■ South Korea
OPEC to join APEC meeting
Pacific Rim energy ministers and Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) officials will meet next week in South Korea to address soaring oil costs and explore possible cooperation in regional energy projects. The 7th APEC Energy Ministers' Meeting will take place in the southeastern city of Gyeongju on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19, South Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday. The energy meeting is usually held every two years, but the member economies have scheduled it for this year even after a meeting in Manila last year because of surging energy prices. It will also mark the first time that OPEC officials will attend.
■ China
Snow pushes for reform
US Treasury Secretary John Snow yesterday urged China to move even faster in pushing ahead with reforms of its nascent capital markets, which still lag behind the rest of the booming economy. China allows only limited foreign-exchange trading, its bond and other financial products markets are in their infancy, and most companies choose to list shares not on domestic bourses but in Hong Kong and elsewhere. "It's clear the potential of the financial sector to play a larger role in the economy is enormous," Snow said, adding that he would continue to press for greater openness for foreign companies -- and for more progress toward a more flexible, market-driven exchange rate. "I think it's in China's interest to continue down this path," said Snow, who is leading a US delegation in Beijing, backed by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.
■ Banking
Paribas inks China deal
French bank BNP Paribas (BNPP) signed a deal yesterday that ramps up its presence in China with the purchase of a 19.2 percent stake in Nanjing City Commercial Bank for US$87 million. "BNPP is to acquire from several shareholders a 19.2 percent shareholding in NCCB (Nanjing City Commercial Bank) at a price of 704 million yuan," a joint statement said. After more than a year of tough negotiations BNP Paribas will become, after regulatory approval, the Chinese bank's second largest shareholder. Nanjing State-owned Asset Investment and Management Holding (Group) Co remains the largest shareholder with a stake of 19.7 percent.
■ Japan
Post, couriers in talks
Japan's postal system is winding up talks on tie-ups with several major couriers such as TNT Post Group of the Netherlands and Japan's Nippon Express Co, with the goal of tapping into the courier business, a news report said yesterday. Japan Post wants the deals, expected to be concluded by the end of the year, so it can set up joint courier firms that can gain a foothold in Asia, the largest daily Yomiuri Shimbun said. Under the current law, Japan Post can only transfer international mail it receives in Japan to a postal service operator in another country. On Tuesday, Japan's lower house of parliament passed legislation to privatize the country's vast postal system, which would allow Japan Post to start international distribution of goods starting April next year.
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
RSS