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MOEA touts Japan investors

Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), along with other ministry officials, is scheduled to visit Tokyo from tomorrow to Thursday in an attempt to attract Japanese companies to invest in Taiwan, the ministry said.

During their visit, the delegation will hold a “Taiwan Investment Seminar” at the stadium of Japan’s leading economic organization, Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), on Tuesday.

During the investment seminar, Yiin will be addressing the normalization of cross-strait economic and trade relations to the Japanese firms. In addition to Yiin, Theodore Huang (黃茂雄), chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC, 工商協進會), will also give a speech during the seminar.

The group will visit around 10 Japanese companies in a bid to encourage them to invest in Taiwan and provide technical cooperation.

Boeing works to fix flaw

Boeing Co said yesterday that it was working to improve a wing part on its 737 aircraft, after a recent Japanese news report said a design flaw in the part had caused the explosion of a China Airlines (中華航空) 737-800 jet on a runway in Japan last year.

The US-based aircraft manufacturer made the statement through its representative in Taiwan, who did not want to be named.

The representative said that Boeing would not comment on Tuesday’s report by the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, saying that official results of a Japanese government probe had not yet been released.

The report said that after probing the Aug. 20 incident at Okinawa’s Naha Airport, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism concluded that the downstop — a nut that is a component in the “wing leading-edge slat downstop assembly” — was too small and allowed the bolt in the assembly to loosen and come free. The ministry said Boeing’s part had a defective design, according to the report.

TSMC to hire 5,000 workers

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest custom-chip maker, plans to hire up to 5,000 workers for two new chip plants it is building in Taiwan at a cost of as much as NT$200 billion (US$6.6 billion).

At least one of the new plants will be operational next year, TSMC chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said yesterday at a ceremony for the new facilities in Hsinchu, where the company is based.

TSMC will make chips on wafers measuring 12 inches (30.5cm) in diameter at the new plants, phases four and five in the expansion of existing factories, Tsai said.

Sony to close Vietnam plant

Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp said yesterday that it planned to close its television assembly plant in Vietnam at the end of September, causing the loss of 200 jobs.

The Ho Chi Minh City plant has been producing sets with cathode ray tubes and liquid-crystal displays for Vietnam’s domestic market since 1994, Sony spokeswoman Yuki Kobayashi said. However, demand for the TVs has been shrinking in recent years.

“The demand may be covered by shipments from Sony plants in neighboring Malaysia and Thailand,” she said.

Sony did not disclose the plant’s production capacity.

NT dollar rises slightly

The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.011 to close at NT$30.407.

A total of US$891 million changed hands during the day’s trading.

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