■ Retail
Tesco eyes US market
Tesco Plc, the UK's largest retailer, said it plans to enter the US next year as it seeks to challenge Wal-Mart Stores Inc in its home country. Tesco, based in Cheshunt, England, will open convenience stores on the West Coast of the US, the world's richest economy, Chief Executive Terry Leahy said in an interview yesterday. The outlets will be based on the Tesco Express format in the UK. "We'll open quite a few stores in 2007 and hope for pretty rapid expansion," Leahy said. "We hope we will be giving US consumers something new and different." Tesco, which controls 30 percent of the UK grocery market, is expanding abroad as it faces planning restrictions at home and calls by neighborhood store owners for its growth to be curbed. Tesco entered China in 2004 following Wal-Mart and Carrefour SA and now operates in 12 countries outside the UK.
■ Automobiles
Mitsubishi trims losses
Scandal-tarnished Mitsubishi Motors trimmed its losses for the quarter ended Dec. 31 compared to the same period a year earlier, although it continued to struggle to boost revenue. The Japanese automaker racked up a ¥4.3 billion (US$36 million) group net loss for the October-December period, much better than the ¥49.4 billion loss for the third quarter of 2004. Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp has struggled for several years to restore its image and boost sales as it fought recurring scandals centered on repeated cover-ups of auto defects. Sales for the October-December period totaled ¥538 billion (US$4.6 billion), down 2 percent from ¥547 billion the previous year, but the automaker managed to boost profitability during the quarter. Mitsubishi Motors said in a statement that lower advertising costs in the US and Europe as well as the weaker yen lifted profits.
■ Trade
EU reaches compromise
The European Parliament's two largest political groups reached a compromise on Wednesday on a draft law aiming to clear obstacles preventing business from offering services in another EU country, tabling joint amendments to the landmark bill. The conservative European People's Party and the Socialists, who have a majority in the 732-member chamber, watered down the contentious "country of origin" principle, whereby European companies working in other EU member states would be able to apply laws and work rules applicable in their homeland. Under the compromise proposal, the services market will open up, with the 25 EU member states being obliged to ensure free access to and free exercise of a service activity in its territory.
■ Interest rates
S Korea raises rate target
South Korea's central bank yesterday raised its key interest rate target for this month to 4 percent from 3.75 percent in a bid to stem inflationary pressures amid a solid economic recovery. The Bank of Korea forecast the country's economy would grow 5 percent this year amid signs of a strong recovery and increased consumer spending. Last month, the bank held the key inter-bank overnight call rate steady, while raising concerns over existing uncertainties in the market, including the won's strength against the dollar. "There are latent inflationary pressures due to the economic recovery and persistently high oil prices," the central bank said in a statement. The central bank chief said South Korea is on a recovery track.
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)