■ Tourism
Chinese fuel Asian growth
Increasingly affluent Chinese tourists who are visiting other Asian coun-tries will be the ones driving tourist spending in the region, a survey showed yesterday. At current rates of growth, more than 24.3 million tourists from China will visit Bangkok, Singa-pore, Hong Kong and Seoul between last year and 2011, according to the retail and travel report by MasterCard International. Shopping is the major attraction. "Com-petitive retailing will be a crucial standard for the selection of tourists,' the report said. The money Chinese tourists are expected to spend in the four cities is forecast to reach US$14 billion in 2006 and US$20 billion in 2011. Tourists in Hong Kong and Singapore currently spend an average of US$170 and US$130 respectively, with a stay of less than three days in each place. The rise of budget airlines will also spur Chinese regional outbound tourism, the report said.
■ Fast Food
Dalai Lama says no to KFC
The Dalai Lama has told the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fast food chain to stay out of Tibet over alleged cruelty to animals, an animal rights group said yesterday. The exiled Tibe-tan leader has written a letter to KFC parent com-pany Yum! Brands chief executive David Novak imploring him to abandon plans to expand KFC res-taurants into Tibet, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said. "It is quite natural for me to support those who are currently protesting the introduction of industrial food practices into Tibet that will perpetuate the suffering of huge numbers of chickens," the Dalai Lama is quoted as saying in the letter. He said that the cruel treatment endured by chickens who were raised and killed for KFC "violates Tibetan values." PETA said that the practice of eating chicken in Tibet was "popu-larized" by Chinese Hans who have been migrating there in increasing numbers. There are more than 1,000 KFC locations in China, the most of any country outside the US.
■ Semiconductors
Freescale to sell notes
Freescale Semiconductor Inc, the chipmaking busi-ness being separated from Motorola Inc, plans to sell US$1.25 billion in high-yield, high-risk notes around July 15, said people familiar with the offering who declined to be identified. Freescale will sell five-year floating-rate notes, along with seven- and 10-year notes with fixed interest rates, the people said. The amount being sold for each maturity hasn't been determined. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co are managing the private offering, the people said. The sale is rated Ba2 at Moody's Investors Service and BB+ at Standard & Poor's, the second-highest rating and highest non-investment-grade rating.
■ Aviation
Cerberus' helps Air Canada
Struggling Air Canada said on Wednesday that it had accepted a US$183 million investment offer from the New-York-based investment firm Cerberus as part of its massive plan to pull the airline out of bankruptcy protection. Under the deal, Cerberus will eventually control 9.2 percent of Air Canada stock. The latest deal provides for an investment of US$183 million in convertible preference shares under terms backed by major financial stakeholders, the airline company, its board and the monitor overseeing its bankruptcy protection.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Xinyi A13 Department Store last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined at
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)