■ Employment
EPZs employ 70,000 people
The Ministry of Economic Affairs' export processing zones (EPZs) employ more than 70,000 people, around 84 percent of whom work in the electronics industry, showing that EPZs have been transformed into high-tech industrial parks, Export Processing Zone Administration officials said on Friday. Among the EPZs, the Nantze EPZ in Kaohsiung, with a staff of 37,900 people, employs the most workers, followed by the Kaohsiung EPZ with around 16,700, the Taichung EPZ with 11,400, and Kaohsiung's Chengkung EPZ and Chungkang EPZ with 2,500 and 1,700, respectively. Officials said that the workers are mostly engaged in the electrical engineering industry, followed by precision optical, medical and watch manufacturing, metal product manufacturing, machinery equipment manufacturing, chemical and biochemical product manufacturing and textile and garment manufacturing.
■ Internet privacy
Date set for Google hearing
A US federal judge has set a Feb. 27 hearing to examine the Google Inc decision to withhold millions of online search records from the US Department of Justice. The hearing, to be held in US District Court in San Jose, California, will be the first in the high-profile case. The Justice Department is seeking to force Google to comply with a subpoena seeking 1 million Web site addresses reached from Google and one week of search queries. It hopes to use the information to defend its Child Online Protection Act, designed to keep children from sexually explicit material on the Internet. The act has been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union as a violation of the US Constitution's First Amendment right of free speech.
■ Telecoms
Malaysia sells Malawi stake
State-controlled Telekom Malaysia Bhd said it is selling its 60 percent stake in Telekom Networks Malawi to Econet Wireless Global, a global telecommunications company, for US$24.5 million. Telekom Network Malawi was established in 1996 and operates a GSM service in the African nation. The remaining 40 percent of its shares is owned by government-backed Malawi Telecommunications Ltd. Malaysia's largest telecommunications operator's exit from Malawi is part of its previously announced strategy to focus on regions closer to the Southeast Asian country. It divested its investment in South Africa in 2004 and is in the process of pulling out of Guinea. Its overseas investments are now in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
■ Macroeconomics
US growth at three-year low
The US economy slowed to its slowest pace in three years in the fourth quarter, the US government reported on Friday, as consumers and the federal government cut back on spending significantly. GDP increased 1.1 percent in the quarter, to US$11.23 trillion, and the economy posted a 3.5 percent growth rate for the full year, the US Commerce Department reported. This is the first of three estimates the government releases and the revisions it makes can be significant. Economists had expected growth to slow to 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter because sales of automobiles and other goods were known to have fallen significantly from earlier in the year. The economy grew at a 4.1 percent pace in the third quarter, 3.3 percent in the second and 3.8 percent in the first three months of last year.
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