■ Semiconductors
NEC Electronics expands
NEC Electronics Corp, the world's largest maker of semiconductors for cellphone screens, will spend US$47 million to build a factory to meet demand for its chips used in consumer electronics products. The new facility to house the production line will be completed in December alongside an existing factory in Yamagata prefecture, northern Japan, the company said in a faxed statement. Demand for chips used in consumer electronics products such as DVD recorders and cellphones prompted capacity expansion, the company said.
■ IT Systems
Infineon may scrap plans
Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's No. 2 semiconductor company, may scrap plans to hand the management of the company's information technology systems to a contractor, Der Tagesspiegel said, citing unidentified people at the company's supervisory board. The shift in strategy comes after the ousting of former Infineon Chief Executive Ulrich Schumacher last month, the newspaper reported. Munich-based Infineon said in February it was about to award a five-year contract worth a three-digit million euro sum to transfer its global IT infrastructure with 250 employees to a contracting company, according to Tagesspiegel.
■ Asian economy
ASEAN ministers to meet
Financial integration and the outlook for Southeast Asia top a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) finance ministers in Singapore this week, but no new initiatives are expected to be discussed. A retreat is scheduled for today followed by the eighth meeting of the ministers on Wednesday. The introduction of too many new initiatives could "muddle up" progress, said an official involved in the preparations. The gathering will review work being done on initiatives endorsed at a meeting in Bali last October. ASEAN leaders agreed during their annual summit on a roadmap aimed at achieving a EU-style common market by 2020 or sooner.
■ LCD technology
Terminal market to jump
The Asia-Pacific market for sleek LCD terminals is expected to reach US$4.3 billion this year, an International Data Corp study said yesterday. The projected figure would be up from US$3.2 billion in 2003 and US$2 billion the year earlier, prompting LCD giants to ramp up production, according to IDC data published in The Business Times. "This year, we expect LCD monitor sales to grow 38.5 percent across the region," Reuben Tan, IDC's senior personal systems analyst, was quoted as saying. "The demand will keep supplies tight," Tan said.
■ Finance
IKEA man world's richest
Ingvar Kamprad, the Swede who founded furniture retail chain IKEA, has overtaken Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest man, Swedish TV news reported on Sunday. Citing next week's edition of the Swedish business weekly Veckans Affarer, public service SVT2 television said Kamprad, 77, has a personal fortune of US$53 billion. Gates's fortune is put at US$47 billion, according to the latest list of the world's rich in Forbes magazine, SVT2 said. Kamprad, known for frugal habits such as flying economy class, lives in Switzerland and no longer takes part in the daily running of IKEA.
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
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
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
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