NANOTECHNOLOGY
Rusnano official detained
Law enforcement agencies have detained a senior official at state technology corporation Rusnano on suspicion of misusing company funds, an investigative committee said on Saturday. Investment division managing director Andrei Gorkov is suspected of placing the company’s funds in a bank that later lost its license, with the aim of financing the bank’s activities between 2011 and 2013. The bank’s license was revoked in 2014, resulting in Rusnano losing more than 738 million rubles (US$12.94 million at the current exchange rate). Shortly before the license was canceled, the bank transferred 400 million rubles worth of real-estate assets to Gorkov’s brother, investigators said. Rusnano was set up in 2007 to invest in promising high-tech firms and help Russia diversify away from its economic dependence on energy.
AIRCRAFT
Airbus threatens to leave UK
Airbus SE could move production of new aircraft models out of Britain if its “non-negotiable” demands over the free movement of people and trade tariffs are not delivered in upcoming Brexit talks, the Sunday Times reported. A deal must allow its staff from all over the world to enter Britain easily, ensure that parts are exempt from trade tariffs and ensure certain regulatory standards are maintained, Airbus chief operating officer Fabrice Bregier said. Otherwise, Britain would risk losing Airbus production in the future, he added. “For new productions, it’s very easy to have a new plant somewhere in the world. We would have plenty of offers to do that,” Bregier said. Britain is due to begin negotiations with the rest of the EU about the terms of its departure on Monday next week.
REAL ESTATE
Emaar makes hire for Dubai
Emaar Properties PJSC hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc to manage the sale of shares in its United Arab Emirates (UAE) real-estate development business in Dubai, company chairman Mohamed Alabbar said. The developer of the world’s tallest tower expects to complete the initial public offering by November with a size similar to its Emaar Malls PJSC offering, Alabbar said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The malls unit initial public offering in 2014 raised about US$1.58 billion and is the largest share sale in the UAE in the past nine years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue from Emaar’s property development business in the UAE more than tripled to 14.4 billion dirhams (US$3.92 billion) last year from 4.2 billion dirhams in 2012, the company said.
CHAD
Accord with oil firms signed
One of the African nations hit hardest by the drop in oil prices, Chad, on Saturday announced that it had reached an accord with a group of foreign energy companies to end a tax dispute. The deal, signed on Friday by the government and a consortium led by Esso, a unit of US energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp, extends the group’s operating license in the Doba basin until 2050. It also calls for the development of polymer injection technology to increase oil extraction, Minister of Oil Bechir Madet said. In October last year, a Chadian court had imposed heavy fines on the consortium over unpaid taxes, claiming 67 billion euros (US$75 billion). No financial details of the agreement were disclosed, although Madet said that the consortium would not pay the government US$200 million.
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