■ Aviation
Industry told to cut costs
Airlines and airports should cut costs to counter huge losses due to high fuel prices and falling fares, an aviation industry official said. "Our industry needs to change fast," Giovanni Bisignani, the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) director general, told a travel industry conference in Macau on Monday. Bisignani called on airlines to start "simplifying their businesses" and urged airports to become more cost conscious. IATA predicts the airline industry will lose US$5.5 billion this year as oil prices remain high and budget carriers are putting pressure on prices. The association says the industry lost a total of US$36 billion between 2001 and last year.
■ Automobiles
Ford, Mazda in China deal
Ford Motor Co, Japan's Mazda Motor Corp and Chinese partner Changan Automotive Group (長安汽車) announced a joint venture yesterday to build a new engine plant in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing. The plant will make engines for the auto companies' factories in China, Ford said in a statement. The venture, named Changan Ford Mazda Engine Co, which is still subject to government approval, is scheduled to be operational by 2007. Initially the factory will supply engines to the partners' nearby vehicle assembly facility, which is under construction. The new engine plant is part of a more-than US$1 billion China investment plan announced last October by Ford. Ford's 190,000m2 joint venture auto assembly plant in Nanjing is due to have an initial annual capacity of 160,000 vehicles. The engine plant is to have an annual capacity of 350,000 engines, Ford said.
■ Engineering
ABB reports irregularities
ABB Ltd, the Swiss-Swedish electrical engineering giant, said yesterday that it had reported to US authorities US$560,000 in suspect payments by employees of an American subsidiary. A company statement said the irregularities at the software unit ABB network management were discovered during an internal investigation following the dismissal of two managers from the company in the middle of last year. The payments -- to intermediaries in Latin America and in the Middle East -- were made in connection with the company's control software for utility customers, the statement said. ABB said that it had reported the payments to the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
■ Banking
No job cuts planned for KFB
British-based emerging markets banking giant Standard Chartered, new owner of Korea First Bank (KFB), said yesterday it had agreed there will be no lay-offs at the South Korean lender as part of its acquisition. Standard Chartered last week completed its US$3.3 billion deal to acquire KFB in the largest single foreign investment in South Korea's financial industry. "Our aim is to make Korea First Bank a leader in South Korea's financial services industry -- a leader in customer satisfaction and performance," Standard Chartered Group chief executive Mervyn Davies said in a news conference in Seoul. New KFB President John Filmeridis reaffirmed the company's 4,200-strong payroll would remain the same.
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