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Economy still `blue'
Taiwan remained in recession for the second consecutive month last month due to the impact of SARS, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said yesterday.

The composite indictor stood at 14 points last month, same as in April, with a reading in the "blue light" level which meant a recession, the council said. The previous recession was recorded in February last year.

In a survey conducted last month by the council, 16 percent of manufacturers expected the economy to improve over the next three months, compared with a revised 13 percent in April, while 13 percent felt it would not, compared with a revised 26 percent.

The council said 71 percent of the respondents expected the economy to maintain the current direction, compared with 61 percent revised in April.

Manufactures more optimistic
Domestic manufacturers have become more optimistic about the economy, according to a survey by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER).

The survey indicated that manufacturers that believe the economy will take a turn for the better in six months increased from 16.4 percent of the total in April to 42.9 percent last month.

Those that believed the economy will remain unchanged decreased from 50.3 percent to 46 percent, and those who believed the economic situation will worsen dropped from 33.3 percent to 11.1 percent.

TIER president Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), also said yesterday that the composite economic index has been rising for three consecutive months. If the impact of SARS on the economy continues to diminish and the government's plan to increase public spending is implemented smoothly, the economy will grow by at least 3 percent this year.

He predicted that the economy will begin to recover in the second quarter of this year.

Nan Ya moves into DVDs
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) said it's spending NT$470 million (US$13.6 million) to set up six lines to make recordable DVDs, entering a market dominated by Ritek Corp (錸德), CMC Magnetics Corp (中環) and Prodisc Technology Inc (精碟).

The six lines, scheduled to be running fully by September, would have combined capacity of 1.3 million discs a month, vice president Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) said.

A Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday that Nan Ya Plastics is spending NT$3 billion to set up as many as 30 production lines with capacity of 12 million discs a month. Ritek's monthly capacity is 15 million DVDs, CMC Magnetics's is 9 million and Prodisc's is 6 million, the report said.

"Thirty production lines are not on our plan," Wu said.

Wang steps down as chairman
Gary Wang (王令麟), chairman of the Eastern Multimedia Co (EMC, 東森媒體科技), announced yesterday that he will step down from that position in order to focus more on global expansion strategy the Eastern Multimedia Group needs to survive in the future.

Wang said in a statement that the company will elect a new chairman at its annual share-holder's meeting on June 30. He has submitted the names of three possible successors -- Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠), chairman of Fubon Group (富邦集團), Christopher Leong (梁家鏘), president of Singapore's Transpac Capital (匯亞基金), and Charles Wu (吳中立), EMC's chief executive officer and president.

EMC is planning to commence a stock buyback plan to increase the group's shareholding, Wang said.

NT dollar dips
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, dropping NT$0.039 to close at NT$34.615 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$481.5 million.
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