■ Energy
Oil prices to stay high
Several of the world's oil producers that are not members of OPEC might not be able to immediately ramp up their output to help bring down current high oil prices, OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro said yesterday. He did not men-tion any of the non-member countries by name, but said they would need to increase investments before boosting output. "We realize that some non-OPEC members can't increase production in the short term, but we believe they can over the longer term," said Purnomo, who is also Indonesia's energy minister. OPEC, which accounts for 40 percent of the world's oil supply, decided to increase its output ceiling to 25.5 million barrels a day starting July 1, and to 26 million in August from 23.5 million currently. Non-member Russia has already said it can't increase its output anytime soon.
■ Software
Microsoft sells anti-virus fix
Microsoft Corp will sell an anti-virus product that can detect mutating computer bugs, which existing software fails to do, said Scott Charney, the com-pany's chief security strategist. Microsoft has been trying to block computer viruses from clients' machines after worms such as "Blaster" and "Beagle" escaped detection by existing software, slowing traffic and crashing customers' computers in the past year. The company said more of these viruses are expected. "There's a lot of room for innovation," Charney said. "We need to get the com-puter to a point where people would use it without a sense of fear or that some-thing will go wrong -- it's not like the telephone, where people will just pick it up when they use it," he said. The anti-virus software will be a standalone product and will ride on the brand recognition of its operating system and software to push sales.
■ Banking
Singapore opens market
Monetary officials are opening up Singapore's banking sector further to foreign banks by giving them more access to the domestic market starting Jan. 1. The three local banks -- DBS Group Holdings, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank -- can expect to face intensifying competition both in Singa-pore and abroad, warned Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday. He urged them to look further into Asia. Six qualifying foreign banks can have up to 25 branches or offsite automatic teller machines (ATM) under the plan. They are currently restricted to 15 service locations, of which not more than five can be branches. ABN Amro Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Maybank and BNP Paribas can now negotiate with the local banks on a commer-cial basis to let their credit-card members obtain cash through the Singapore banks' ATM networks.
■ Banking
Online usage rising in US
Some 22 million people use online banking at the top 10 US financial institutions, up 29 percent from a year ago, a survey showed Thursday. The survey by market research firm comScore Networks, measuring the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, said usage of online bank bill payment services grew by 37 percent. The survey found some 4.6 million consumers, or about 20 percent of the online banking population, used online bill payment services offered by the top 10 banks.
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
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing