■ Labor
Hitachi scraps seniority pay
Hitachi Ltd, Japan's biggest private employer, said it will scrap its seniority-based salary system and pay employees based on performance from April next year. Hitachi will adopt the system at the parent level and allow other companies in the group to decide whether to follow, spokesman Keisaku Shibatani said, confirming a Nihon Keizai Shimbun report. The Tokyo-based parent has about 35,000 employees out of a group total of 320,528 as of March 31. Hitachi started paying about 5,000 managers based on performance in 2000. Under the new rule, office positions will be divided into seven grades and factory positions into five, Shibatani said. Employees may be upgraded or downgraded based on evaluations by their superiors, he said.
■ Currencies
China says debt no problem
China's forex watchdog considers the country's foreign debt manageable, even if a large proportion is short-term and more vulnerable to sudden mood shifts in international finance, state media reported yesterday. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange made the remark after recent data showed China's short-term debt, with a maturity of up to one year, rose 21 percent in the first six months of this year to reach US$64.2 billion. This means short-term debt now stands at 35.2 percent of China's total foreign debt of US$182.6 billion, above the internationally accepted "safe line" of 25 percent, the China Daily reported. However, foreign exchange administration officials told the newspaper that the situation only appeared worrisome.
■ Insurance
Singapore still covers war
The Singapore government said yesterday it will continue to give third-party war risk insurance to Singapore Airlines and Changi International Airport for another six months. Singapore, like the US Federal Aviation Administration and many other governments, has provided its flagship carrier and international airport with war and terrorism coverage since the hijacked plane attacks in the US Sept. 11, 2001, after which private insurance companies canceled all policies and imposed higher premiums for new ones. Without government assistance, airlines would have had to cover a total of about US$6 billion in insurance premiums out of their own pockets last year -- up from per-year pre-Sept. 11 levels of about US$1 billion, according to estimates by the International Air Transport Association.
■ Currencies
US dollar may drop 20%
The US dollar will probably drop a further 20 percent on a trade-weighted basis in the next two years because the world's largest economy may falter, said Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley. "My guess is that it's got another 20 percent to go," Roach told reporters after a presentation at the Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore. "The risk is that it could be in a shorter time period, which could be very disruptive." The dollar may fall because US economic growth, which expanded at a 7.2 percent pace in the three months ended Sept. 30, will probably slow in coming months, deterring investment in assets denominated in the US currency, he said. Roach also said China's economic growth will probably expand at a 7 percent pace next year, slowing from about 8.5 percent this year.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique