■ LCD TVs
Sony eyes global sales
Sony Corp, the world's No. 2 consumer electronics maker, plans to step up efforts to sell plasma and LCD TVs worldwide, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, without citing source.
The company will start making and selling plasma televisions early this year in China, while moving output of liquid-crystal televisions to Spain, the report said. Sony also plans to set up a plasma and liquid-crystal television production facility in North America, the paper said. Sony officials couldn't be reached for comment. Sony plans to expand output to take 30 percent of the global market, the paper said. The company expects liquid-crystal television sales to jump six-fold to 480,000 units in the business year starting April 1 from this year, while sales of plasma TV will probably rise 250 percent to 280,000.
■ Real estate
Shanghai risks bubble
A property bubble in Shanghai appears to be forming after China's largest city won the right to host the 2010 World Exposition, prompting the mayor to vow new measures to prevent prices from spinning out of control, state media said yesterday. The city will try to rein in runaway prices by controlling the land supply rather than by issuing decrees, Mayor Han Zheng (韓正) told Xinhua news agency. Shanghai must build a property market structure that can meet the needs of all the city's 16 million people, including people with average incomes, said Han. Shanghai has seen the market become more active, not only because of the 2010 Expo, but also the prospect of Formula One racing beginning in 2004 and a Vivendi Universal theme park slated to open in 2006.
■ Debt
Credit-card payments late
Overdue payments on credit cards issued by South Korean companies and banks rose by almost a quarter in January from the previous month, Yonhap News said. Card payments overdue more than a month rose to 8 trillion won (US$6.6 billion) at the end of January from 6.5 trillion won in December, Yonhap said, citing the Financial Supervisory Service. Consumers, taking advantage of low interest rates, have been borrowing beyond their means to buy homes, cars and other goods. South Korea's central bank trimmed key interest rates to a record 4 percent in 2001 to boost consumer spending as exports fell. A jump in household debt last year prompted the government to tighten regulations on mortgages and credit-card lending late last year.
■ Pharmaceuticals
Glaxo owes tax in Japan
British pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline's Tokyo-based investment firm failed to report ¥65 billion (US$555 million) in income to tax authorities over three years, reports said yesterday. The Tokyo taxation bureau is likely to order the firm, Glaxo, to pay more than ¥20 billion in tax and punitive fines, one of the largest-ever sums of money collected over inaccurate income reports, the Asahi Shimbun said. Glaxo allegedly failed to report stocks-sales and other profits at its Singapore subsidiary for the three years to December 2001, the daily said. Japan's tax haven law requires the Japanese parent firm to include income of a subsidiary in its own earnings in accordance with the equity stake it has in the unit, when the tax rate is 25 percent or less in the country the subsidiary is operating in.
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)