Natural gas price up 3 percent
Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) will raise its selling prices of natural gas by an average of 2.95 percent because of increased import costs, the state-run oil company said in a statement.
Chinese Petroleum will increase prices of the gas it sells to households, industries and power companies, the company said.
Chinese Petroleum said the price increases are based on an import cost of NT$6.67 (US$0.19) a cubic meter for liquefied natural gas. LNG prices have risen about 20 percent since the end of December, the company said.
The price change will be effective from midnight tonight, Chinese Petroleum said. The company last adjusted its natural gas prices in January.
Poll finds cheap labor preferred
The impoverished youth from China work harder, are more responsible, and have better foreign language abilities than their Taiwanese counterparts, according to the results of a poll released yesterday by the 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行).
If given a free hand to hire employees, 53 percent of those polled said they would give preference to Chinese youth not only because they ask for lower pay, but also because they work harder, the poll said.
According to the survey, human resource executives think that Taiwanese youth, who have come to expect salaries that grant a tolerable standard of living, lag behind their counterparts in China, who are much more desperate to find any employment, in competitiveness. The executives said Taiwanese youth excel in several individual categories such as creativity, ability to express themselves, flexibility, problem-solving skills, general knowledge, social skills and are more computer savvy, polite and able to carry out tasks assigned to them.
In contrast, the Chinese youth were seen to lead their Taiwanese counterparts in foreign language abilities, diligence, specialized skills, team-work, internal coordination, planning and analysis, adherence to company policy, as well as in initiative and persistence. The Chinese were more willing to work overtime, which in this region often goes without additional pay.
MOEA to promote creativity
The Ministry of Economic Affairs will work out a set of concrete measures to step up the nation's cultural-creative industry in order to duplicate its production value and job opportunities, a government official said on Monday.
The official said that a ministry task force for the promotion of the cultural-creative industry called its second meeting in the Taipei World Trade Center to discuss how to promote the industry, along with representatives from the Council for Cultural Affairs, the Government Information Office and the Ministry of Education.
Chunghwa auction planned
The government will offer 500 million shares in Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to local investors before April 17, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
The deadline is the last day on which new investors will be entitled to the company's dividend payment for last year, the paper said.
The government also plans to offer another 1 billion Chunghwa Telecom shares to local investors in the second quarter, sell a 13.8 percent stake in Chunghwa overseas in the second half, and another 10 percent to private local investors, the report said.
NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.018 to close at NT$34.768 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$288 million.
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