JAPAN
Spending to stall: official
The country’s capital spending will stall next year, hobbled by the negative consequences of possible asset bubbles in China and weak domestic demand at home, the chief economist at the Development Bank of Japan said. “It’s almost certain that next year will be another year of adjustment,” Toru Nabeyama, head of economic and industrial research at the state-run bank that provides loans to Japanese companies, said in an interview in Tokyo on Monday last week. Capital spending has lagged behind exports as a driver for the nation’s economic expansion.
ELECTRONICS
NEC to up battery capacity
NEC Corp, Japan’s largest maker of personal computers, plans to increase fivefold its capacity to produce electrodes for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to meet demand for environmentally friendly technologies. NEC will use a Japanese government subsidy to boost the production capacity at its plant in Sagamihara, west of Tokyo, to 10 million kilowatt-hours by the end of 2012 from more than 2 million kilowatt-hours in the year to March 31, the Tokyo-based company said on its Web site yesterday. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will provide ¥110 billion (US$1.3 billion) in subsidies to fund 153 projects of companies including NEC.
BANKING
Regulators eye pay clarity
Bankers’ pay should be more transparent to investors to prevent lenders from hiding policies that encourage irresponsible risk taking, global regulators said in draft proposals on remuneration. International rules on remuneration “will allow market participants to assess the quality of a bank’s compensation practices and the incentives towards risk taking they support,” Fernando Vargas, chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s task force on remuneration, said in a statement published on the group’s Web site yesterday. The proposals will “support effective market discipline,” the committee said.
METALS
Tata Steel UK refinances
Tata Steel UK, the British unit of India’s biggest producer of the alloy, borrowed 2.21 billion euros (US$2.9 billion) to refinance loans taken to buy Corus Group PLC, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The five-year loan is part of Tata Steel Ltd’s plan to refinance £3.53 billion (US$5.5 billion) of borrowings taken in 2007 to acquire London-based Corus, the company said in a statement on Sept. 29. -Mumbai-based Tata Steel chief financial officer Koushik Chatterjee was not available for comment. BNP Paribas and Bank of America Corp are among 13 banks which helped arrange the debt.
PHILIPPINES
President signs budget
President Benigno Aquino signed into law yesterday a massive 1.645 trillion peso (US$37.3 billion) budget for next year, which he said was designed to fight poverty and spur development. Next year’s budget, which is 6.8 percent higher than last year, focuses on social programs and includes a controversial provision for 21 billion pesos in cash handouts to selected poor families, officials said. Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said that 34.1 percent of the budget — the single largest allocation — would go to social services, showing the importance Aquino gives to helping the disadvantaged in the largely--impoverished country.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last