■ Electronics
Toshiba plans new plant
Japanese electronics maker Toshiba plans to invest about ¥500 billion (US$4.3 billion) in a new plant to triple production of flash memory chips, a newspaper reported yesterday. Toshiba, the second-largest player in the global market for flash memory chips, aims to catch up with industry leader Samsung Electronics of South Korea with the new facility, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The company will start building by the year end a fourth facility at its key flash memory plant in the southwestern Japanese city of Yokkaichi to begin production as early as next year, the business daily reported.
■ Communications
Cisco partners with Microsoft
Cisco Systems Inc, the world's largest network equipment maker, said yesterday it is partnering with Microsoft Corp to create a package of communications tools geared for businesses. Part of its efforts to diversify and expand its revenue stream, Cisco is launching the "Cisco Unified Communications" system that will integrate voice, data and video products and applications. The overall package includes 30 products, most of which are enhancements or updates to existing technologies. The two companies will work together to integrate Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and Microsoft Office Live Communications technologies with Cisco's Unified Communications System. The package of tools will allow customers to move between instant messaging or phone sessions, as well as launch or answer calls from within the Office Communicator.
■ Oil
Sinopec to privatize units
Asia's largest refiner, Sinopec Corp (中國石化), has won approval from regulators to privatize its four China-listed units, the company said yesterday. The four companies are Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical (齊魯石化), Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical (揚子石化), Sinopec Zhongyuan Petroleum (中原油氣) and Sinopec Shengli Oil Field Dynamic Group (石油大明), it said in a statement filed to the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. The four companies will be delisted and privatized for a total of 14.3 billion yuan (US$1.77 billion). Sinopec will pay 2.75 billion yuan, or 10.3 yuan per share, for the outstanding 73.67 percent of Sinopec Shengli and 4.88 billion yuan, or 13.95 yuan per share, for 15.02 percent of Sinopec Yangzi. For Sinopec Zhongyan it will shell out 3.09 billion yuan, or 12.12 yuan per share, for 29.15 percent and 3.56 billion yuan, or 10.18 yuan per share for 17.95 percent of Sinopec Qilu.
■ Investment
Emerging markets attractive
Foreign investors have ploughed huge amounts of capital into emerging markets in recent months, sending asset prices there to record highs, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said yesterday. "Foreign investors snapped up emerging market bonds and equities, pushing indicators of valuations towards and in some cases beyond the upper end of their historical range," the BIS said in its quarterly review of banking and financial markets. Last year, equity markets in emerging economies in Asia, eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East recorded double digit growth, led by Egypt, Colombia and Saudi Arabia, where prices almost doubled.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique