19/07/2025

BIZ & FINANCE SATURDAY | JULY 19, 2025

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China eyes new measures to boost economy

Meta hires Apple AI experts to boost Superintelligence BENGALURU: Meta Platforms has hired Apple artificial intelligence (AI) researchers Mark Lee and Tom Gunter for its Superintelligence Labs team, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, as it intensifies its pursuit for top AI talent. The social media giant is among several tech firms that have struck high-profile deals and doled out multi million-dollar pay packages to fast track development of machines that could surpass humans intelligence. Lee recently left Apple and has started at Meta, while Gunter is set to join soon, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Their exit follows Ruoming Pang, who previously left Apple for a multi million-dollar compensation package at Meta, according to a media report earlier this month. Lee and Gunter both worked closely with Pang, the Bloomberg report said on Thursday. Pang was the head of Apple’s Foundation Models team and responsible for advanced AI features, sources have told Reuters. A Meta spokesman declined to comment on the report, while Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday that his social media platform would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centres. – Reuters RHB Bank targets regional expansion via Singapore arm SINGAPORE: RHB Singapore, part of Malaysia’s fourth-biggest banking group RHB, will be key in driving its regional expansion plans and help meet targets which include hitting a return on equity of 12% by 2027, a senior executive said yesterday. Singapore’s low taxes, political stability and its location as a gateway to the growing Southeast Asian markets are luring ultra-rich investors and financial institutions, making it a top regional financial hub. RHB Singapore appointed Goh Ken-Yi as its new CEO earlier this year to advance the bank’s digital capabilities and deliver innovative financial solutions, among others. Pretax profit at RHB Singapore almost doubled last year, jumping 95.6% year-on-year to S$98.7 million (RM326 million). “RHB Singapore’s exceptional progress exemplifies the kind of forward momentum we aim to replicate across our key markets,“ RHB Group managing director Mohd Rashid Mohamad said at a press briefing. Aside from Singapore, RHB has international operations across southeast Asia in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Brunei. According to its 2024 annual report, the bank’s return on equity was 10.04% last year. The bank also aims to reduce its cost-to-income ratio to under 44.8% by 2027, and gross impaired loan ratio of below 1.3% by 2027. – Reuters

“We are also promoting new forms of consumption... for example Pop Mart, these kinds of new trends, new fashions and styles... the Labubu phenomenon has swept the world,” he said. Beijing is battling to shift towards a growth model propelled more by domestic demand than the traditional key drivers of infrastructure investment, manufacturing and exports. That desired transformation has become more urgent since Donald Trump came to office. The US president has imposed tariffs on China and other key trade partners, disrupting trade norms and threatening Beijing’s exports at a crucial time for its economy. The two superpowers have sought to de-escalate their row after reaching a framework for a deal at talks in London last month, but observers warn of lingering uncertainty. Wang said yesterday that despite “storms and rain”, Washington remained an important trading partner. Even though China-US trade has declined proportionally for each country, overall bilateral trade has remained stable, Wang said. In a sign of progress, US tech giant Nvidia said this week that it would resume sales of its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China after Washington pledged to remove licensing restrictions that had halted exports. China’s commerce ministry acknowledged the US decision in a statement yesterday afternoon, even as it called for Washington to “abandon its zero-sum mentality”. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has met with Chinese leaders this week in Beijing, telling journalists Wednesday that his firm was “doing our best” to serve the country’s vast semiconductor market. – AFP What bothers Japanese firms is Trump’s unpredictability and the complexity of the tariffs, according to government-backed SME support organisation Jetro. Since February, the group has received more than 2,000 enquiries from members about US tariffs, with a flood of requests since June asking for “the latest information” as the deadline approaches. Mitsuwa Electric boss Miyazaki admits worrying about Trump’s threat of pharmaceuticals tariffs of 200%, or if medical equipment is targeted. He said that its wide product range and diverse customer base have protected it so far. This is also vital for other firms to survive, said Zenkai Inoue, an SME expert and professor at the Kyushu Institute of Information Sciences. “I’m proposing a‘tricycle strategy’, which means you have to have (at least) three customers in different regions,“ he told AFP.

will be fully prepared.” Asked specifically about China’s reliance on exports, Wang suggested the government was preparing policies to “further stimulate the momentum of our consumption development”. “China’s economy is improving, and the long-term fundamentals have not changed, the consumption market’s characteristics of great potential, strong resilience and vitality have not changed,” he said. Wang also namechecked Beijing based toymaker Pop Mart, whose Labubu monster dolls have become a must-have item internationally, adorning the handbags of celebrities such as Rihanna and Dua Lipa.

o Govt admits complex challenges ahead, urges focus on domestic demand

BEIJING: China has a “plentiful” toolbox to avoid an economic slump in the second half of the year, its commerce minister said yesterday as he admitted it faced a “very severe and complex situation”. Growth hit 5.2% in the second quarter, official data showed Tuesday, but analysts have warned that more must be done to boost sluggish domestic consumption as exports face the knock-on effects of global trade turmoil.

Retail sales rose far less than expected last month and were much weaker than May, suggesting efforts to kickstart consumption have fallen flat. “We are still facing a very severe and complex situation. Global changes are unstable and uncertain. Some of our policies will offer some new responses according to the times and circumstances,” Wang Wentao told journalists at a news briefing. “Our toolbox is plentiful, and we

Beijing taps into youth trends and tech outreach to revive confidence in its economic future. – REUTERSPIX

Japan’s SMEs ready to adapt to Trump tariffs TOKYO: Small and medium-sized firms (SME) like Mitsuwa Electric that form the backbone of Japan’s economy have weathered many storms over the decades, and company president Yuji Miyazaki is hopeful they will also withstand Donald Trump. have no choice but to import those parts regardless of tariffs,“ the descendant of the firm’s founder said. With 100 employees, Mitsuwa Electric is not a household name. But like millions of other SMEs that account for 99.7 % of Japan’s companies, it is world-class in its specialist niche. limited so far, with one auto sector customer asking it to lower prices. “All we can do is to adapt to any changes in the business environment,“ Miyazaki said. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has sent his tariffs envoy Ryosei Akazawa to Washington seven times since April to try to win relief from the tariffs.

As part of a campaign against friend and foe, the US president has threatened 25 % tariffs on imports of Japanese goods from Aug 1, having already imposed tough levies on its vehicles, steel and aluminium. However, Miyazaki told AFP that he was confident. “We are providing very specialised products for specialised industries, where it is difficult to change suppliers or supplying countries just because of boosted tariffs,“ he said on a tour of the 92 year-old firm. “I’m not worried too much, because if American companies can’t produce parts on their own, they

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was due to meet Ishiba and Akazawa yesterday in Tokyo. But the prime minister’s apparently maximalist strategy of insisting all tariffs are cut to zero have been criticised in some parts, especially as Aug 1 approaches. US-bound exports of Japanese vehicles – a sector tied to 8% of Japanese jobs – tumbled around 25% in May and June. The lack of a deal isn’t helping Ishiba’s popularity ahead of upper house elections on Sunday that may end Ishiba’s premiership after less than a year.

It began making light bulb filaments and now produces coils, rods, needles, plates, pipes and wires for a range of goods including car lights, photocopiers and X-ray machines. In 2022, it won a Guinness World Record for the smallest commercially available metal coil, with a diameter around half that of a human hair. Mitsuwa’s customers are across Asia, Europe and North America and include Japanese engineering giant Toshiba and Toyota-affiliated parts maker Koito Manufacturing. Miyazaki said the impact of US tariffs on the company’s business is