ECONOMY
Poverty to drop: US agency
Poverty across the planet will drop sharply by 2030, with a rising middle class of about 2 billion people pushing for more rights and resources. Christopher Kojm, head of the National Intelligence Council, the US government’s top intelligence analysis agency, says if current economic and demographic trends continue, the 1 billion people who live on less than US$1 a day now will drop by half in roughly two decades. Kojm gave the report at the Aspen Security Forum on Saturday, adding that economic powerhouses such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam are driving the trend, which will continue even if the economy goes through upheaval. He said several hundred million people, armed with the resources and education will produce new technology to meet demands for food, water and energy.
INDIA
Rates likely to stay static
National interest rates will likely be kept on hold this week as worries mount that a truant monsoon could drive up food costs and stoke still-high inflation, analysts forecast. Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank, made a half-percentage-point cut in April to jump-start the economy. However, since then, the bank has been holding back on easing monetary policy. HSBC’s chief India economist Leif Eskesen said the central bank is likely to keep rates unchanged at its meeting tomorrow, because of below-normal monsoons and little reform policy action from the government. Deepak Parekh, chairman of leading bank HDFC, told shareholders that unless the bank sees a trend that inflation is actually coming down, “I don’t see the RBI reducing interest rates.”
CHINA
Foreign investors permitted
The government has eased restrictions on foreign investors seeking to put their money into the country’s markets in what is its latest financial sector reform as it seeks to boost a slowing economy. The securities regulator late on Friday published new rules allowing qualified institutional investors to hold up to 30 percent of shares in any domestically listed company, up from 20 percent. The new rules will make it easier for foreign groups to obtain the status of qualified institutional investor and thus enter the Chinese market, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said.
AEROSPACE
Reliance to make big boost
India’s Reliance Industries, led by tycoon Mukesh Ambani, could spend US$2 billion to boost its aerospace and telecoms businesses, reports said on Saturday. Quoting unnamed executives, the Economic Times said Reliance had lined up close to US$1 billion to spend on its new aerospace operations over the next few years and would likely hire around 1,500 people for the division. The Mumbai-based company aims to collaborate with global players to bring sophisticated aerospace technologies to make India a global hub in aerospace manufacturing, the newspaper said.
TRADE
US hits China with duties
The US on Friday slapped a second round of duties on wind turbine towers from China, ratcheting up tensions between the two countries in the renewable energy sector. The US Department of Commerce said it was imposing preliminary anti-dumping duties of about 20 percent to 73 percent on Chinese-made steel towers. It also set duties of about 53 percent to 60 percent on steel towers from Vietnam to offset what the department said was below-market pricing.
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
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
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