Korea Takes on Taiwan in Semi Conductor Surge Investment

President Moon Jae-In of the South Korean government has announced that 510 trillion South Korean won ($452bn) will be invested in semiconductors by 2030.  1 USD is roughly 1100+ Korean won.

South Korea is currently world #2 behind Taiwan in manufacturing capacity. 

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are leading the investment. 

On the European side, as part of its Digital Compass plan, the EU declared in March its intent to increase its share of world manufacturing from 10% (2010) to 20% by 2030. 

On the US front, Intel has committed to build two new factories in Chandler, Arizona for $20bn. Hsinchu-headquartered Taiwan's TSMC is already building out manufacturing capacity in Phoenix, Arizona, as part of a $12bn build out.

Currency War and the Big Five Reservists

By buying dollars and other currencies, China holds down the value of the yuan and makes its exports more competitive. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn does not like this and wants China to let the yuan appreciate, but China does not want to move too fast and hurt export businesses. China saves and exports, US spends and imports. This results in global imbalances.
Yuan in Chinese means round object or round coin. Difference between yuan and renminbi is like difference between Pounds and Sterling.
Last month South Korea's foreign reserves hit a record $290bn USD, the world's fifth. Who are the biggest? China, Japan, Russia and Taiwan. 80% of the world's largest FX reserve countries are in Asia. SK is one of the countries recovering fastest from the crisis. BoK estimates this year's growth to be 5.9%.

American Branding Made in Taiwan (without Tethering or Multitouch)

HTC, the Taiwanese company listed on TAISE:2498, is a handset producer which helped to create Google's latest contribution to the smartphone market, the Nexus One. It is somewhat surprisingly feature-scanty. The device will not support tethering, the use of a mobile phone to supply Internet access to a laptop via Bluetooth or USB cable. It also will not support multitouch (allowing user to interact by placing two or more fingers on the screen). HTC has been described as a white-label handset vendor (a white-label product is one which is produced by one company and rebranded by another). White-label products can extend to ecommerce services (e.g. amazon running the e-store of waterstones).