplace, TAIFEX promotes gender equality through community engagement, including its continued support for the “Young Women’s Independent Living Program,” which assists young women from disadvantaged families. TAIFEX also sponsors the Xinzhuang Elementary School Girls’ handball team. Through these efforts, TAIFEX aims to expand opportunities for women and contribute to a more inclusive society.
As Taiwan remains among Asia’s leaders in gender equality, TAIFEX will continue to leverage its role by working alongside market participants to foster a more inclusive and sustainable financial marketplace and advance long-term progress toward gender equality.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,