For Airbus SAS, the world's largest commercial aircraft maker, and nuclear reactor company Areva SA, Chinese President Hu Jintao's three-day trip to France which started yesterday may mean one thing: orders.
Hu has a record of bringing business to the countries he visits. He went to Australia in October with a US$21 billion contract to buy natural gas. His May visit to Russia produced a statement asking companies there to help build a gas pipeline between China's eastern and western provinces.
Alsthom SA, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Suez SA are among French companies banking on more business from China.
Among business leaders who will meet with Hu in Paris are Areva chief executive Anne Lauvergeon, Renault SA chief executive Louis Schweitzer, Henri Proglio who heads Veolia Environnement SA and Peugeot chief executive Jean-Martin Folz.
Airbus signed letters of understanding in April to sell 30 jetliners to five Chinese airlines in a deal worth US$1.89 billion when French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin visited the country. Most of those pacts have yet to be turned into official contracts. The sale involved four A330s, 16 A319s and 10 A320s.
Peugeot, Europe's No. 2 carmaker, sold 104,000 vehicles in China last year through a joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Corp and said this month it will invest 600 million euros (US$765 million) to increase Chinese production capacity to 300,000 vehicles.
Alstom, which has built power stations that generate a fifth of the world's electricity and has made two-thirds of the world's high-speed trains, is bidding for more contracts in China.
The company has helped build nuclear power stations in the country and is supplying turbine generators for the Three Gorges Dam. It has also supplied trains for the Shanghai subway.
State-owned Areva, whose Framatome ANP unit is the world's biggest maker of nuclear reactors, has designed six reactors for China and is seeking to increase orders there.
"We are eagerly looking forward to the call for tenders for the next four reactors," said Charles Hufnagel, an Areva spokesman.
Veolia Environnement, the world's biggest water company, has signed several contracts in China including a 50-year, 8.5 billion euro contract to distribute water in Shenzhen and a 20-year, 50 million-euro contract to operate a wastewater-treatment plant in Beijing.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
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