■ Sogo doors still closed
Pacific Sogo Department Stores' (太平洋崇光百貨) flagship branch on Zhongxiao East Road in Taipei will be closed for the third day after a fire broke out on Thursday. The company was still trying to obtain permission to open from the Taipei City Government as of press time yesterday, said David Peng (彭振宇), special assistant to the company chairman.
According to a statement filed at the Taiwan Stock Exchange at 4:25pm yesterday, the company estimated its sales loss since Thursday noon was NT$60 million (US$1.8 million).
If the Taipei City Government does not perform a safety check before Monday, the company will lose a further NT$60 million. Company representatives refused to speculate if the department store would be closed for the entire weekend.
■ Food festival gets a test run
The 2006 Taipei Chinese Food Festival is scheduled to be held from Aug. 10-14 at the Taipei World Trade Center.
The festival will feature dishes from around Taiwan, in particular those from eastern Hualien and Taitung counties that have been deeply influenced by Aboriginal food.
In the runup to the festival, the organizers -- the Taiwan Visitors Association (TVA) -- sponsored an exhibition to introduce several creative and original dishes prepared with typical ingredients from the eastern region on Thursday.
■ Cathay looking at Chinese banks
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation's biggest financial services group, said its banking arm is seeking to invest in Chinese lenders, serving its customers in China where Taiwanese businesses have invested US$150 billion.
"Our banking unit is looking for opportunities to invest in Chinese banks in coastal cities," Lee Chang-ken (李長庚), Cathay Financial executive vice president, said on Friday. "There are some informal talks. Nothing can be concluded before the cross-strait authorities reach agreement on the monitoring mechanism."
Lee said it's too early to say what kinds of Chinese banks Cathay Financial is interested in before the monitoring blueprint, currently being drafted by the Financial Supervisory Commission and its mainland counterpart, is outlined.
■ Pilots receive the best pay
The average monthly salary of employees in state-owned enterprises was NT$66,535 (US$2,047) compared with the average wage of NT$39,056 for employees in private businesses in July last year, according to survey results released yesterday by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA).
The survey of the earning capacity of various jobs was carried out last August among employees of 9,264 enterprises.
They found that of those surveyed, airline pilots had the highest monthly salary of NT$210,000.
Pilots were followed by ship navigators (NT$156,000), doctors (NT$130,000), accountants (NT$100,000), securities and financial agents (NT$95,000), well diggers (NT$93,000), crude oil handlers(NT$92,000), lawyers (NT$86,000), metallurgists and mining engineers (NT$84,000) and oil refiners (NT$83,000). The lowest-salaried were waiters in restaurants, includingtemporary or part-time jobs.
Waiters on average earned NT$14,000 a month, while bartenders received NT$16,300, gas station attendants made NT$16,500, and kitchen workers earned NT$18,200.
■ NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against its US counterpart Friday, declining NT$0.039 to close at NT$32.795 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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