■ Shipping
FedEx boosts Asia presence
FedEx Corp, the world's largest cargo airline, is boosting its Asian presence through an agreement for possible cooperation with Guangzhou Airport Authority in southern China. The carrier said yesterday it has signed a framework agreement with the Chinese authority "outlining certain principles of cooperation" but is negotiating the details. The company gave no specifics. FedEx, which currently serves more than 200 Chinese cities, also said it is exploring further Asian expansion, with potential locations including the Guangzhou airport and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in the Philippines. Separately, it denied media reports that it might switch its Asia-Pacific hub to Guangzhou from its base in Subic Bay in the Philippines. "FedEx has no immediate plans to relocate its Asia-Pacific hub from Subic Bay," the carrier said.
■ Trade
Japan ups US tariffs
Japan will raise tariffs on US imports after the US missed a WTO deadline to repeal a law that allows millions of dollars in tariff revenue to go to companies, a trade ministry official said. Japan on Monday will notify the WTO of its intention to raise tariffs, said an official at the Ministry of Trade, Economy and Industry in Tokyo who asked not to be named. The WTO will review the plan, deciding how much in tariffs can be imposed and on what products, which could take several months, he said. METI Vice Minister Seiji Murata, speaking at a regular press conference in Tokyo, said that Japan wants to make a decision early next week regarding notification to the WTO.
■ Fermented Goods
Kimchi boosted by SARS
Exports of South Korean kimchi, the famously fiery and odorous fermented vegetable dish, soared to record levels last year amid beliefs it wards off SARS. Kimchi exports climbed almost 7 percent to US$84.64 million during the first 11 months of last year, exceeding the previous export record of US$79.3 million for all of 2002, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said yesterday. Japan, the US and Taiwan are the main overseas markets. But exports to China, the epicenter of last year's SARS outbreak, jumped almost fivefold from US$40,000 to US$180,000. "The rise can be attributed to rumors that kimchi helps prevent SARS, and efforts to develop new markets," said Kim Myong-soo, a ministry official. There is no scientific proof that kimchi prevents SARS. But some people believe it has strong anti-bacterial qualities that boost the immune system and prevent illnesses. Not one SARS case has been found in South Korea.
■ Management
Nakamura gets recognition
Kunio Nakamura, president of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, was named the 2003 Businessman of the Year in Asia by Forbes Global magazine in its Jan. 12 issue. Nakamura, 64, spent most of his career with the world's biggest maker of consumer electronics in marketing before becoming president in 2000. One of his first orders was to equip each of the company's top 400 executives with an Internet-compatible mobile phone, according to the report. Nakamura merged several of Matsushita's brands, including Quasar, Technics and National, into the single Panasonic label and tripled the company's advertising budget to US$270 million, Forbes said. The company dominates the market for DVD recorders with a share of more than 50 percent, it said.
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