FAST FOOD
Burger King aims for China
The world’s second-largest hamburger chain says it will open 1,000 restaurants in China over the next five to seven years. It is the largest multi-unit development deal in Burger King’s history. There are currently just 63 Burger King restaurants in China, compared to McDonald’s Corp’s more than 1,400 venues. Burger King, which has more than 12,500 restaurants worldwide, said on Friday that its China expansion is a joint venture with the Kurdoglu family, which runs 450 Burger King restaurants in Turkey, and private equity firm Cartesian Capital Group.
MUSIC
Amazon takes on iTunes
Amazon.com Inc reached agreements with the four major US record companies to start a music service that lets users store songs on a remote server and access them online, people familiar with the matter said. Amazon plans to start the US service in the first week of July, with European service availability shortly after, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the plans are confidential. With the agreements, Amazon’s music service will work similarly to Apple Inc’s iTunes, letting multiple devices access a centrally stored music collection. Amazon, whose Kindle Fire tablet computer sells for US$199 — a lower price than Apple’s least-expensive iPad — is seeking to make money by offering higher-margin digital content on the device, such as books, music and movies. Amazon’s music service will also be available on iPads and iPhones through the Kindle application for Apple devices, the sources said.
ITALY
Stimulus measures unveiled
The government on Friday announced measures worth 80 billion euros (US$100 billion) to spur economic growth, streamline the notoriously bloated public sector and lower national debt, part of its attempt to convince international investors that its finances are sustainable. The 60 wide-ranging measures approved by the Cabinet include the sale of government property, issuing preferential bonds for infrastructure projects and reducing staff for the premier’s office and Treasury Ministry. Besides reducing staff, the government will also close agencies within the Treasury Ministry and reassign their functions to existing departments. The actions take aim at one of the most persistent criticisms launched at Prime Minister Mario Monti’s administration: too many reforms, like raising the pension age and re-imposing a tax on primary residences, penalize ordinary Italians while not reducing the nation’s bloated public sector.
STEEL
China loses WTO case
A WTO panel on Friday handed the US a victory in a case against Chinese import duties on a specialty steel product primarily made in Ohio and Pennsylvania. “With respect to each of the 11 programs at issue, the panel concluded that China had acted inconsistently with WTO rules governing the use of countervailing duties, which are used to counteract unfair subsidies,” the panel said in its ruling. The case involved Chinese duties on potentially hundreds of millions of US dollars of “grain-oriented flat-rolled electrical steel,” a specialty steel product made by AK Steel Corp of Ohio and ATI Allegheny Ludlum of Pennsylvania. “The panel upheld our claims that China’s duties on US exports of steel products failed to comply with many WTO rules. This decision sends another clear signal to China that it must do more to fulfill its WTO commitments,” US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said.
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