Business briefs

Sogo eyes 101 deal
Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) is expected to finalize a deal with the Lend Lease Pty Ltd Taiwan (聯盛國際) next week to rent some 800 pings (2,644m2) in the yet-to-be-completed Taipei 101 Mall in Hsinyi District, Claire Chen (陳慶華), marketing manager at Lend Lease said.

The Australia-based Lend Lease is responsible for the retail planning, marketing and leasing for the 23,000-ping (76,027m2) shopping mall, which is slated to formally open on Nov. 14.

Based on the deal, Sogo will occupy the second level of the four-floor mall to sell women's cosmetics and fashion accessories. Chen said the retail giant may start soft-opening at the new venue in late October.

Sogo currently has nine outlets across the Taiwan Strait in cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian, Chengdu and Chongqing. It plans to establish another five outlets in China within next two years, company chairwoman Chung Chin (鍾琴) told the Central News Agency last week.

Formosa stumps up more cash
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) will invest NT$15 billion (US$434 million) more in a television-display plant that may become the world's largest, Chinese-language media reported.

The plant is ready for its second phase of investment after starting production of so-called plasma displays, which are used in televisions with screens measuring 42-inches diagonally and larger, the report said, citing company president Lee Chih-tsuen (李志村).

After the second phase is completed in 2005, the plant will be capable of making 70,000 screens a month, the report said.

Officials to scrap phone plan
The government will scrap a plan to allow imports of mobile phones from China because Beijing hasn't lowered trade barriers against Taiwan-made phones, said Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬), director of the Board of Foreign Trade.

Huang made the remark after a meeting on Monday with several electronics industry representatives including Rock Hsu (許勝雄), chairman of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufactures' Association (電電公會). They concluded that a glut of Chinese-made phones will hurt local manufacturers.

Motorola Inc expressed concern over the Chinese imports and said it may alter its financial commitment to Taiwan if the government decided to lift the ban on the phone imports from China.

The board will convene a meeting in August to review the import ban on Chinese goods including phones.

Domestic demand set for boost
The government and private sector will invest NT$600 billion (US$17.14 billion) over the next three years to expand domestic demand, Council for Economic Planning and Development Vice Chairman Chang Jing-sen (張景森)said.

Chang made the remarks as a follow-up to a recent Executive Yuan decision to spend NT$300 billion over the next three years to expand public construction.

Chang said that the council has initially planned to spend the NT$300 billion through subsidies, investments and loan guarantees to induce the private sector to invest a similar sum.

The Suao-Hualien Freeway, an extension of the Kaohsiung MRT system to neighboring Pingtung, an express train from Kaohsiung city and county to Pingtung and the Kaohsiung free-trade harbor zone will all be included in the NT$300 billion plan.

NT dollar continues to rise
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday maintained its strength against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.077 to close at NT$34.522 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$590.50 million.