■ Banking
Credit program launched
South Korea launched a massive credit program yesterday to help bail out millions of individual loan defaulters. Financial officials said the so-called "bad bank" program would help restore the credit of defaulters who have debts of less than 50 million won (US$42,450) overdue for six months or more. If defaul-ters pay a first installment of 3 percent of the principal, they will be allowed to repay the entire debt over an eight-year period during which they will be exempted from interest payments if they meet repayment schedules. The program will affect more than 3 million smaller debtors. Corporate and individual defaults hit a record high last year, trig-gering an economic slump.
■ Software
Symantec buys Brightmail
Security software maker Symantec Corp announced on Wednesday it is acquiring the anti-spam firm Bright-mail Inc in a cash deal valued at about US$370 million. Symantec said the acquisition will complement its security products. "Merging with Symantec reaffirms the vision we had when we founded Bright-mail six years ago," said Sunil Paul, the company's founder. "We saw a business opportunity in protecting e-mail users from the threat of spam and that opportunity has been realized." The acquisition is expected to close by early July, after regulatory approval, the companies said. Brightmail provides software that uses filters and other proprietary technologies to block spam at the customer's Internet gateway, the point at which Internet traffic enters the public network.
■ Travel
Tourism growth seen
Tourism in the Asia-Pacific region will experience rapid growth until 2006, after which expansion will be more moderate, the president of the Pacific Asia Travel Association said yesterday. The outbreak of the SARS virus last year had a devastating effect but Asia-Pacific countries can now look ahead with "cautious optimism,"Peter de Jong said at the Asia Pacific Hotel Investment Conference 2004. "Entry into the new millennium has not exactly been smooth. Specifically, this region saw a loss of almost US$13 billion. The SARS outbreak led to a loss of almost 3 million jobs," he said. "[But] there will be rapid growth in the corresponding cycle from 2003 to 2006 ... followed by a more modest growth rate after 2006." Major ticketing service Abacus also said on Tuesday that Asian travel bookings were up 90 percent in March from a year ago and up 74 percent from 2002.
■ Telecoms
Paris pushes price cuts
The French government has stepped up the pressure on telecommunications com-panies to lower their rates for text messaging. Junior industry minister Patrick Devedjian, in an interview on Wednesday with the newspaper Le Parisien, called on the firms to lower their rates "between now and the start of September," warning that the state would "assume its respon-sibilities" if they failed to do so. But at least three pro-viders, Orange, SFR and Bouygues, have already announced plans -- or are drafting them -- to imple-ment lower rates, as they were asked to do by the government in March. At the moment the cost of a text message through networks operated by the three companies varies from seven to 15 euro cents (US$0.09 to US$0.18).
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2