■ Hong Kong
Sales tax being mulled
Hong Kong may introduce a sales tax after three years, risking the territory's reputation as a duty-free shopping haven to bring government finances into balance. The deficit in the year ending March 31 will probably be HK$49 billion (US$6.3 billion), lower than the government's previous HK$78 billion forecast, and may fall to HK$42.6 billion next fiscal year, Financial Secretary Henry Tang (唐英年) said in his first budget speech. He forecast economic growth will accelerate to 6 percent this year from 3.3 percent last year. A sales tax won't be introduced for at least three years, Tang said, adding that a 5 percent rate would generate HK$20 billion to HK$30 billion a year. Tang said the government expects a HK$6 billion budget surplus in five years time.
■ Food
Imports add spice to kimchi
South Korean kimchi may not always be as Korean as people think. Imports of the fermented food soared to a record 2,396 tonnes in January, tripling from 698 tonnes over the same period last year, according to figures released yesterday by South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Nearly all the imports came from China, where costs for such ingredients as cabbage, garlic and spicy red pepper are much lower than those in South Korea. Last year, South Koreans gobbled up 1.18 million tonnes of kimchi, about two-thirds of it homemade. Kimchi imports for last year totaled 26,042 tonnes, worth US$10.3 million. South Korean kimchi producers are trying to counter the challenge of rising imports by also cutting costs and focusing on niche markets for "high-quality" native kimchi.
■ Mobile phones
Nokia No. 1 in the US
Nokia Oyj regained the No. 1 position in the US mobile-phone market from Motorola Inc, helped by a new range of handsets that use Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, newspaper Kauppalehti reported, citing researcher Gartner Inc. The Finnish company has a market share of 34 percent in North America, the Helsinki-based financial daily reported. Nokia has also been helped by delivery problems at Motorola, the paper said. Nokia's global market share was 35 percent last year, down 0.4 percentage points from 2002, the paper said. In Europe, Nokia's fourth-quarter market share fell to 45 percent from 53 percent in the year earlier period.
■ Airlines
Japanese carrier to cut jobs
Asia's top carrier, Japan Airlines System Corp, will reduce its group work force by almost 8 percent in the next three years, a report said yesterday. The job cuts, which will affect mainly ground staff, are intended to trim operating costs after the integration of Japan Airlines and Japan Air System in April, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The group's work force would be reduced by 4,500 from the current 57,000 by March 2007, the newspaper report said. The airline believes it will be able to achieve the payroll reduction through natural attrition alone, it said. At the same time, it will push ahead with the consolidation of administrative divisions and group companies to eliminate duplication, the newspaper said. The company hopes the personnel reduction will help turn around its business to post a profit of about ¥100 billion in fiscal 2006.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a