■ Automibles
Toyota may now be No. 2
Toyota Motor Corp said yesterday it is too early to say it is now the the world's second largest automaker after the Japanese press reported that it may have overtaken Ford Motor Co in global sales last year. Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said the company will realease its own numbers on Feb. 5 when it announces results for the three months to December. Ford said Thursday that it sold 6.72 million vehicles globally in 2003 while Toyota said last month that it expected sales of 6.78 million vehicles by the company and its subsidiaries Daihatsu and Hino, up 10 percent from 2002. While Ford has struggled to benefit from its acquisition of Sweden's Volvo, Toyota has posted higher profits and plowed them into North America, China and Southeast Asia, boosting output and sales, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. General Motors Corp is the world's top automaker with sales of 8.59 million vehicles last year.
■ Technology
Data storage to grow: IDC
The Asia-Pacific data storage market is expected to grow this year as large enterprises gear up to meet an anticipated economic upturn, a research house study said yesterday. A large number of manufacturing, banking and telecom companies in the region outside Japan have become dependent on storage, especially as they increase their reliance on enterprise resource management (ERM) and security solutions to keep their companies on the cutting edge, according to International Data Corp (IDC). "The largest investment was on data storage," said Robin Giang, IDC's manager of IT investment and strategy research for the Asia-Pacific. "Companies spent US$4 billion on it last year." Any pickup in the data storage segment should benefit Singapore, with a data storage market worth about US$100 million a year, IDC said.
■ Trade
Chile approves S Korea FTA
Chile's Senate has ratified a free trade accord between South Korea and the South American nation. The Senate voted 41-0 on Thursday in favor of the accord, which the two countries signed last year, but asked President Ricardo Lagos to wait for South Korea's Parliament to approve it before signing it into law. Chile's lower congressional house had approved the accord earlier. However, South Korean legislators repeatedly postponed a vote on the treaty because of protests by farmers who fear the lifting of customs duties called for in the treaty would lead to a flood of Chilean farm products. open the door to massive entry of cheaper Chilean farm products into their country. Under the accord, Chile would lift tariffs on South Korean motor vehicles, cellular phones, computers, TV sets and air conditioners.
■ Surveys
CapitaLand most transparent
Singapore's CapitaLand emerged at the top of a list of the Asia-Pacific's most transparent property companies followed by Hong Kong tycoon Robert Kuok's Kerry Properties, a study said yesterday. The list from the National University of Singapore (NUS) focused on management strategies such as the annual report, corporate Web site clarity and analyst coverage. Of the 20 firms ranked most transparent in the region by NUS Professor Liow Kim Hiang, seven are Singapore developers with Keppel Land in third place. Li Ka-Shing's Cheung Kong Holdings in Hong Kong came fourth. Liow said the size of a company can impact its level of transparency.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last