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■ Newegg.com seeks funding
Newegg.com, a US online marketer of consumer electronics and information technology, said it plans to procure NT$50 billion from Taiwanese companies in the next three years to meet the rising demand from the US and China, the company's executive officer Simon Hsieh (解建新) said yesterday at a press conference. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Southern California, Newegg.com set up its global management and strategy center in Taipei to gain access to a variety of IT products, Hsieh said. The company's local partners include Acer Inc, BenQ Corp (明基電通), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉), Micro-Star International Co (微星科技) and others, he said. Newegg.com reported sales of US$1 billion last year, a 384 percent jump from the previous year, and targets US$1.4 billion by the end of the year.

■ Industrial forum opens
The 2005 Taiwan-Southeast Asian Industrial Summit Forum opened yesterday, with representatives of nine countries attending. Addressing the event's opening, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said that there's still ample space for the expansion of Taiwan-Southeast Asian trade after Taiwan became the second-largest investor in the region last year. Taiwan injected US$44.7 billion into investment projects in Southeast Asia last year. Nonetheless, Taiwanese funds have been gradually flowing to China from Southeast Asia in recent years, making China the world's second-largest manufacturer of information technology hardware, Shih said. The official suggested that regional economies should think about how free-trade agreements (FTA) can help them boost global competitiveness and what Taiwan can do for them. The countries taking part in the two-day summit include the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos.

■ Cabinet freezes two projects
The government temporarily froze two investment projects totaling NT$500 billion (US$16 billion) by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑) and Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), according to a report by a Chinese-language newspaper. The freeze was imposed until the companies provide details on environmental protection and plans to compensate nearby towns, the daily said, citing Cabinet spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). The Cabinet doesn't intend to oppose or cancel the projects, it said. On Feb. 4, Chinese Petroleum signed an agreement with five partners to invest in a NT$370 billion project to increase production of fuels and chemicals. The paper didn't say when work was due to begin on the project. On March 28, Formosa Plastics Group, the nation's biggest industrial group, said it plans to spend NT$135 billion to build a steel mill as Taiwan doesn't produce enough of the metal to meet demand. Plans had been made to break ground on the project next month, the paper said.

■ Wyse aims to triple revenues
California-based Wyse Technology Inc is aiming to triple its Asia-Pacific revenues from the current 7 percent to 20 percent by 2007, an executive said in a report published yesterday. The company recently set up its Southeast Asia regional headquarters in Singapore. "The Asia-Pacific region is fast becoming a major growth area for network-centric computing, Manish Sharma, regional director for Southeast Asia, told The Business Times. Network-centric computing refers to devices that access applications that are installed on a server via a broadband connection.

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