Business Briefs

Citibank gives away BMW
Citibank N.A. yesterday rewarded one of its credit-card holders with a BMW automobile for using the services of the world's largest credit-card issuer following the bank's lucky draw promotional program between May and July.

"The odds of winning are four in a million," the bank's cards business director Shariq Mukhtar said yesterday at a presentation, adding that the bank's customers were given one chance to enter the draw for every NT$500 spent.

Yesterday's prizewinner, surnamed Lu, charged a total of NT$58,000 to his card during the promotional period.

Mukhtar yesterday said the bank's cardholders were worth spending money on because they were loyal and valued customers.

"On average, our customers spend over NT$64,000 a month -- double the amount customers at other local banks spend," Mukhtar said.

Citibank's share in the local credit-card market is diluted with 61 emerging credit-card issuers. With NT$37 billion in its revolving balance, Citibank currently ranks as Taiwan's third-largest card provider in Taiwan, next to Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託) and Taishin Commercial Bank (台新銀行).

CEPD looks to service industry
The government has taken steps to map out guidelines and programs to facilitate the development of the service industry in Taiwan, an official with the Council for Economic Planning and Development said yesterday.

The council is trying to promote the development of the service industry, in view of the fact that the service industry has created more job opportunities than those lost in the agricultural and industrial sectors in recent years, he said.

The official pointed out that, in the period between 1999 and last year, some 225,000 jobs were lost in the agricultural and industrial sectors, but the service industry created 295,000 new jobs to offset the loss in the two other industries.

Textile show kicks off
The Taipei International Textile and Apparel Show kicked off at the Taipei World Trade Center yesterday, with some 200 companies, including 31 from overseas, participating.

The show is expected to rekindle business opportunities in Taiwan's textile and garment sector, said an official from the non-profit Taiwan Textiles Federation, organizer of the textile show.

Beijing to host TV talks
Experts from Taiwan and China will meet in Beijing later this week to discuss digital television transmission for Chinese TV viewers around the world, a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday.

A Taiwanese delegation flew to Beijing on Sunday to attend Thursday's seminar, which will be part of the Sixth Beijing-Taipei Science & Technology Forum.

At the seminar, Taiwan and Chinese experts will exchange views on various aspects of digital TV transmission so that Taiwanese viewers will be able to watch Chinese programs and vice versa.

"They will discuss issues like coding and decoding of digital TV signals, compression and de-compression, and how to allow viewers to choose programs in simplified Chinese which is used in China or traditional Chinese which is used in Taiwan," the paper said in a dispatch from Beijing.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.012 to close at NT$34.129 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.

Turnover was US$398 million.