■ Labor issues
Outsourcing creates jobs
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has debunked fears of job losses in industrialized nations due to outsourcing of services to developing nations. It says in a new study that farming out business, computer and information services to developing economies actually expands employ-ment and enhances efficiency. The IMF study finds that "jobs are not being exported, on net, from industrial countries to developing countries as a result of outsourcing. In fact, the evidence suggests that job losses in one industry often are offset by jobs created in other growing industries." Furthermore, for many industrialized coun-tries, including the US, the rest of the world outsources more business and computer services to them than the other way around, said the study released in IMF's latest quarterly magazine, Finance and Development.
■ Oil
Produce less oil: Kuwait
OPEC should cut its 1.5 million to 2 million barrels a day of overproduction if global oil prices continue to slide at the rate seen over the past two days, Kuwait's energy minister said on Saturday. Last week prices fell almost US$7 a barrel, or 15 percent, due to steady growth in US inventories of crude oil and new gains in inventories of heating oil. In the US, January crude futures closed down Friday at US$42.54 a barrel, the lowest close since Aug. 31. "We are worried about the slide in prices and we take them very seriously," said Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah, Kuwait's energy minister, to reporters on the sidelines of an energy symposium. Al Sabah said OPEC member states were collectively overproducing by 1.5 million to 2 million barrels a day, which has helped to keep the market oversupplied.
■ Industry
Steel-projects decision later
Thailand will delay until after February's elections a decision on whether to approve two steel-making projects valued at more than 700 billion baht (US$18 billion), Industry Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal said. Sahaviriya Steel Group plans to invest as much as 700 billion baht in the next 15 years to build smelting plants and a deep-sea port. Its rival G Steel Pcl, which plans to sell shares for the first time this month, is also seeking approval to build a smelting plant. "We don't want to rush into a decision that may lead to a bad-debt problem later," Pongsak said in Bangkok on Saturday. "We have to consider if Thailand will have cost competitiveness by building steel smelters."
■ Investments
Foreign money in China
General Electric Co, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and other multinationals invested US$550 billion setting up 497,556 enterprises in China in the 20 years through September, a senior commerce ministry official said. Foreign companies are increasingly investing in business services such as investment financing and accounting, He Manqing, a deputy director of the ministry's Multinational Research Center, said at a conference in Beijing yesterday. While manufac-turing still dominates foreign investment, "multi-nationals are rapidly getting into services" following China's WTO entry in December 2001 and the lifting of government restrictions, He said. Foreign companies invested US$13.1 billion in services last year, a 3.66 percent increase from 2002, He said. That compares with foreign investment in factories last year of US$36.9 billion, a 0.37 percent rise over 2002.
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it disqualified a person from an entrance examination for using AI smart glasses to cheat, along with two others for making untruthful statements in their curriculum vitae. The three applicants were given null scores, Taiwan’s highest-ranked university said, calling on prospective students to be honest in the admissions process. NTU registrar Lee Hung-sen (李宏森) said that the cheating applicant wore a hat and thick-rimmed glasses to the second written exam for medical school, claiming that they felt cold. Suspicions were aroused when the applicant stared oddly at the test for long stretches while steadily bringing the paper
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
Heavy rain is expected to affect parts of Taiwan this week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday as a meteorologist said the active part of the annual plum rain season has started. A stationary plum rain front and southwesterly winds would bring unstable weather and abundant moisture to Taiwan from today for about a week, with the heaviest rainfall forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, the CWA said. The agency said western and northeastern Taiwan, and mountainous areas in the east and southeast, could expect showers or thunderstorms on those two days, with localized heavy rain possible. Other parts of
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