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Koo urges Taiwan's involvement
Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松), chairman of Chinatrust Financial Holding Corp (中信金控) yesterday called for Taiwan's participation in the issuance program of the Asian Bond Fund (ABF).

Koo, who will take part in the APEC forum's annual chief executive officer summit and APEC Business Advisory Council meetings being held in Bangkok, urged Asian governments and business elite to back Taiwan's participation in the ABF's second-phase issuance program.

Koo said that Taiwan hopes to be invited to participate in the second-phase program, as the country was not invited to the ABF's first-phase issuance of dollar denominated bonds worth US$1 billion initiated in June by 11 Asian sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers in the Executives' Meeting of East Asia Pacific Central Banks economies.

Koo predicted that the region's bond market will develop into a very important segment of the world's financial market, although it has encountered many difficulties over the past 10 years.

Chipmakers cut prices
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the biggest suppliers of made-to-order chips, are cutting prices for semiconductors made with older production technology to counter new rivals in China, the DigiTimes Web site said, citing unidentified customers.

The two companies have lowered prices for chips made with 0.25 micron and 0.35 micron technology to keep business from going to Shanghai's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際集成電路), the report said.

They still have a price premium of as much as 15 percent compared with their Chinese rival, the report said.

Semiconductor Manufacturing, which started production in late 2001, is led by chief executive Richard Chang (張汝京), a former vice president of Texas Instruments Inc.

Susan Chang says FDI up
Vice Minister of Finance Susan Chang (張秀蓮) yesterday boasted that the ministry has recruited NT$190 billion in foreign direct investments (FDIs) this year.

"The ministry has met 109 percent of its FDI target for this year," Chang told a press conference yesterday afternoon.

According to Chang, NT$18 billion will be invested in the local securities sector, NT$160 billion will be injected into the financial service sector and NT$11.3 billion will be put into the insurance sector.

Nanya boasts smooth shipments
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation's largest memory chipmaker, said that it has smoothly shipped chips to its major customers including Dell Inc during the third quarter and it was not requested to recall any defected products, it said in a statement released yesterday.

Nanya, with greater exposure in the futures market, also made clear that it provided most of its products to contracted customers due to strong demand in that area and did not dump memory chips to spot market.

Nanya swung to a net loss of NT$169 million during the three months ended last month, compared to NT$586 million profit it earned a year ago, Nanya said during a quarterly meeting on Monday.

The poor financial result has beat most industry analysts' predictions.

NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday moved up against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.030 to close at NT$33.920 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.

Turnover was US$623.5 million.

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