■ Petroleum
Russia may pick Japan
Russia is leaning toward the construction of a major oil pipeline to Japan rather than its energy hungry rival China, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov said Friday. "The northern route is of greater strategic importance for us, and we hope that it is built. This will boost the region's economy," Yusufov said. Tokyo hopes that Moscow builds a 4,000km pipeline from oilfields in eastern Siberia to the Far Eastern port of Nakhodka, facing Japan. Russia for its part hopes that once the pipe become operational, some of the oil will also be sold on to customers in the US. But the project faces intense competition from Beijing, which has tried for nearly 10 years to convince Moscow to build a 2,400km pipeline at a cost of US$2.5 billion, from the Siberian city of Angarsk to Daqing, in northeast China.
■ Banking
Former BOC head arrested
The arrest in China of Liu Jinbao, former chief of the Bank of China's Hong Kong branch, appears to be unrelated to his activities in the territory, Hong Kong's central banker said yesterday. "I guess this is a matter for China. To my understanding, it's unrelated to BOC Hong Kong," Monetary Authority chief executive Joseph Yam told reporters. "Their [Chinese] legal agencies are handling the matter. If they find that it is related to Hong Kong, the [Chinese] regulatory authorities will definitely inform us. But we haven't been thus informed to date," Yam said. Bank of China, the country's largest foreign exchange lender which is seeking to list shares next year, said in Beijing on Friday that Liu had been formally arrested and had been sacked as BOC vice chairman, suspected of having committed economic crimes.
■ Trade
Japan, S Korea discuss FTA
South Korean and Japanese trade ministers in Seoul yesterday discussed a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries ahead of bilateral talks on the pact in Japan next week, officials said. Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Shoichi Nakagawa, and his South Korean counterpart Hwang Doo-Yun agreed that the FTA must cover all industrial sectors regardless of their political sensitivity and importance in the domestic economy of each country. Hwang said the benefits the FTA would bring to the two countries should be balanced and the agreement should take into account the differences in the economic development of the two countries. "We find it rather curious that South Korea, which has one of the world's largest economies, makes claims as if it were a weak economy," Nakagawa was quoted as telling Hwang.
■ Cosmetics
L'Oreal's profit jumps
The French cosmetics giant L'Oreal posted double-digit growth for the 19th year in a row, reporting its net income rose 16.7 percent last year to 1.5 billion euros (US$1.2 billion). Sales figures reflected the drop of the euro against the dollar and slipped 1.8 percent to 14 billion euros (US$11 billion) last year, but the company said excluding currency exchange factors, sales grew 7 percent. The company's net operating profit, excluding goodwill and exceptional items, rose to 1.7 billion euros (US$1.3 billion), up 13.5 percent from 2002. According to the company, last year's results highlight the performance of the L'Oreal brands and its progress, the chief executive Lindsay Owen-Jones, said.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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