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EVA, ANA expand code-sharing

EVA Airways (長榮航空), Taiwan's leading international carrier, said yesterday it had expanded code-sharing cooperation with Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) starting on Sunday.

The two airliners have added Taipei-Sendai and Taipei-Sapporo flights in joint services after code-sharing on the Taipei-Fukuoka, Taipei-Osaka, Taipei-Tokyo and Taipei-Nagoya routes, an EVA Air spokesman said.

The Taiwanese carrier offers seven flights to Sapporo and two flights to Sendai every week.

Chung Chin quits Sogo

Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨), the nation's second-largest department store operator, yesterday confirmed that chairwoman Chung Chin (鍾琴) tendered her resignation last week even though her second three-year term does not expire until 2009. Her successor will be announced at a board meeting to be held soon, vice president Alex Ro (羅仕清) said.

The change would not have a major impact on operations as professional managers play a more important role in implementing the firm's policies, he added.

Chung, former head of the Government Information Office, became Pacific Sogo's first chairwoman in 2003. It was rumored that her political ties with the Democratic Progressive Party government secured her the job.

Bayer acquires Ure-Tech

Bayer AG, Germany's largest drugmaker, completed its acquisition of Taiwan Ure-Tech Group (優得集團), making Bayer the world's largest supplier of resins and films. The company plans to move the global headquarters of its thermoplastic polyurethane unit to Hong Kong by October, the Leverkusen, Germany-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

IBM, institute launch center

IBM Taiwan Corp and the state-funded Institute for Information Industry (資策會) launched the nation's first SOA (service-oriented architecture) innovation center yesterday, hoping to advance the software industry to an international standard. The center evolved from the IBM Open Partner Center that was set up in 2005 to assist IBM's local clients, Sophia Tong (童至祥), general manager of IBM Taiwan, said at the launch.

IBM leads the SOA market with a 53 percent global market share and more than 300 patents in SOA software applications, Tong said.

After joining forces with the institute, the center would accelerate the application of and research in SOA solutions, including electronic payment systems, Web 2.0 software and e-learning, healthcare programs and intelligent virtual stores, she said.

Other than 30 engineers at the center, 200 IBM technicians will support the operation, said Jason Chen (陳永生), an executive of IBM Taiwan's software group. Chen declined to reveal the level of investment in the center.

NT dollar falls

The New Taiwan dollar weakened, reversing appreciation that had sent it to its highest level in almost six months, on speculation investors would buy the US currency to invest abroad for higher returns. Local bonds declined.

The NT dollar dropped 0.1 percent to NT$32.765 against the US currency at the 4pm close of onshore trading, after touching NT$32.625, the highest since Jan. 11, according to Taipei Forex Inc.

"There is still demand to buy the US dollar because of fund outflows," said Sadaaki Kondou, assistant general manager of treasury at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd in Taipei.

Taiwan's currency also fell on speculation that oil companies are demanding more US dollars as crude prices trade near a 10-month high.


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