■ Airlines
AirAsia expands overseas
Malaysia's no-frills airline AirAsia plans to kick off its first overseas route to Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket from January next year, reports said yesterday. Transport minister Chan Kong Choy said the airline would fly from Malaysia's northern Langkawi island. Chan was reported by the Star daily as saying Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his Thai counterpart Thaksin Shinawatra discussed conducting joint promotions of the two islands last month. The airline, which currently owns 11 Boeing 737 aircrafts, is legendary for its ticket fares which can go lower than bus tickets. AirAsia serves 13 destinations in Malaysia and 45 percent of its bookings are made through an Internet booking facility. The airline first began domestic flights in Dec. 2001, and in the fiscal year ending June, the company posted a net profit of 30 million ringit (US$7.9 million).
■ Telecom
KDDI goes to China
KDDI Corp, Japan's second-largest mobile-phone operator, plans to offer data-communication services in China. The introduction comes as more Japanese companies in China are in need of communicating with their headquarters at home, Tokyo-based KDDI spokesman Yosuke Fukuma said, partially confirming an earlier report in the Nihon Keizai newspaper. KDDI will form a venture with a Chinese company to install and maintain computer systems, the paper said, adding the partnership will begin next year. KDDI will also set up two sales offices in China this year, the report said. KDDI expects to double sales from data services in China to more than ¥10 billion in the year ending March 2006, Fukuma said.
■ Germany
Recession is official
Germany's economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the first quarter compared to the quarter before, the state statistical agency said yesterday, confirming the country slid into a shallow recession. The second-quarter figure follows a 0.2 percent contraction in the first quarter, and two consecutive quarters of falling output is one common definition of recession. Technically, Germany was already in a recession, since the zero growth figure from the last quarter of last year was rounded up from a minuscule 0.03 percent drop. Compared to the second quarter a year ago, the economy shrank 0.6 percent. Germany is mired in a third year of near-zero growth, a source of political embarrassment to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder because the weak growth hasn't been enough to create new jobs.
■ Telecom
Unions go to customers
Unions of Verizon Communications Inc, seeking an edge in contract talks that have stalled over job-security issues, opened a Web site to collect names of customers willing to switch their service to AT&T Corp. The unions of the largest US local-phone company are asking 3.5 million union members and their families who are Verizon customers in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia to add their names to the list. The telephone service would be switched if the talks break down or Verizon unilaterally transfers jobs, the unions said. The contract expired Aug. 3. Verizon has been negotiating with its unions since mid-June, trying to avoid a strike that could cause phone-repair and installation delays in 13 states.
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER: In Germany, the sector would be developed around Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plant, and extend to Poland and the Czech Republic The Executive Yuan’s economic diplomacy task force has approved programs aimed at bolstering the nation’s chip diplomacy with Japan and European nations. The task force in its first meeting had its operational mechanism and organizational structure confirmed, with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) the convener, and Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Minister Without Portfolio Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) the deputy conveners. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) would be the convener of the task force’s strategy group in charge of policy planning for economic diplomacy. The meeting was attended by the heads of the National Development Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the
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