■ Trade
Delegaton meets with EBRD
A delegation headed by Tien Hung-mao, Taiwan's representative to London, was to meet with Jean Lemierre, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), yesterday to discuss ways of promoting bilateral cooperation. The delegation, consisting of financial officials and diplomats from Taiwan, will also attend the 13th annual meeting of the EBRD in London today and tomorrow, including its Board of Governors' meeting, business forum and donors meeting. Tien said before the meeting that Taiwan shares the EBRD's aim of promoting democracy and the market economy and looks forward to closer cooperation with the EBRD on the basis of reciprocity. Founded in 1991 following the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe, the EBRD has used the tool of investment to help build market economies and democracies in 27 countries from central Europe to Central Asia.
■ Trade
Cuba signs US trade deal
The Cuban state-run company Alimport has signed new contracts with US firms for food imports worth more than US$100 million, its president, Pedro Alvarez, announced Friday. Alvarez said the new contracts were worth US$106.4 million in powdered milk, beans, fruit, oil and soy flour, frozen chicken and turkey, wheat, maize and rice. About 400 representatives from 172 firms in 30 US states were present in Havana for business negotiations that lasted four days and ended Friday. With the new contracts, Cuba's food imports from the US, including shipments and other services, increased to US$822 million since December 2001, Alvarez said. The US has maintained a stubborn trade embargo on Cuba for four decades, but at the end of 2001, it eased the sanctions to allow US companies to sell agricultural products to Havana.
■ Financial aid
IMF approves Turkey loan
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a new US$495 million loan for Turkey on Friday, the latest installment in an assistance package designed to bolster the country's economy. The IMF's 24-member executive board approved the new loan and also agreed to extend the country's assistance package through February. It marked the seventh loan installment Turkey has received from the IMF under an economic support program that began in February 2002. So far, Turkey has drawn US$16.2 billion in loans out of a total package of US$18.6 billion. In approving the new loan, the IMF executive board granted Turkey's request for certain waivers from earlier conditions the IMF had imposed to receive the loans.
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