■TOURISM
Ministry to push local shops
The Ministry of Economic Affairs will push to expand the distribution network for products specific to localities in the latter half of the year, a ministry official said yesterday. Michelle Lin (林美雪), deputy director general of the ministry’s Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, said that by adopting the local marketing concept of “One Town One Product” from Japan, the association started from 1989 to help stimulate distinctive local industry by integrating local resources and specialties. However, the display and distribution network for these types of products is still limited to places such as the Taiwan High Speed Rail’s Chiayi Station, Nantou’s scenic Sun Moon Lake resort and the Dream Mall in Kaohsiung. Lin said that 70 percent of the products are agricultural or area specialities, with the local governments deciding on the display and distribution network.
■FINANCE
China to allow managed float
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) said the country would gradually adopt a floating exchange rate system, but it must be controllable and initiated by China itself. Hu’s comments to a summit of China, India, Brazil and Russia were made on Thursday, but posted on Friday on the Web site of China’s Foreign Ministry. The comments are in line with what Chinese officials have been saying on the country’s currency in response to pressure from the US and other countries that want the yuan to be allowed to rise in value.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Companies misled patients
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Novartis AG and Astellas Pharma Inc used misleading promotions for cancer, pain and bladder drugs, US regulators said in letters released on Friday. A medical journal advertisement by Glaxo “omits important information” about the safety and effectiveness of cancer drug Arzerra, the Food and Drug Administration said in a letter to the British drugmaker. In a separate letter, the administration said a promotional Web page had overstated the effectiveness of Glaxo’s and Astellas Pharma’s overactive-bladder drug Vesicare.
■CONGLOMERATE
GE earnings fall 32 percent
General Electric Co (GE) said on Friday that its first-quarter earnings fell 32 percent, but the industrial and financial bellwether said it saw signs of improvement in its own results and the broader economy. The results from GE, one of the world’s largest companies that operates in most major segments of the economy, signals that some sectors may be in recovery from the deep recession. GE said there were positive indications in commercial aviation, freight rail and advertising. The company earned US$1.87 billion, or US$0.17 per share, after deducting preferred dividends in the January-March period, down from US$2.75 billion, or US$0.26 per share, a year ago — a 32 percent drop. Revenue fell 5 percent to US$36.6 billion from US$38.4 billion a year ago.
■BANKING
Bank of America in black
Bank of America returned to profit in the first quarter of this year, the firm said on Friday, reporting better than expected profit of US$3.2 billion. After a boardroom shake-up and losses of more than US$2 billion last year, the largest US bank returned to the black, providing a glimmer of hope that its crisis-inflicted wounds could be on the mend.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
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
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit