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Business Quick Take

■ PETROLEUM
Alcohol-gas firm planned
Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥) and state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) will invest NT$2 billion (US$59.92 million) to set up a joint venture to produce alcohol-gasoline blends for motor vehicles, a spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. The spokesman said the investment would be made within a month to set up a new company to produce alcohol using sugarcane and sweet potatoes as raw material and that the alcohol would be used to produce an alcohol-gasoline blend containing 3 percent alcohol. The ministry plans to set up seven filling stations in Taipei in September and work out a plan to encourage motorists to use the fuel through subsidies.

■ ECONOMY
Steve Chen seeks investment
Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) on Friday instructed his ministry to redouble efforts to attract investment by domestic and foreign manufacturers, especially those in the photovoltaic polysilicon sector. Chen issued the directive while chairing a meeting on luring more investment to Taiwan, during which he said the Ministry of Economic Affairs had given the green light to 476 major investment projects for a total value of NT$539.7 billion (US$16.2 billion) during the first four months of this year. The figure accounts for 53.63 percent of the targeted amount of NT$1.0065 trillion which was set by the ministry for this year's new investment projects by the private sector, Chen said.

■ JEWELRY
Berkshire eyes two firms
Billionaire Warren Buffett's company announced plans on Friday to buy two gold jewelry manufacturers, Bel-Oro International Inc and Aurafin LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Berkshire Hathaway Inc said both Bel-Oro and Aurafin are leading gold jewelry manufacturers and distributors in what has historically been a fragmented industry. Berkshire plans to combine the two companies into a new unit called the Richline Group. The two jewelry makers generate more than US$500 million in revenue annually.

■ ENVIRONMENT
`Sydney declaration' touted
Australia is planning a regional carbon emissions trading scheme that would count China and the US, and hopes for backing at a September meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders, Australian media said yesterday. As host of this year's APEC summit in Sydney, Australian Prime Minister John Howard was backing a "Sydney declaration" on a scheme placing a price on carbon emissions. Howard is expecting a carbon trading report from a government taskforce at the end of the month. The taskforce will recommend a trading scheme indirectly raising the price of carbon fuels but not set a formal target for greenhouse gas reductions, the Weekend Australian newspaper said.

■ ELECTRONICS
Sharp to build big LCD plant
Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp will spend ¥500 billion (US$4.1 billion) to build one of the world's largest factories for liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels, reports said yesterday. The planned factory in the western region of Osaka will open its door as early as next year with full operation expected to start in 2009, the Nikkei newspaper said. It will be capable of producing more than 22 million 32-inch panels annually, making it among the biggest LCD factories in the world, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.


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