■Electronics
NEC invests in government
NEC Corp, Japan's second-largest chipmaker, and Fujitsu Ltd, the nation's biggest business computer maker, plan to set up data-processing centers for local governments, spending as much as Japanese Yen 30 billion (US$253 million), Nikkei English News reported. The companies each plan to establish 50 centers by March 2005 as demand for such services increase after local governments next month start distributing electronic identity cards to citizens, the newswire said, without citing the source of its information. NEC will provide computer equipment to local companies as well as expertise on how to design and operate such facilities, Nikkei said.
■ Internet
Cable wins from net phones
Cablevision Systems Corp, the largest cable-television company in the New York area, and its peers may eventually dominate calling via the Internet, Barron's said, citing an interview with Legg Mason analyst Blair Levin. In the coming months, Cablevision plans to begin selling a service that lets customers make telephone calls over the Internet, Levin said. "That shift is going to get worse with Voice Over Internet Protocol on the horizon. In the future, cable will be doing more VoiP," Levin said. Smaller companies, such as Vonage, which use other companies' broadband networks as well as equipment linked to a telephone to let customers make phone calls over the Internet, are also poised to benefit from growing demand for the service, Levin told Barron's.
■ Hotels
Le Meridien fights for life
Le Meridien Hotels, the operator of London's Grosvenor House, may be placed into administration this week if talks with Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal to refinance the company fail, the Sunday Telegraph reported, citing no one. Negotiations aimed at avoiding administration may continue today after Le Meridien's lenders rejected an offer from Hands and the Saudi prince to inject ?150 million (US$238 million) into the company provided the banks exchanged a portion of debt for a 10 percent equity stake. The hotel chain has been close to bankruptcy since it missed a ?20 million rental payment to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc two weeks ago. RBS leases 11 UK hotels to Meridien and wants to appoint a new hotel operator for them, the paper said. Lehman Brothers Inc, another of Le Meridien's lenders, wants to hand over the management of the company's 130 hotels overseas to Hyatt Corp, the US hotels group, the paper said.
■ Luxury goods
Cartier opens Ginza outlet
Cie Financiere Richemont AG's Cartier opened the biggest outlet in its chain of luxury goods stores in Tokyo's Ginza district, following similar moves by rivals such as Christian Dior SA and Gucci Group NV, the Mainichi Yomiuri said. Cartier this weekend opened the 1,030m2 Parisian Mansion-style boutique, the biggest of its 212 outlets worldwide, the Yomiuri said. The company plans to invest aggressively in the Japanese market, Cartier International president Bernard Fornas said. Japan provides a fifth of the Cartier's profits, the paper quoted him as saying. Several foreign luxury goods makers have opened or plan to open stores in Tokyo's top shopping district,indicating Japan remains an attractive market for global luxury goods makers.
Agencies
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has