■ Business climate
New Zealand tops ranking
New Zealand ranked at the top of a list of 145 countries for "ease of doing business" in 2004, while Slovakia and Colombia made the most improvement, a World Bank survey showed Wednesday. New Zealand, followed by the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, was among the top five in the survey, based on regulatory climate, flexible labor laws and other factors, the World Bank said. The report showed that, on average, it takes a business in a rich nation six procedures, 8 percent of income per capita and 27 days to get started. In a poor or lower-middle-income economy, the same process takes 11 procedures, 122 percent of income per capita and 59 days. Sixteen of the 20 countries with the most cumbersome business regulations and weakest protection of property rights are in Africa, the report said.
■ Computers
Server sales up by 12.4%
Computer server sales in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan grew by a brisk 12.4 percent to US$1.37 billion in the second quarter after a gain of 9.6 percent in the three months to March, an industry monitor said yesterday. US-based industry research group Gartner said competition was intense in the June quarter, marked by an aggressive push from mainly US computer makers into the region. "The server market in Asia Pacific remains intensely competitive and price-sensitive as multinational vendors compete with local vendors in markets such as China," said Matthew Boon, Gartner's regional vice president for hardware and systems research. China remained the biggest market with US$488.27 million worth of servers sold in the June quarter, an increase of 23.7 percent from a year ago.
■ Employment
Labor shortage tied to pay
China is 2 million workers short in the nation's biggest exporting province of Guangdong, as low pay and poor working conditions stem the flow of migrant labor from poorer parts of the country. The shortage is acute in the Pearl River Delta, a cluster of cities in Guangdong that supply the world's toys, shoes and clothes, where factories are finding it more difficult to fill 12-hour-a-day jobs that pay less than 700 yuan (US$85) a month, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security said on its Web site. Guangdong is losing workers to Shanghai and other cities in eastern China, where pay and working conditions are better. The average pay of a worker in Guangdong averages 160 yuan less than in Jiangsu, an eastern province.
■ Copyright
Microsoft fights China piracy
Microsoft Corp filed its first complaint with China's copyright bureau, claiming three software producers illegally replicated the company's products, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Yan Xiaohong, a bureau vice director. The three companies are: Beijing Zhong Xinlian, Tianjin Tianbaodie and Tianjin Minzu Wenhua Guangdie, the Hong Kong newspaper said. The companies, which made DVD discs, may have ties to China's military, it said. The US is pressing China to clamp down on copycat products as part of efforts to close a record $124 billion trade gap. The Chinese government on Monday said it seized 2 million compact discs in its biggest crackdown yet on piracy.
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)