■ Tourism
Fewer visitors to Indonesia
Tourist arrivals to Indonesia during the first 11 months of last year were down 8.79 percent compared with the same period in 2004, government officials said yesterday. During those 11 months 3.76 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia, compared with 4.12 million the same period in 2004, said Choiril Maksum, head of the National Statistics Agency (BPS). Indonesia will miss its tourist arrivals target of 6 million this year, largely because of the second suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali on Oct. 1, which left at least 23 people dead, other officials said. In the wake of the blasts, several Western embassies in Jakarta, including the Australian, British, Canadian and US missions, issued travel warnings concerning Indonesia.
■ Retail
Wal-Mart sales at low end
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which made a big push this holiday season to woo customers with aggressive discounts and marketing, estimated that sales for last month will meet only the low end of its forecast. The world's largest retailer said on Saturday that sales at stores open for at least a year, known as same-store sales, are expected to be up 2.2 percent last month. The forecast was for a 2 percent to 4 percent gain. Same-store sales are considered the best indicator of a retailers' health. The company said that general merchandise sales outpaced demand for food. Wal-Mart, which stumbled during the holiday 2004 shopping season, came out with a holiday campaign two weeks earlier than last year.
■ Auto industry
S Korean firms do well
South Korean auto manufacturers enjoyed brisk sales last year thanks to strong demand at home and abroad, data showed yesterday. Hyundai Motor, the country's largest automaker, said it sold 2.53 million vehicles last year, up 11 percent from a year earlier. Sister firm Kia Motors said its total sales increased 13.9 percent year-on-year to 1.27 million. GM Daewoo Auto and Technology, the third-largest automaker in South Korea, said its sales gained 28.6 percent year-on-year to number 1.15 million units last year. Its sales first topped the 1 million unit mark after General Motors took over Daewoo Motor to launch the merged firm in 2002. Ssangyong Motor, South Korea's fourth-largest carmaker purchased last year by China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (上海汽車工業), said its sales for last year totaled 141,306 units, up 4.2 percent from a year earlier.
■ Corruption
China sets up Web blacklist
China's prosecutors have set up an online blacklist of people convicted of bribing officials, in the country's latest attempt to fight rampant corruption, state media said yesterday. The list includes individuals and organizations convicted of bribery or bribery-related crimes since 1997 in the sectors of construction, finance, education, health and government procurement, the Beijing News said. The paper quoted China's top prosecution office, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, as saying the public can search for information on the list but only after applying in writing to the prosecutors' offices. Officials in China are notorious for using their time in their posts to rake in as much money as possible, as they earn low salaries.
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)