Greece’s government announced that the Athens Stock Exchange is to reopen tomorrow — a big step toward normalcy as talks with international creditors shift into high gear.
The exchange has been closed since June 29, when the government imposed capital controls to prevent a banking collapse.
Greek Minister of Finance Euclid Tsakalotos signed the order on Friday that also includes restrictions for Greece-based traders for an unspecified time period. A 60 euro limit on cash machines withdrawal is to remain in place.
Tsakalotos met with lead negotiators from the EU and IMF to start negotiations for a third bailout worth 85 billion euros (US$93 billion), following several days of preparatory meetings between lower-level officials on reforming the tax system and labor market regulations.
The third bailout is to include a new punishing round of austerity measures heaped on a nation reeling from a six-year recession and an unemployment rate of more than 25 percent.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has pledged to back the new cutbacks, while openly admitting that he disagrees with them.
The bailout talks with the IMF, European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and European Stability Mechanism must be concluded before Aug. 20.
That is when a debt repayment to the ECB worth more than 3 billion euros is due — money which Greece does not have.
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