■Banking
Japanese banks to merge
Hokuriku Bank Ltd and Hokkaido Bank Ltd said they may merge to create what would be Japan's second-biggest regional lender with combined assets of Japanese Yen 9.5 trillion (US$80 billion). Hokuriku Bank, which is based in north--western Japan's Toyama prefecture, has a market value more than three times Hokkaido Bank's capital-ization of Japanese Yen 42.7 billion. The banks said in separate statements they are considering a merger. Nikkei English News reported they will merge in the year beginning April of next year. The merger would be the second since the Financial Services Agency this year set aside Japanese Yen 1 trillion (US$8.5 billion) to boost the capital of banks which seek to merge. "Not only major banks, but regional banks also are groping around the way to the revitalization," Minister for Financial Services Heizo Takenaka said.
■ US economy
Association is optimistic
The US economy will expand in the second half of this year and next year at the fastest rate since 2000, leading to more business investment and lower unemployment, a survey by the nation's largest association of business economists found. GDP will increase at a 3.6 percent pace in the second half and for all of next year, according to the National Association for Business Economics, which surveyed 37 fore-casters earlier this month. That would be more than twice the 1.6 percent pace during the first three months this year and the fastest since 3.8 percent in 2000. US unemployment will hold at 6 percent for the rest of this year and fall to 5.7 percent by the end of next year, according to the survey. Business fixed investment will increase 1.4 percent this year before surging 8.1 percent next, the group found, and corporate profits will rise 9.6 percent this year and 15 percent next year.
■ Monetary policy
UK not ready for euro
Britain will not be ready to join the euro until after the country's next general election, due mid-2006 at the latest, Treasury chief Gordon Brown will announce next month, a British newspaper reported yesterday. "He will say the conditions [for joining] are not perfect now, but he expects the economics to be right by early in the next parliament," The Daily Mirror quoted a senior government source as saying. The source said Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown was all for Britain joining but that he believed now was not the right time. "Gordon Brown is preparing to get pro-active and he will make the case for Britain's membership as you've never heard it before. He will basically tell the country that we have to make `one more push,'" the source said.
■ Petroleum
Oil prices gain slightly
Oil prices were slightly firmer in Asian trading yesterday after dropping overnight following the lifting of UN Security Council sanctions on Iraq, allowing Baghdad's crude oil exports to resume. New York's benchmark light sweet crude contract for July delivery was trading at US$28.89 per barrel at 11:25 am after closing overnight at US$28.85 dollars. "I think oil prices are supported by the low stocks in the US and the strength in the natural gas market. Plus, the driving season in the US has already begun," a local trader said. He said oil prices had stopped reacting to the UN Security Council resolution, which came as no surprise. The Security Council ended 13 years of UN sanctions on Iraq with immediate effect.
Agencies
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
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘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)