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Wang calls for openness
Taiwan must liberalize its stance with regard to investment in China or the nation will lose its competitive edge to the rest of the world, Formosa Plastics Group (台塑企業) chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) said yesterday.
Addressing the opening of the 2002 Polymer Processing Society Asian-Australian annual meeting, Wang said China's expansion is posing a bigger threat to his businesses and other companies as more Taiwan petrochemicals processors have shifted operations across the Taiwan Strait, lured by lower wages and other manufacturing costs.

Wang, who has repeatedly called for the government to relax direct links with China, said the group's overall business turnover has been steadily growing, but profit margins have been diminished substantially.

Sampo denies rumor
The Sampo Co (聲寶) denies it is interested in acquiring a stake in its troubled German rival Grundig, which is close to bankruptcy, the Financial Times Deutschland reported yesterday.

"We will not merge with a German company and we will not buy any of it either," Sampo spokesman Chen Pocang was quoted as saying.

The denial follows recent German press reports saying that the Taiwan-based electronics firm was planning to buy a stake in Grundig, Germany's leading television maker, to gain a foothold in the German market.

Grundig posted a loss of 150 million euros on sales of 1.28 billion euros and is forecasting a loss of 75 million euros this year.

Chipmaker buys competitor
Premier Microelectronics Devel-opment Corp (大將電子), a Taiwan textile maker and computer chip distributor, will take over chip designer Smartasic Technology Inc (晶磊半導體) to reorganize itself into an electronic company.

Premier Microelectronics said it will offer 4.35 of its shares for each of Smartasic's 47.5 million outstanding shares.

The transaction values Smartasic at NT$1.1 billion (US$31 million) based on Premier's closing stock price of NT$5.2.

Currency reserves bulge
Foreign currency reserves hit US$157.6 billion at the end of October, the world's third largest after that of Japan and China, the central bank said yesterday.

The figure marks a rise of nearly US$600 million from September and US$35 billion year-on-year.

The central bank attributed the rise in foreign reserves to the accumulation of interest.

According to available figures, Japan's foreign reserves totalled US$460 billion by the end of September and China's foreign reserves stood at US$253 billion at the end of August.

CPI falls in October
Consumer prices in October fell 1.65 percent from a year earlier, mainly due to falls in fruit and vegetable prices, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.

The consumer price index (CPI) in September was down a revised 0.75 percent.

October wholesale prices rose 2.14 percent from a year earlier, compared with a revised rise in September of 0.5 percent.

NT dollar closes stronger
The NT dollar had its strongest close against the US dollar in almost seven weeks on speculation the yen's gains against the greenback will make Japanese exports more expensive than Taiwan's goods.

The local currency rose NT$0.073 to close at NT$34.625, the highest closing level since Sept. 19, on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$450 million, compared with the previous day's US$346 million.

Agencies
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