MACROECONOMICS
China targets poverty
Development Bank of China (中國農業發展銀行), one of the country’s main policy lenders, plans to lend 3 trillion yuan (US$458.3 billion) up to 2020 as part of government efforts to reduce poverty, state media reported. The bank is to lend about 1.1 trillion yuan to support construction of infrastructure in rural areas, according to the People’s Daily. About 1 trillion yuan in loans is to be made available for grain and crop production industries, the paper reported yesterday. In October last year, the cabinet said China aims to lift all its 70 million poor above the poverty line by 2020.
BREWERS
Budweiser faces fine in US
The company that produces Budweiser is facing a US$150,000 fine and a three-day suspension after an investigation showed it violated Washington State’s “pay-to-play” rules. KIRO-TV reported that Anheuser-Busch is accused of entering into an illegal agreement with two Seattle concert venues. Investigators said the company paid The Showbox and Showbox Sodo an exclusive promotional fee to secure a place for its products at the events and block out competitors. Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman Lisa Derus, said the company does not agree with the allegations and has been meeting with the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board to discuss them.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
US firm agrees to pay fine
One of the world’s largest suppliers of antibodies used in research has agreed to pay a US$3.5 million fine and cancel its research registration in order to settle government allegations that it mistreated goats and rabbits at its Santa Cruz, California, facility. The settlement between Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc and the US Department of Agriculture also revokes the company’s license to sell, buy, trade or import animals. The settlement announced on Friday requires the Dallas-based company to pay the fine and cancel its research registration by Tuesday next week. The agreement says that the company “neither admits nor denies” the department’s assertions that it violated federal animal-welfare regulations.
united kingdom
Treasury warns over ‘Brexit’
The Treasury on Saturday said house prices could fall by up to 18 percent if the country leaves the EU — a claim dismissed as scaremongering by campaigners for a UK exit from the bloc. British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said leaving the EU would be a “profound economic shock.” Treasury analysis estimates property prices will be worth between 10 and 18 percent less by 2018 if Britain leaves than if it stays. Osborne said Britain and its people “are going to be poorer outside the EU.”
FRANCE
Total SA hit by strike
Production at three Total SA refineries was disrupted following a vote by workers to stop the plants amid discontent over the government’s handling of a proposed labor law. A number of production units at the Gonfreville refinery in Normandy, Feyzin near Lyon and at Donges, close to Nantes, have been shut down, industry group Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres said in e-mailed comments. Total’s Grandpuits refinery near Paris was also affected as protesters were blocking product deliveries, while La Mede refinery in the south was unaffected. Three fuel depots operated by the company were also blocked by protests, the union said.
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