■ 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.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
ALL QUIET: The Philippine foreign secretary told senators she would not respond to questions about whether Lin Chia-lung was in the country The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a business delegation is visiting the Philippines, but declined to say whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) is part of the group, as Philippine lawmakers raised questions over Lin’s reported visit. The group is being led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-chin (黃昭欽), Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) vice president Lotta Danielsson, the ministry said in a statement. However, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lin is leading the delegation of 70 people. Filinvest New Clark City Innovation Park
DEFENSIVE EDGE: The liaison officer would work with Taiwan on drones and military applications for other civilian-developed technologies, a source said A Pentagon unit tasked with facilitating the US military’s adoption of new technology is soon to deploy officials to dozens of friendly nations, including Taiwan, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is to send a representative to collaborate with Taiwan on drones and military applications from the semiconductor industry by the end of the year, the British daily reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “Drones will certainly be a focus, but they will also be looking at connecting to the broader civilian and dual-use ecosystem, including the tech sector,” one source was
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