SOVEREIGN RISK
Taiwan up on key index
The nation rose two notches to fifth in the latest quarterly BlackRock Sovereign Risk Index (BSRI), its highest ranking since the index was launched in June 2011. The improvement came mainly thanks to strong performance in the “external finance” and “fiscal space” categories, in which it finished third and seventh respectively, the report said. Taiwan did less well in the index’s two other major categories, placing 18th in the “willingness to pay” category and 42nd in the “financial sector health” category, among the 48 countries tracked by the BSRI. The four countries considered to have the lowest sovereign risk in the second quarter survey were Norway, Singapore, Switzerland and Sweden.
AIRLINES
CAL eyeing ‘cool’ cargo
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and Envirotainer Ltd announced yesterday they would jointly launch temperature-controlled air freight services by the end of the year to meet the logistics needs of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. In the initial phase, CAL will target eight airports for its temperature-controlled air freight business including Taipei, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, San Francisco, Tokyo, Osaka and Singapore, the company said in a statement. The nation’s largest carrier said it would offer air cargo customers 11,392 daily flights to 864 destinations across 174 countries, through the international air cargo alliance, SkyTeam Cargo, which it joined in October last year.
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