CURRENCIES
ASEAN+3 to boost funds
Japan and 12 other Asian countries are likely to agree to double the amount of funds available under a regional currency swap pact amid uncertainty over the European debt crisis, a report said yesterday. Japan, China, South Korea and the 10 ASEAN members are to agree to double the fund from its current US$120 billion this month, Japan’s Nikkei Shimbun reported, citing unnamed sources. The currency swap deal, known as the Chiang Mai Initiative, is designed to prevent a financial crisis in countries with relatively small foreign exchange reserves by giving them a safety net against future liquidity shortages. Currently, about 20 percent of the US$120 billion in available funds can be used without linkage to loans by the IMF. The so-called ASEAN+3 countries are also expected to agree to raise this percentage significantly, the Nikkei said.
AVIATION
ATR fleet checked for cracks
About 3,000 people had their travel plans disrupted yesterday when Air New Zealand grounded 11 aircraft after cracks were found around the cockpit windows of one plane. The aircraft were all ATRs — propeller-driven 68--seaters operated by Air New Zealand subsidiary Mount Cook Airlines on regional services. About 60 flights were canceled. Mount Cook general manager Sarah Williamson said the company expected to operate about two-thirds of its normal seat capacity today as the ATR fleet is checked and returned to service. The inspections are being conducted in conjunction with aircraft manufacturer ATR.
BANKING
Goldman to strengthen rules
Goldman Sachs, the investment bank blistered by a resigning employee this week for how it does business, said on Friday that it would try to strengthen internal rules to prevent questions about conflicts of interest. A US judge almost killed a deal between two energy companies last month because Goldman had ties to both parties: The bank collected a fee for advising one company, and a Goldman banker owned stock in the other. Goldman was stung on Wednesday by an op-ed article published in the New York Times by a young banker who was quitting the company. He accused Goldman executives of privately insulting clients and not acting in customers’ best interests. The bank did not offer specifics on Friday on the review of its policies. The energy deal was a US$21 billion buyout of El Paso, a Houston natural gas and oil company, by Kinder Morgan, a Houston natural gas pipeline company. The judge ultimate allowed the deal.
DEVELOPMENT
IADB mulls disaster loans
The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has proposed allowing member countries to tap loans in case they need to respond to natural disasters, the multilateral lender’s president Luis Alberto Moreno said on Saturday. The disaster funding would be financed by credits normally set aside for counter cyclical spending in sharp economic downturns, he said, but did not indicate how much cash would be made available. The bank is one of the main sources of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean, and it approved US$10.9 billion in loans last year. Moreno said he did not expect the bank to hold another general capital increase after a recent boost of US$70 billion to US$170 billion. The increase raised the bank’s annual lending capacity to about US$12 billion.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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