■ Airways
Jobhunters swamp Cathay
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Asia's sixth-largest carrier, received 1,000 applications in Hong Kong for 300 available cabin-crew positions as it expands its services and fleet this year, the South China Morning Post reported. Job applicants waited in line from 6am Hong Kong time, the newspaper said, citing Shirley Au, cabin crew manager. Cathay Pacific and other Asian carriers are expanding as demand for travel rebounds from record lows during the region's outbreak of SARS last year. That may help Hong Kong's jobless rate. Unemployment fell in May to 7 percent, seasonally adjusted, down from 7.1 percent in April, according to the government.
■ Property
Tokai Lease Co to expand
Tokai Lease Co plans to invest 1 billion yen (US$9.3 million) in China to expand its business of leasing prefabricated buildings, Nikkei English News (NEN) said, citing company sources that were not identified. The company's Chinese subsidiary is forecasting sales to triple to 2.5 billion yen (US$$23.3 million) in the year ending March 2007, according to the report. The unit will spend 600 million yen adding three distribution centers in Nanjing, Hangzhou and Tianjin, raising the total number to nine, the report said. The company also plans to expand its lease assets business in the world's most populous nation where it currently has assets totaling just over 1 billion yen, NEN said. China's property prices jumped 11 percent in the first five months of the year as the economy expands.
■ Internet
Gates may start own blog
Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates may start a personal "blog," saying the Internet diaries are useful for sharing information, the Seattle Times reported. "And so if I do a trip report, say, and put that in a blog format, then all the employees at Microsoft who really want to look at that and who have keywords that connect to it or even people outside, they can find the information," the paper reported, citing a transcript of a speech Gates gave last month at a conference for chief executives. Mary Jo Foley, who writes a technology newsletter, said the Microsoft chairman and philanthropist soon will begin a blog that includes personal tidbits such as how he spent his recent vacation, the Times said. Programmers popularized blogs in the late 1990s by developing software that makes it easy to produce and update personal Web sites. Microsoft wouldn't confirm Foley's report but left open the possibility that Gates may start a blog, the paper said, citing company spokesman Mark Murray.
■ Financing
GE targets Australia
General Electric Co's Australian consumer finance unit may make more acquisitions as it targets 15 percent growth in its A$12 billion (US$8.4 billion) of assets this year, Tom Gentile, chief executive of the unit said. GE Consumer Finance's local unit looked at more than 50 potential deals in Australia last year and sees opportunities for growth in retailing and health care, Gentile told Nine Network television. General Electric, the world's largest company by market value, bought Westpac Banking Corp's AGC finance unit for A$1.65 billion in 2002, making it the biggest lender in Australia's non-bank consumer finance market. Gentile may also take on new partners to bolster the unit's 550,000 credit cards in Australia.
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