■ Employment
Cisco seeks new workers
Networking giant Cisco is set to hire 1,000 workers in another sign that the high-tech economy is picking up speed, according to the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday. The report came a day after Cisco reported record profit and strong sales in its most recent quarter with revenue hitting US$5.6 billion, up 4.1 percent from the previous three months. Profit reached US$1.2 billion, up 67.3 percent from the second quarter. The new hires mean that Cisco will have around 35,000 workers on its payroll compared to 44,000 before the tech downturn began in 2001.
■ Transportation
Bullet trains for China
Six Japanese firms plan to bid for an US$885 million project in China to upgrade its inter-city trains by intro-ducing Japan's shinkansen or bullet train technology, an official said yesterday. The six -- Hitachi, Kawa-saki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric and three trading companies, Itochu, Marubeni and Mitsubishi -- will mount the bid as a consortium with Nanche Sifang Locomotive, a Hitachi spokesman said. If the Japanese firms win the bidding, it would mark the first transfer of Japanese shinkansen technology to China, he said.
■ Management
Long meetings `verboten'
Most German top managers hate long meetings showing the least patience when it comes to sitting it out com-pared to their European counterparts, according to the Institute of the Germany Economy. A total of 53 percent of German mana-gers found the marathon meetings annoying, fol-lowed by 43 percent of managers in Spain and 42 percent in Britain, the survey found.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft