■ Mobile Phones
Handset forecast raised
Samsung Electronics Co, the world's third-biggest maker of mobile phones, raised its forecast for this year industry wide handset sales for the second time this month, citing rising consumer demand for new models. Samsung and its rivals may sell 600 million phones this year, said Lee Ki-tae, president of the company's telecommun-ication network unit. The company earlier this month forecast global sales of 560 million to 570 million phones. "We see demand for mobile handsets rising globally as the economy improves," Lee said in an interview at the Boao Forum for Asia conference on Hainan Island. Global phone sales will increase 12 percent this year to 580 million units, researcher Gartner Inc said last month.
■ Manufacturing
Konica to build new factory
Konica Minolta Holdings Inc will build a factory in Kobe to raise production of film used for liquid-crystal display panels, Nikkei English News reported. Konica Minolta will invest about ¥8 billion (US$73 million) in the protective triacetate cellulose plant, which will have annual capacity of 30 million meters2, the report said, citing unnamed company officials. The company's production will increase to 90 million meters2 a year as a result, meeting stronger demand for displays and particularly LCD televisions, the report said. Construc-tion will start in June and production of the film, used in polarizing plates for displays, in October next year, it said. The company has already invested ¥17 billion in the film business to build two factories, the report said. Konica Minolta expects worldwide demand for the film to grow an annual average of 40 per-cent through 2006, from 120 million square meters last year, the Nikkei reported.
■ Sports
Formula One faces split
Ford Motor Co and four other carmakers involved in Formula One racing said they are scrapping an agreement with billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, reviving the possibility that they might start a rival series. Fiat SpA, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Daim-lerChrysler AG, Renault SA and Ford ended talks with Ecclestone's SLEC holding company, which owns com-mercial rights to the racing series. The decision comes four months after the car-makers signed an agree-ment with 73-year-old Ecclestone that would have given them a greater share of revenue from the world's most-watched motor sport. Before signing the pact in December, the carmakers threatened to set up a rival series known as the Grand Prix World Championship that would begin in 2008. The so-called Concorde Agreement, which sets the rules for Formula One, expires at the end of 2007.
■ Automakers
Nissan ups model numbers
Nissan Motor Co plans to introduce about 40 car models across the world in the three business years ending March 31, 2008, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. Nissan will hold a press conference today on its latest three-year business plan, Keiko Tanaka, a Nis-san spokeswoman, said in Tokyo, declining to com-ment on the paper's report. The carmaker plans to raise annual automobile sales 50 percent to 4.5 million units worldwide in the latest three-year plan, Nikkei said, without saying where it got the information. Nissen will raise spending by 20 percent to more than ¥1.2 trillion (US$11 billion) in the three-year plan, the report said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)