Business Briefs

■ More Vietnam flights planned
China Airlines Co (華航), the nation's largest air carrier, will increase weekly flights on the Taipei-Hanoi route to daily service beginning May 17, in response to strong market demand, the company said in a statement yesterday.
China Airlines entered the Vietnam market in 1992 with the launch of Taipei-Ho Chi Minh passenger service. The carrier began flight service to Hanoi last year, making the capital of Vietnam its second destination in the nation.
In addition, China Airlines said it will start running daily codeshare service between Kaohsiung and Ho Chi Minh City in cooperation with Vietnam Airlines. Beginning May 17, there will be five daily flights between Taiwan and Vietnam on the company's network, China Airlines said.

■ Taiwan Salt going global
The state-controlled Taiwan Salt Co (Taisalt, 台鹽) believes it can become a large international purveyor of diverse brand-name products, Taisalt chairman Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) said yesterday.
Cheng his remarks after signing an original-equipment manufacturing contract with Minntech Corp of the US, a leading medical-device manufacturer. Under the terms of the contract, Taisalt will produce hemodialysis solutions for Minntech, while Minntech will help introduce Taisalt's cosmetics products to the global market.
After Taiwan's entry into the WTO and as a result of its planned privatization, Taisalt has dedicated itself to diversification in the last few years, launching new products ranging from cosmetics to health food to printer components.
Cheng Taisalt will also launch cosmetics for men in the near future, and he said he has great confidence in the company's products on the world market.

■ Cathay Financial Q1 profit rises
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation's largest financial services company, posted a first-quarter profit increase of 71 percent over a year earlier.
Insurance income appears to have driven profit growth.
The company, which owns the country's largest life insurer, said net income rose to NT$12.4 billion (US$375 million), or NT$1.51 a share, in the three months to March 31, from NT$7.25 billion, or NT$0.97 a share, in the same period a year earlier.
The company is scheduled to hold an investor meeting to discuss the results on Monday.
The first-quarter profit is more than half Cathay Financial's full-year earnings forecast of NT$22.7 billion, the company said.

■ BOE Technology to spend big
BOE Technology Group Co (北京東方電子), a Beijing-based maker of computer monitors, plans to invest 50 billion yuan (US$6 billion) by 2010 to become the world's third-biggest flat-panel display maker, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing company president Liang Xinqing (梁新清).
BOE Technology initially will invest US$1.3 billion in a flat-panel display plant slated to start production in the first quarter of next year, the report said.
The company will count on overseas equity sales and bank loans to finance its expansion plans, the report said.
Asian makers, which dominate in a market that was worth US$37.7 billion last year, are expanding to meet demand that will nearly double by 2007, according to market researcher DisplaySearch.
Taiwan-based will account for 49 percent of the US$9.4 billion in global spending on production equipment this year.

■ NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday turned strong against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.017 to close at NT$33.093 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$542 million.