MINIING
Australia coal project passes
A controversial India-backed giant coal project near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef was yesterday awarded mining leases, but developer Adani said it would not commit to a final investment decision until legal challenges against it were resolved. The Queensland State Government said the A$21.7 billion (US$16.66 billion) project to build one of the world’s biggest mines was awarded three leases, adding that the leases at Carmichael in the Galilee Basin were estimated to contain 11 billion tonnes of coal. The company is facing two legal challenges — one from an Aboriginal group and another mounted by an environmental organization concerned about the biodiverse site.
STEELMAKERS
UK pushes local products
The British government for the first time is to require the public sector to “specifically consider” domestic steel for infrastructure projects. The directive is meant to help local steel companies compete with with international suppliers for major government contracts, including on about £300 billion pounds (US$426.88 billion) of infrastructure projects planned over the next five years. The move adds to guidance issued in October last year obliging all central government departments to consider the “social and economic impact” of steel sourced for major projects. The government also said it would establish a list of approved steel suppliers that meet certain criteria — including health and safety, environmental impact and supply-chain management — to ensure fair competition.
FINANCE
Singapore backs technology
Singapore’s central bank is to give financial institutions room to experiment with new technologies as it seeks public feedback on how a “regulatory sandbox” could work, Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon said. The responsibility to assess any risks in the adoption of new financial technologies lies with the boards and management, he said at a conference on Saturday. It is impossible to anticipate every vulnerability when new technologies are adopted, he said. The idea is not to remove all risk,” he said. “Failure is an inherent part of innovation.” The authority is to work with financial institutions to create an environment that makes it possible for experiments to fail “safely and cheaply” without major consequences, he said.
SOUTH KOREA
Support for bonds mulled
The government is considering measures to support demand for corporate bonds rated “A” or lower, Yonhap news agency reported yesterday, citing unidentified financial industry officials. The measures are intended to facilitate companies’ funding through issuing debt and are to be released in the first half of this year, according to Yonhap. Among the measures to be considered are allowing state-run Korea Development Bank to purchase more A-rated bonds and making it compulsory for so-called high-yield funds to invest in A-rated notes, Yonhap said.
STOCKS
Dubai market plummets
Dubai stocks declined yesterday after the price of oil capped its biggest weekly loss in more than two months. Shares in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait also fell. The Dubai Financial Market General Index decreased 0.7 percent to 3,331.73 at 10:04am. Emaar Properties PJSC, which has the largest weighting on the gauge, dropped 1.8 percent. Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index slipped 0.2 percent.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last