HONG KONG
Economy enters recession
The territory in the third quarter slid into recession for the first time in a decade, weighed down by increasingly violent anti-government protests and a protracted US-China trade dispute. The economy shrank 3.2 percent in the July-to-September quarter from the preceding period, contracting for a second straight quarter and meeting the technical definition of a recession, preliminary government data released yesterday showed. From a year earlier, GDP contracted 2.9 percent. The readings were the weakest for the territory since the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
BANKING
Protests hinder Fubon plan
Fubon Financial Holding Co’s (富邦金控) plan to sell its Hong Kong banking business is stalling as protests in the territory hamper talks and undermine the unit’s valuation, people with knowledge of the matter said. Negotiations with potential buyers, mostly from China, have slowed in the past few months and it would probably take longer to reach a deal, the people said. Fubon operates 20 branches and a securities services center in Hong Kong, its Web site showed. A representative for Taipei-based Fubon said that the firm does not comment on market speculation.
E-COMMERCE
Alibaba mulls smaller debut
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) is deciding between launching a sharply reduced US$10 billion Hong Kong share sale this month or delaying the deal until next year as global uncertainty mounts, people familiar with the matter said. China’s largest company is weighing its options for the territory’s biggest first-time sale of stock since 2010, but the window for pulling off its mega-deal this year is closing fast. It must proceed with a required listing hearing — either after its earnings report today or the Nov. 11 Singles’ Day shopping prmotion — or risk postponing a deal altogether until next year, the sources said. Alibaba is reluctant to drag things out, as uncertainty mounts around US-China tensions and the global macroeconomic outlook, they added.
PETROLEUM
CPC disciplines employees
Three employees of CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) have been disciplined over an incident on Tuesday last week in which a Tigerair Taiwan Ltd (台灣虎航) airplane was damaged during refueling at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, CPC said on Wednesday. The state-run oil refiner said that it has given two employees a major and two minor demerits, and a manager one demerit, saying that they failed to follow standard operating procedure during the refueling. Human negligence was the cause of the damage, CPC said, adding that it has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Economic Affairs to improve its service.
ARCHITECTURE
Taipei 101 awarded honor
Taipei 101, the capital’s iconic landmark and a hot tourist destination, has been selected as one of the world’s most influential tall buildings of the past 50 years. The management of Taipei 101, which was the world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2010, said in a statement on Wednesday that it was awarded the honor by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat for its sustainable skyscraper development, which has made it a global icon and has set a worldwide precedent in the field. It is the first such honor that the council has awarded in 50 years, the statement said.
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