■ Aviation
Saudis to privatize airports
Saudi Arabia will privatize its international and local airports but keep security duties at the facilities in state hands, civil aviation chief Abdullah Rahimi said in remarks published yesterday in the daily Al-Medina. Rahimi said his authority was already privatizing some airport services, but he did not give a timeframe for completion of the process. He said the defense and aviation minister had recently signed deals with five Saudi firms worth 638 million riyals (US$170 million) to operate regional and local airports for three years. The kingdom has around 25 airports, including three international airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. Rahimi said a new regional airport would be built in al-Ala near Medina.
■ Semiconductors
Elpida seeks new funding
Japanese memory-chip maker Elpida Memory, jointly held by NEC and Hitachi, said yesterday that it would take the offensive against foreign rivals by raising some ?170 billion (US$1.57 billion) in fresh funds to boost output. "We expect to complete fund raising for enhancing production in early November," Elpida said in a statement, noting the total sum would be about ?170 billion. This will comprise ?66 billion through new share issuance and ?100 billion worth of manufacturing facility leasing and debt, it said. Elpida initially planned to boost capacity for large 300mm wafers to 16,000 wafers a month from the current 3,600. However, the planned new funding allows the firm to consider a production capacity increase to 21,000 wafers, it said.
■ China
Stock offering to fund dam
Builders of the giant Three Gorges Dam want to raise 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) through one of the country's biggest stock offerings. The shares are due to be sold by China Yangtze Power Co on the Shanghai Stock Exchange next week, and will be available only to Chinese investors, both private and institutional, according to a prospectus issued yesterday. Eventually, the project plans to raise as much as 40 billion yuan by selling shares to the public, according to state media. Beijing decided to finance the dam with domestic stock and bond sales after it generated controversy abroad over its inundation of villages and cultural sites. China Yangtze Power is a unit of the state-owned China Three Gorges Project Corp, which is in building the dam.
■ Semiconductors
Intel cuts PC chip prices
Intel Corp slashed prices by as much as 35 percent on processors for personal computers to make way for newer chips and take advantage of lower factory costs. The desktop 3.2-Ghz Intel Pentium 4 chip dropped to US$417 from US$637 each in batches of 1,000, and the 3-Ghz version fell to US$262 from US$401, according to a price list posted on the company's Web site. It pared prices on seven models of its Pentium 4 chips for desktop PCs and seven more Pentiums for laptops. Prices for some of Intel's mobile Celeron processors were cut by as much as 16 percent, the list showed. Intel regularly cuts prices to stimulate demand for older chips as it introduces higher-performing products. It plans to start selling Prescott, a successor to the Pentium 4, in the next two months.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2