EMPLOYMENT
Britons can expect pay raise
British employers plan to hire more workers and raise pay more quickly next year, but they also fear that Brexit will make the country a less attractive place to do business, a survey showed yesterday. Fifty-one percent of employers expect to expand their workforce next year, the survey by the Confederation of British Industry and recruitment firm Pertemps showed, up from 41 percent in last year’s survey. Strong job creation has been a bright spot in Britain’s economy in recent years, but recent official data have shown a fall in employment, leading some economists to wonder if the labor market is about to weaken. Slightly more than half of businesses expected to raise pay next year in line with or above the rate of retail price inflation, which could mean increases of about 3 percent, up from about 2.5 percent now, the survey showed. Such an increase would be line with the Bank of England’s forecasts.
FINANCE
Amazon might acquire bank
Amazon.com Inc’s entry into the financial sector could come sooner rather than later. Bankers beware. CFRA bank analyst Ken Leon said that the online giant might acquire a small or mid-size bank next year to gain a footing in the industry. That is just one of his top predictions for the sector next year. “This may either be a tactical move or a broad strategic jump into banking, as Amazon seeks more stickiness with consumers and small businesses in consumer lending such as auto loans, credit cards and home mortgages,” he wrote. Amazon has already ventured well beyond its Internet roots, including establishing a physical footprint in the grocery business with its acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc earlier this year. The company’s shares have climbed about 60 percent this year.
MANUFACTURING
Zeon to add production line
Zeon Corp, a Japanese resin, rubber and latex supplier, is adding a new production line to boost output of films used for flat-panel OLED displays, company president Kuniaki Tanaka said. Demand for large-screen televisions using organic light-emitting diodes is climbing as prices decline, he said in an interview. The Tokyo-based company is planning to spend several tens of billions of yen to add 10 percent to capacity within the next few years. A key product by the company, ZeonorFilm, is used for smartphone and tablet displays because of its durability, transparency and lighter weight, making it an attractive alternative to glass. Zeon’s stock has more than doubled in the past five years on booming demand for smartphones. Revenue is on track to rise 11 percent this fiscal year through March next year, Bloomberg data showed.
FINANCE
Banker banned in Singapore
Singapore yesterday banned a jailed banker from working in its financial services industry for life over his links to the international money-laundering scandal involving neighboring Malaysia’s state fund 1MDB. Financial regulator the Monetary Authority of Singapore handed the punishment to Yeo Jiawei, noting he had been convicted of several 1MDB-linked charges, including money laundering, cheating and tampering with witnesses involved in the probe into the case. Yeo, a Singaporean who is a former wealth manager with Swiss bank BSI, is one of several bankers jailed over the affair. He was last year jailed for 30 months and was handed another 54-month sentence in July, which is running concurrently with his first jail term.
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