Trans-Pacific cable planned
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) yesterday signed an agreement with leading carriers in Asia to build a multi-terabit submarine cable system that will provide direct fiber connectivity to five countries in the Trans-Pacific region.
Participants in the New Cross Pacific cable network consortium include KT Corp of South Korea and major carriers from China and the US, who signed the construction and maintenance agreement along with a supply contract in Busan, South Korea.
Chunghwa Telecom said construction is set to begin next month and scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2017. The cable network will directly connect Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea and North America, the company said.
Lard producer to expand
President Nisshin Corp (統清) yesterday announced it would invest NT$30 million (US$988,000) to expand production lines for lard oil products.
The firm also said it would soon lower prices for its lard oil products after the government decided to halve import tariffs on lard to 10 percent for a six-month period.
The company did not elaborate on the details of the price cuts.
President Nisshin is a joint venture between Uni-President Enterprise Co (統一企業) and Japan’s Nisshin Oil Corp and Mitsubishi Corp.
President Nisshin’s core product is margarine.
Largan inks deal with Taichung
Camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Greater Taichung Government over a plot of land it bought recently for capacity expansion purposes.
The company plans to spend more than NT$20 billion to build a new factory at the Taichung Precision Machinery Science and Technology Innovation Park, which is expected to complete construction in June 2017 and create 2,000 jobs in the next five years, Largan said.
ASE plant undergoing tests
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s (ASE, 日月光) K7 plant in Greater Kaohsiung is expected to resume full operations before next year, as the plant is undergoing trial production in a bid to allow local authorities to check whether its wastewater treatment process now meets environmental protection regulations, market sources said.
ASE declined to comment on the report.
Meanwhile on Monday, the Kaohsiung District Court handed down a guilty verdict for four ASE employees involved in a wastewater pollution case, but gave them suspended sentences ranging from 16 to 22 months. A fifth was found not guilty.
The world’s largest integrated circuit packaging and testing services provider also faces NT$3 million in fines imposed by the court.
Elderly population rises
Taiwan’s 65-and-over population grew to 2.78 million at the end of last month, accounting for 11.85 percent of the nation’s total population, the National Development Council said yesterday, citing the latest data compiled by the Ministry of the Interior.
The percentage was higher than 11.53 percent at the end of last year, when total population for citizens aged 65 and over was 2.69 million, the ministry said.
Taiwan is moving toward an aged society — based on the UN definition where more than 14 percent of the population are aged 65 and over — from an aging society, where at least 7 percent of the population are aged 65 and over, the council said.
Firms to issue US bonds
Two foreign financial companies are slated to issue US dollar-based bonds in Taiwan this week, raising the total issuance by US$708 million to US$15.5 billion this year, the GRETAI Securities Market said on Monday.
Lloyds Bank PLC aims to issue US$300 million in 30-year bonds today with an embedded yield of 4.72 percent, GRETAI said, adding that Nomura International Funding Ltd will issue US$408 million in 30-year bonds on Friday with an embedded yield of 5 percent.
EVA unveils Texas route
EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空) is launching four weekly round-trip flights between Taipei and Houston, Texas, beginning on July 1 next year, EVA president Austin Cheng (鄭傳義) said yesterday.
North America has become a major market for EVA’s long-haul flight services, and the carrier is scheduled to launch services to Chicago in 2016.
Since May this year, EVA has increased its flights to Los Angles, San Francisco, New York, Vancouver and Toronto.
There is “almost no peak or slow season” for North American routes, and most flights are typically at 80 to 90 percent capacity, Cheng said.
THSRC to discuss finances
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) plans to hold a board meeting tomorrow to discuss the company’s financial restructuring plan, in which it will first undertake a capital reduction of NT$39 billion by retiring 60 percent of its NT$65.13 billion common shares and then raise NT$30 billion in new capital.
THSRC said it hopes the plan will help reduce its debt burden built up from years of losses.
At the end of last year, the firm had accumulated losses of NT$52.2 billion, even though it has reported annual profits since 2011.
The financial restructuring plan needs to be approved by the government and lawmakers.
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
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