Boeing Co, the world's largest aerospace company, agreed to cut the price of jet fighters sold to South Korea by US$239 million to US$4.23 billion, lower than that offered by its main rival Dassault Aviation SA of France.
Boeing also agreed to shift production worth US$3.56 billion to South Korea, amounting to 84 percent of the total value of the F-15K program, meeting the government's 70 percent requirement, the Ministry of National Defense said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
South Korea last month awarded Boeing the exclusive right to negotiate for the order of 40 jet fighters. Boeing's initial offer included investing at least US$2.9 billion, or 65 percent, of the contract value in the country.
"When we started the negotiations, we had aimed to lower the price to a level offered by Dassault, which was US$4.27 billion," said Choi Dong -jin, deputy minister for acquisitions at the defense ministry. "We are satisfied with the result because we got a lower price than what Dassault had offered."
South Korea narrowed the field to Boeing and Dassault in March, basing its final choice on security, political and trade issues.
The selection process was mired in allegations of corruption and irregularities. Dassault had filed an injunction against the government, saying the bidding was rigged in Boeing's favor because of the US-South Korea military alliance.
"The deal ended in [South] Korea's favor as it was able to cut the price to around the level that Boeing had initially offered last year," said Kim Jong Dae, a military analyst at New Strategy Institute of Korea. "But it would have been better if the government had worked harder to lower the price from the start."
Boeing had offered about US$4.25 billion for the jet fighters to South Korea last year before the price was raised to US$4.5 billion last month, the defense ministry said.
The latest amendment added US$668 million to the total amount of work Boeing is committed to complete in South Korea. Most of the increase will be through Korea receiving more software development technology and more engine maintenance work.
"Because the increase is mostly software and engines, we don't see any problem in maintaining operations at our St. Louis plant," said Arthur Park, a spokesman at Boeing.
"There won't be any job cuts as a result of this."
The fighters will be powered by General Electric Co engines.
Of the total package, the transfer of the main jet fighter technologies will amount to US$1.55 billion and production of parts by local manufacturers will be worth US$1.44 billion, the ministry said.
"The technology we will receive [from Boeing] will help our goal to develop our own jet fighter by 2015," the defense ministry's Choi said.
The ministry expects the revised contract to be signed in June. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2005.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)