■ Electronics
EA to release phone games
California-based computer game maker Electronic Arts will soon begin offering games for mobile phones. Among the titles in planning are "FIFA 06" soccer and "SimCity," the company announced recently. Additional games to be made compatible with mobile phones are "Need for Speed Most Wanted" and "The Sims 2." These games are expected to be released by the end of the year. The service providers will likely follow. Each game title will likely cost about US$5.
■ Hospitality
Luxury hampers on offer
A five-star hotel in Hong Kong was yesterday offering what may be the world's most expensive Christmas hamper with a HK$1 million (US$129,000) price tag. The hamper offered by the Ritz-Carlton includes champagne, caviar, cigars, diamond jewellery, vouchers for a stay in the hotel's presidential suite and a flight by a Gulfstream jet to Bali. The hamper is believed to be the most expensive ever offered in Hong Kong -- where the top-priced hamper last year was a US$48,888 offering from Sogo. It may also be the most expensive commercial hamper anywhere, although there is no such category in the Guinness Book of World Records. The basic ingredients of the Ritz-Carlton hamper are Krug champagne, caviar and Cuban cigars, along with vouchers for a three-day, two-night stay at the Ritz-Carlton's presidential suite. Buyers will have exclusive use of a Rolls Royce limousine and a gourmet dinner for six on the final night.
■ Electronics
Hitachi plans India offices
Hitachi Ltd, Japan's largest electronics maker, will open outsourcing centers in India to provide software development and system support services to Japanese clients in the US and Europe, the Nikkei English News reported yesterday. The Tokyo-based company will partner with Satyam Computer Services Ltd and Intelligroup Inc to open offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad, with 200 employees, the report said, citing company officials it didn't identify. The company expects to hire up to 1,000 employees in two years, it said. Hitachi plans to increase the share of overseas revenue in its information and communications business to 40 percent by 2007, according to the report.
■ Auto industry
Toyota profits to hit record
Toyota Motor Corp's net profit for the year to March next year is expected to hit a record US$10.4 billion thanks to brisk sales and a weak yen, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday. Toyota is scheduled to announced its interim earnings report on Friday. The company is likely to report a group net profit of ¥1.2 trillion (US$10.4 billion), an all-time high for the fourth consecutive year, up 2 percent from the previous year, the paper said. Operating profit is expected to increase 5 percent to a record ¥1.75 trillion for the year on sales seen to gain 8 percent to about ¥20 trillion, the business daily said. The exchange rate is currently running around ¥115 to the dollar, against the company's assumed rate of ¥105. If the current rate continues until year's end, Toyota is expected to enjoy a foreign exchange gain of some ¥100 billion, it said.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
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