Airlines thank Cabinet
The nation's airlines must work further with the government to restore tourists' confidence in taking planes again, Mike Lo (樂大信), chairman of the Taipei Airlines Association (台北市航空運輸公會) said yesterday. The association represents six local airlines.
Lo made the remark a day after the government agreed to cut airport fees for locally based international carriers by 15 percent for six months, retroactively starting on April 1. Domestic airports would also cut landing and other related charges by 50 percent for one year.
"We appreciate the government's move to cut aircraft landing and other charges," Lo said. "But the move is only temporary as the fundamental problem we are facing today is falling passenger traffic."
The cuts would cost the government about NT$940 million (US$27 million) in airport revenues, the government estimates.
US protects display patents
The US International Trade Com-mission has decided to institute an investigation on alleged violation of an American company's patent rights by two Taipei-based companies, according to a news release from the commission.
The products at issue in this investigation are digital display controllers that process incoming video images for display on a computer monitor.
The investigation is based on a complaint filed by Genesis Microchip (Delaware) Inc, of Alviso, California. The commission has identified two Taipei-based companies and one American company as respondents in this investigation. An evidentiary hearing will be held in the near future.
Chunghwa sell-off goes slowly
The government's NT$25 billion (US$718 million) sale of a stake in Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) fizzled for a fourth day, with investors buying only 2.9 percent of the total shares on offer in the former phone monopoly.
The government said it sold 14.89 million Chunghwa Telecom shares today at an average price of NT$50 a share, raising NT$744 million (US$21 million).
ProMOS to build US$2.5bn fab
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the country's second-largest maker of memory chips for personal computers, said it plans to start building a US$2.5 billion chip plant next year.
"We're planning to start production in 2005," vice president Albert Lin (林育中) said. "Two semiconductor companies have expressed an interest in forming a venture."
ProMOS would provide about half of the funding for the plant internally and the other half from bank loans. ProMOS plans to diversify from production of commodity computer-memory chips, its main product, with the opening of the plant.
Formosa to make plasma panels
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) this month will become the first company in the country to start making large flat-panel displays used in wall-mounted televisions, a local newspaper reported, citing Formosa Plastics president Lee Chih-tsuen (李志村).
The company plans to spend NT$16 billion (US$460 million) this year for expansion after spending NT$20 billion to build a plant that will make so-called plasma displays in partnership with Fujitsu Ltd, the report said.
Formosa Plastics expects the plant, which will be the world's biggest, to help it enter the Chinese market with low-priced products, it said.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued to lose ground against its US counterpart, dropping NT$0.007 to close at NT$34.813 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$320 million.
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