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Fubon's plans praised
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) said Thursday it welcome a plan by Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) to introduce corporate governance into the Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大) after a management reshuffle late last week that will give Fubon control of the mobile-phone service company.

"That move to enhance corporate governance standards in Taiwan Cellular will not only be good to the company's shareholders, but also good to both banks and debt investors," Taiwan Ratings, a Standard & Poor's affiliate, said in a statement.

Fubon Group vice chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) was elected on June 9 as acting chairman of the nation's biggest mobile-phone service provider, replacing Jack Sun (孫道存).

The ratings company attributed Taiwan Cellular's growing market share and strong profitability to its accurate business judgement and efficient marketing strategy over the past few years.

But Taiwan Cellular's complicated ownership structure and its lower financial transparency pre-sent challenges for most shareholderss, Taiwan Ratings said.

New transit deal signed
A local construction company, Kung Sing Engineering Corp (工信工程), signed an agreement yesterday with Taipei City's Department of Rapid Transit Systems on a NT$32.87 billion contract to extend a rapid-transit line in Taipei.

Kung Sing will start work on the project by the end of this month and finish it in 2008, officials at the city government said yesterday after a signing ceremony.

Kung Sing chose Cana-da's Bombardier Inc, the world's largest maker of passenger-rail cars, to supply the electrical and mechanical systems for the 15km extension of the Mucha Line to the Neihu area.

The NT$18.5 billion-order also includes 202 vehicles, according to Kung Sing.

In April, Bombardier said it would also supply electrical and mechanical systems for the 12-station extension, to be known as the Neihu Line, and will also be responsible for retrofitting the Mucha Line, its 102 vehicles and some equipment in its 12 stations.

Bombardier plans to complete its part of work in three phases, including the provision of electrical and mechanical systems for a 10km-section and 60 vehicles by the summer of 2007.

Taiwan enjoys trade surplus
Exports totaled US$62.5 million and imports amounted to US$56.7 million in the first five months of this year, resulting in a trade surplus of US$5.7 million, according to central bank statistics released yesterday.

The bank said the export and import trade was 13 percent and 23.3 percent respectively more than the same period last year.

Last month, Taiwan had a trade surplus of US$733 million, with exports and imports amounting to US$12.5 million and US$11.8 million, respectively. The export and import trade last month was 2.6 percent and 19.6 percent more than a year earlier, the bank said.

CKS numbers rising
The number of passengers passing through the CKS International Airport broke the 10,000 mark for the second consecutive day, an airport official said yesterday.

He said the airport had 5,264 arriving and 6,814 departing passengers on Wednesday, with a total of 12,078 passengers going through the airport. It had 165 arriving and departing flights on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the airport served 10,928 passengers.

NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.015 to close at NT$34.667 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$362 million.
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