Cabinet highlights programs affected by blocked budgetBy Chen Yu-fu, Lin Tse-yuan and Jason Pan / Staff reportersDisaster mitigation projects, social welfare benefits, public transport subsidies, and many programs affecting society and people’s livelihood are in jeopardy because opposition parties refuse to pass this year’s general budget, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. It is the first time in Taiwan’s history that the general budget for the next year has not been approved before the end of the year. “We hope all parties can work together to approve the budget for people’s livelihoods, strive forward for our nation and cooperate in this new year,” Cho said. Premier Cho Jung-tai, left, and Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu gesture to each other during the national flag-raising ceremony yesterday at the Presidential Office in Taipei. “Cabinet agencies have done much to become a strong pillar of support for outlying counties and enhance their connections with Taiwan proper, creating numerous infrastructure projects to promote tourism and economic growth, and improve the livelihood of residents,” Cho said.

Institute develops resilient banana typeBy Yang Yuan-ting and Esme Yeh / Staff reportersThe Taiwan Banana Research Institute has developed a Panama disease-resistant banana variety, Tai-Chiao No. Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Banana Research InstituteThe institute continued to utilize the findings to cultivate the new disease-resistance banana variety, TC9, with the goal of bringing it to the global market. Most Panama disease-resistant Taiwanese banana varieties were found to have certain large chromosomal segments deleted, he said. Williams is the primary global commercial banana variety, largely grown in the Philippines and Latin America, but almost unable to resist Panama disease, Chiu said. TC9 is a cultivar developed based on Williams and has at least 70 percent resistance to Panama disease, she said.

Mataian River gets temporary bridgeON TIME: The contractor, which also built New Taipei City’s Danjiang Bridge, also began work on a new permanent bridge on Wednesday according to scheduleBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterA temporary steel bridge over the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in Hualien County opened for traffic yesterday after the original bridge was destroyed by flooding on Sept. 23 last year. Torrential rain brought by the outer rainbands of Typhoon Ragasa led to the collapse of a barrier lake along the Mataian River, killing 18 people and causing massive infrastructure damage, including the bridge over the river. Vehicles drive on a temporary steel bridge over the Mataian River in Hualien County after it opened to traffic yesterday. Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei TimesThe temporary bridge, which features one through lane and one slow lane in each direction, opened for traffic at 10am, one month earlier than initially scheduled. The riverbed access path, which was built before the temporary steel bridge, would be removed within one week for the Water Resources Agency to carry out dredging work, Lin said.

Shovel-wielding barber thrives on Africa’s social mediaAP, KIAMBU, KenyaSafari Martins led his client Ian Njenga into a sparse shack on the rural roadside in Kiambu, at the edge of metropolitan Nairobi. The popularity of Martins and other content creator barbers has come amid the breakneck growth of social media in Kenya. In January 2023, there were just 10.6 million social media users in the country, market research group DataReportal said. With monetization of social media content often benchmarked to Western digital advertising rates, finding success online can also bring a relative windfall to Kenyans. “Barbers get viral on social media, but I feel like they are not respected,” Martins said.

Chip exports drive record year for South KoreaCARS AND COMPUTERS: A year driven by South Korea’s tech industry and vehicle manufacturers helped them weather turbulent trade conditions with panache. AFP, SEOULSoaring global demand for semiconductors fueled by a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) sent South Korea’s exports to their highest-ever level last year, official data showed yesterday. Total exports last year were valued at more than US$700 billion, up 3.8 percent from the previous year, South Korean Ministry of Trade,Industry and Energy data showed. Semiconductor exports last month alone rose more than 40 percent year-on-year, posting gains for a 10th consecutive month and marking a record-high monthly figure. It “serves as an indicator of the South Korean economy’s solid resilience and growth potential,” he said.

Wiwynn, a server manufacturing arm of Wistron Corp (緯創) and a supplier of Nvidia Corp’s server racks, plans to invest US$220 million into its Mexican unit to boost cloud-based data center and data storage capacity, the ministry said. The company plans to finance its US unit, Wiwynn Technology Corp, with an additional US$250 million, it added. Photo: Liao Chia-ning, Taipei TimesContract notebook computer maker Compal plans to invest US$425 million in its US unit, Compal USA Technology Inc, to build its first server manufacturing plants there, the ministry said. Compal, which lags behind its local peers in tapping into the server market, plans to build its first US manufacturing hub in Taylor, Texas. It has leased a manufacturing facility for US$65.67 million and expects to begin volume production in the second half of this year.

US remains largest debtor to TaiwanGROWING OWINGS: While Luxembourg and China swapped the top three spots, the US continued to be the largest exposure for Taiwan for the 41st consecutive quarter The US remained the largest debtor nation to Taiwan’s banking sector for the 41st consecutive quarter at the end of September, after local banks’ exposure to the US market rose more than 2 percent from three months earlier, the central bank said. Exposure to the US increased to US$198.896 billion, up US$4.026 billion, or 2.07 percent, from US$194.87 billion in the previous quarter, data released by the central bank showed on Friday. Of the increase, about US$1.4 billion came from banks’ investments in securitized products and interbank loans in the US, while another US$2.6 billion stemmed from trust assets, including mutual funds,By Chen Cheng-hui

Australia ‘disappointed’ with China’s beef tariffsAFP, SYDNEYAustralia’s government is “disappointed” with China’s decision to impose new beef import tariffs, with one industry group warning the move could damage trade worth over A$1 billion between the two countries. The country also said it would suspend part of a free-trade agreement with Australia covering beef to temporarily help the domestic industry get through difficulties. The tariffs follow China’s beef price trending downwards in recent years, with analysts blaming oversupply and a lack of demand as the world’s second-largest economy has slowed. At the same time, Chinese beef imports from countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Australia have surged. Investigators found that beef imports had damaged China’s domestic industry, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Wednesday.

Betrayal of intergenerational justiceBy Hsieh Chia-hao 謝家豪As a teacher working on the front lines of education, I face young people every day who are about to go out into the big, wide world. When I saw the blue and white camps joining forces to push through amendments to halt pension reforms, I felt only one thing — this is no minor institutional adjustment, but a betrayal of intergenerational justice. The original purpose of the pension reforms was never to make military personnel, civil servants, or teachers suffer. The pension reforms are not perfect, but halting reform is certainly wrong. This is not a victory for the blue and white camps; it is a collective failure of our responsibility to the next generation.

EDITORIAL: Unity the answer to China’s liesThe Yomiuri Shimbun on Saturday last week reported that China has been using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology to intervene in foreign elections. The documents showed that China had used AI to drive large-scale propaganda campaigns in Taiwan and Hong Kong to shape public opinion. The documents showed that GoLaxy used a smart propaganda system to identify and surveil key public opinion influencers, and build psychological profiles. Being on the front line opposing China’s multifaceted coercion tactics, Taiwan has long been targeted with cognitive warfare attacks. As Lai said: “At this critical moment, unity among Taiwanese to counter misinformation and disinformation constitutes the strongest defense of our democratic homeland.”

Ukraine medics seek peace in mountainsAFP, UNDISCLOSED, UkraineUkrainian war medic Roma Zukh has learned a hard rule during the Russian invasion — do not get too close to colleagues. Ukrainian military medics dance at a mountain retreat in Ukraine’s western Zakarpattia region on Oct. 24 last year. More than 1,000km away from the battlefield at a 10-day mountain retreat, designed to help them recover, Zukh’s rule was being put to the test. After evening sessions with a psychologist, the medics dined in a local restaurant decorated with mountain paintings and fairy lights. Within just a few days, the medics had grown tight, forming a WhatsApp group to stay connected once they returned to the front.

Chinese AI firms drive wave of IPO action in Hong KongBloombergChinese artificial intelligence (AI) firms are leading a wave of listings in Hong Kong, aiming to capitalize on recent market momentum. Another 10 companies are set to start trading in Hong Kong this month. A bull statue is pictured in font of screens showing Hang Seng data at Exchange Square in Hong Kong on Aug. 18, 2023. Other companies planning to list in Hong Kong this month include image sensor manufacturer OmniVision Integrated Circuits Group (豪威集成電路) and memory device maker GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc (兆易創新). The performances of recent IPOs in Hong Kong have been mixed.

SoftBank increases its stake in OpenAI to 11 percentAFP, TOKYOJapanese tech investor Softbank Group Corp yesterday said that its stake in OpenAI is now about 11 percent after completing the second stage of a US$41 billion investment in the maker of ChatGPT. Having made colossal profits as well as losses on previous investments, flamboyant founder Masayoshi Son has pivoted Softbank toward artificial intelligence (AI). The company in April announced its planned investment of up to US$40 billion in OpenAI. A man walks past a Softbank sign in Tokyo on Nov. 11. Softbank and OpenAI, with Oracle Corp, are also leading the US$500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the US.

Manila ‘warmly welcomes’ Taiwan recruitment center‘ABUSIVE’ PRACTICES: Most migrant workers in Taiwan are recruited through brokers, and they pay expenses to brokers in their home countries before employmentStaff writer, with CNAThe Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) on Tuesday said it “warmly welcomes” Taiwan’s plan to set up its first cross-border recruitment center in the Philippines to enable Taiwanese employers to directly hire Philippine migrant workers. “This initiative reflects the growing partnership between the Philippines and Taiwan and marks an important step toward more ethical, transparent and worker-centered recruitment,” office Chairwoman and Resident Representative Corazon Avecilla-Padiernos said in a statement. MECO serves as the Philippines’ de facto embassy in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties. The Ministry of Labor’s logo is displayed at the ministry in Taipei in an undated photograph. Although the recruitment center has yet to open, Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Friday last week said that the ministry has a special task force in place to take applications for workers from Taiwanese employers starting today.

NIA halts use of facial recognition system over concernsBy Yang Shih-yi and Jason Pan / Staff reportersThe National Immigration Agency (NIA) has suspended the use of a face recognition system developed by domestic firm Papago Inc (研勤科技), citing reports of alleged data theft and national security breaches due to the use of China-made components. Taipei-based Papago is a major manufacturer of navigation tools, vehicle camcorders, and facial recognition systems, and is listed on the TAIEX. Photo: Taipei TimesChinese-language Mirror Media on Tuesday published a report based on insider sources’ accounts saying that the company’s facial recognition systems use China-made motherboards and software resulting in data leaks. Papago chairman Jian Liang-yih (簡良益) yesterday in a public statement said that the firm’s facial recognition system is developed domestically and it conducts an internal testing before the release of its products. The ministry added that “besides the NIA, other agencies of the ministry and the Ministry of Economic Affairs have installed the system.”