President Lee Teng-hui (
Heinrich von Pierer, chairman of Germany's Siemens AG, is in Taiwan trying to reverse the Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corporation's (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) decision to give the priority negotiating rights to the Japanese Shinkansen group.
Pierer lobbied Lee a day after Eurotrain announced that it has asked a Taipei court for an injunction to suspend the rail talks.
But Lee told Pierer the competitive bidding was a matter between businesses and he could not get involved, the Presidential Office said in a statement.
Eurotrain has been vying for the railway since 1997. The 345-kilometer system would link the cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung.
Despite lengthy negotiations with Eurotrain, the THSRC awarded priority negotiating rights to the Japanese group on Dec. 28.
There had been rumors that THSRC favored Shinkansen over Eurotrain because the Taiwan government wants to forge closer ties with Japan, but THSRC had denied there were political factors.
However, Eurotrain said it has a binding agreement with THSRC and the Taiwanese company violated that agreement by talking to the Japanese.
Eurotrain wants to provide the main hardware for the rail system, estimated to cost NT$430 billion (US$13.5 billion).
THSRC had reacted strongly to Eurotrain's legal action and vowed to continue negotiations with the Shinkansen group.
Edward Lin (
The Shinkansen group is led by Mistui & Company and comprises Mitsubishi, Marubeni, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
Construction of the high-speed rail system is set to start next spring and is scheduled to make its first run Oct. 31, 2005.
In related news, THSRC has hired Bank of America Corp to advise the company in its international negotiations to buy railway equipment.
The biggest US bank will assist the company in negotiations for the purchase of trains and control systems for the rail construction project.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS