■ South Korea
Bad credit-card debt rises
Delinquencies at LG Card Co and seven other South Korean credit-card companies rose to a record 13.5 percent in November, the fifth straight monthly increase, because of poor risk management, the nation's regulator said. The ratio of overall card loans overdue by more than a month rose from 11.7 percent at the end of October to 7.7 trillion won (US$6.43 billion), the Financial Supervisory Service said in a statement, citing preliminary figures. The ratio was 8.9 percent on June 30. "Credit card companies cut their lending ceiling as financial woes deepened at LG Card and other credit card companies," the agency said. "As such, defaulters couldn't use different credit cards to pay their card bills."
■ Semiconductors
Sales expected to rise
Worldwide semiconductor sales will rise by 18 percent to US$188.8 billion next year on stronger-than-expected demand for personal computers and mobile phones, market researcher IDC said. In April the company forecast 16 percent growth in sales next year. From this year to 2008, the semiconductor market will grow at an annual growth rate of 12.5 percent, rising to US$282 billion in 2008 from US$160 billion this year, IDC said in an e-mailed statement. China, the world's largest market for mobile phones and the second largest for personal computers, will be the main contributor to demand for electronic devices that use chips, IDC said. "Chinese semiconductor demand currently represents over one quarter of the US$60 billion total for Asia Pacific and will account for almost half of the entire region by the end of our forecast period," IDC vice president Mario Morales said in the statement.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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