Print

Mail

wiki links

Business briefs

China Development shares fall
Shares in China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) fell NT$0.75, or 5.3 percent, to close at NT$13.40 on the news the company's chairman Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) was released from detention by the Bureau of Investigation after a day of questioning related to a real-estate development scandal.

Liu, a financial adviser to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), in September denied allegations that he received more than NT$1 billion in kickbacks in 1998 related to financing for a failed amusement park project in southern Taiwan.

Dell, Sony to increase orders
Dell Computer Corp, the world's largest personal computer maker, will order 30 percent more from Taiwan companies next year, a Chinese-language newspaper has reported.

Sony Corp will increase orders by 10 percent to US$3.7 billion next year, the newspaper said. The report didn't give specific figures for Dell.

Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co, International Business Machines Corp, Apple Computer Inc and Sony, each placed orders of more than US$2.5 billion with Taiwan electronics makers this year, the paper said, citing the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Drug company to close plant
GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the world's second-largest drugmaker, will close a Taiwan plant that makes the painkiller Panadol, firing 52 people, about an eighth of its staff in the nation.

The 27-year-old factory in Tamsui will close by Dec. 31, the company said in a faxed statement. The shutdown follows a review of GlaxoSmithKline's manufacturing strategy aimed at increasing efficiency and cutting costs.

The UK drugmaker, formed by the merger of Glaxo Wellcome Plc and SmithKline Beecham Plc two years ago, employs about 400 people in Taiwan, said Rosa Chang, a spokeswoman at the Taiwan unit. Of those, 52 are at the drug plant, she said. The company's remaining operations on the island will mostly consist of sales and marketing.

Minister predicts solid growth
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) has said in an interview with a French newspaper that Taiwan will be able to register a 3.4 percent economic growth rate for next year.

The French business daily Les Echos, in a Taipei-datelined report Wednesday, also quoted Lin as having admitted that the relocation of a large number of Taiwan companies to China has presented a major challenge to the Taiwan government.

Noting that Taiwan is now a mature economy, Lin said the island can no longer expect an economic growth rate as high as those it has enjoyed in the past.

Nevertheless, he went on, Taiwan can still post an estimated 3.1 percent growth this year, thanks to its outstanding export record. "As for the coming year, we generally forecast the growth rate at 3.4 percent," Lin added.

Despite the recent setback in the reform of the island's rural credit cooperatives, Lin said that the government will continue its banking reforms with the aim of driving down the non-performing loan ratio by 5 percent within the next two years.

He stressed that the government has not backed down on its promise to overhaul Taiwan's poorly managed rural credit cooperatives.

NT dollar gains
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rose against its US counterpart, advancing NT$0.015 to close at NT$34.805 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.

Turnover was US$349, compared with the previous day's turnover of US$512.5 million
This story has been viewed 2219 times.