■ Textiles
China restricts polyester
China imposed anti-dumping tariffs of as much as 29 percent on imports of polyester fiber from Taiwan, the first punitive duties the nation has placed on textile products since joining the World Trade Organization three years ago. Chinese manufacturing ventures of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑), Taiwan's biggest industrial group, and Far Eastern Textile Ltd (遠東紡織), Taiwan's largest textile maker, are among companies subject to the tariffs, the Ministry of Commerce said in Beijing. Formosa Plastics will pay 6 percent and DuPont-Far Eastern Co. 5 percent. The ruling will help to make locally produced fibers more competitive by boosting the cost of imports. Other, unidentified companies will be subject to 29 percent duties.
■ Investment
Deutsche Bank Fined
Deutsche Bank Securities has agreed to pay US$87.5 million to settle allegations that it issued stock research that was biased by its investment-banking business, regulators announced on Thursday, as part of a crackdown on conflicts of interest on Wall Street. A smaller investment firm, Thomas Weisel Partners, is paying US$12.5 million in a similar settlement announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Stock Exchange, the National Association of Securities Dealers and state securities regulators. They are the last two firms in an industrywide settlement. Ten of Wall Street's biggest firms -- including Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Chase -- agreed in April last year to pay a total of US$1.4 billion following more than a year of investigations that found analysts misled investors with stock picks designed to win firms investment-banking business. The firms neither admitted to nor denied the allegations.
■ Electronics
Surge expected in China
China's consumer electronics market will grow by almost 90 percent to US$94 billion by 2007 as manufacturers shift to high-end digital products and away from more basic items like toys and watches, an industry publication forecasts. The report by Global Sources Ltd estimated that consumer electronics sales in China will hit US$49.6 billion this year and grow by more than 20 percent annually over the next few years. Unit sales of integrated circuits for digital consumer products rose more than 22 percent last year, compared with below 14 percent growth in sales of ICs for lower-end products such as electronic toys and watches, said the report, published in Global Sources' Electronic Engineering Times-China. Such a trend suggests that manufacturers are shifting to more advanced products to counter growing competition.
■ Telecoms
Nokia, Vodafone to team up
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia and UK mobile operator Vodafone said on Thursday they would collaborate to simplify mobile phone software using the Java computer language, paving the way for cheaper mobile phones in the long run. "The aim of the initiative is to simplify mobile Java standards by defining the next generation, open standards-based mobile Java services architecture specifications," Nokia said in a statement. That means that a program written in Java could easily be transferred to another mobile phone that also uses Java, which is currently not the case because there is no standard specification.
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 Department Store Xinyi A13 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
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘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)