■ Retailing
Direct selling green-lighted
China is preparing to lift its ban on direct selling and plans to issue a draft regulation by September, state press reported yes-terday. "Illegal pyramid selling will face a serious crackdown while legitimate direct selling companies from home and abroad will receive encouragement and support from the Chinese government," said Deng Zhan, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Investment Administration. China imposed a ban on direct sales in 1998 after numerous fraud scandals. Ten foreign-funded direct selling companies such as Amway and Avon were allowed to continue opera-ting but had to shift promo-tion of their products to retail outlets, the China Daily said. The stop-gap measures are set to come at the end of this year, in line with promises China made on its accession to the WTO.
Richard Holwill, vice-president of Alticor Inc, Amway's parent company, was quoted by the news-paper as saying the deregu-lation followed China's commitments to the WTO.
■ Cameras
Digital sales to soar
Worldwide unit shipments of digital cameras will exceed 100 million units in 2008, from an expected 68.6 million units this year, mar-ket researcher IDC said. Global shipments of digital single-lens reflex cameras, or models favored by pro-fessionals, will be 2.1 million units this year and reach 6.6 million units in 2008 as digital SLRs replace film-based SLRs, Christo-pher Chute, senior analyst at IDC, said. Shipments of digital SLRs will be driven by sub-US$1,000 price points, legacy users of Nikon Corp and Canon Inc models, and new users interested in developing photography as a hobby, Chute said.
■ Telecoms
NTT DoCoMo gets new boss
NTT DoCoMo Inc named executive vice president Masao Nakamura as its next chief executive officer, replacing Keiji Tachikawa. Nakamura, 59, will be charged with reversing market-share losses at the world's second-largest mobile-phone operator, said Norio Wada, president of DoCoMo parent Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. at a press conference in Tokyo. Nakamura takes the reins at DoCoMo as the market leader is losing ground to rival KDDI Corp's phone network and is predicting sales to decline in the business year ending March 31. Under Tachi-kawa, DoCoMo pioneered
i-mode, the world's first wireless Internet service, and FOMA, the first so-called third-generation network for faster access to games, music and video on a handset.
■ Automakers
Mitsubishi barred
Japan's National Police Agency has barred Mitsu-bishi Motors Corp and its truck affiliate from bidding for police orders for 11 months following allega-tions that company officials covered up defects which caused the wheels to come off, a news report said yesterday. The measure, which took effect on Thursday, prevents Mitsu-bishi Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp from selling vehicles to the agency, Kyodo News agency said. The decision comes after seven former Mitsu-bishi executives were arrested earlier this month on suspicion they falsified a report on an accident in 2002 in which a wheel flew off a truck and killed a woman. Japan's Transport Ministry has also taken a similar step.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
AMENDMENT: Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of high-temperature days, affecting economic productivity and public health, experts said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) is considering amending the Meteorological Act (氣象法) to classify “high temperatures” as “hazardous weather,” providing a legal basis for work or school closures due to extreme heat. CWA Administrator Lu Kuo-chen (呂國臣) yesterday said the agency plans to submit the proposed amendments to the Executive Yuan for review in the fourth quarter this year. The CWA has been monitoring high-temperature trends for an extended period, and the agency contributes scientific data to the recently established High Temperature Response Alliance led by the Ministry of Environment, Lu said. The data include temperature, humidity, radiation intensity and ambient wind,
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
RSS