■ Automobiles
GM Daewoo rehiring
The South Korean subsidiary of US auto giant General Motors said yesterday it was re-hiring some 1,700 workers laid off five years ago during retructuring. GM Daewoo said in a statement that 1,081 had already been rehired and the remainder would resume work by May. The firm laid off the workers as part of corporate restructuring amid violent labor strife in February 2001. Management promised to reinstate them if the money-losing firm made a profit and labor relations improved. Although figures have yet to be released, the company is believed to have made a profit for the first time last year. Helped by robust exports, GM Daewoo sold 1.15 million cars last year, up 28.6 percent, with exports rising 32 percent to 1.05 million vehicles. Analysts said the reinstatement at GM Daewoo Auto is seen as part of crisis-hit GM's strategy to downsize expensive US and European operations and expand lower-cost Asian car plants.
■ Automobiles
BMW makes record profit
BMW, the world's leading luxury car-maker, said on Wednesday it would make a record 4 billion euros (US$4.8 billion) pre-tax profit and come close to its target of selling 1.4 million cars this year -- two years ahead of schedule. The continuing success of BMW, which sold 1.33 million cars last year, outselling Mercedes for the second year in a row, contrasts with steep declines at rival Jaguar, which saw sales plunge 25 percent last year to 89,804 and is said to be losing £1 million (US$1.7 million) a day. The British firm, part of Ford's premier automotive group, which includes Volvo and Aston Martin, dragged down profits at the US group's European operations to US$36 million.
■ Investment
New York sues H&R Block
New York state filed a US$250 million fraud suit on Wednesday against H&R Block Inc, the largest US tax preparing service, charging the company fraudulently steered customers into a losing retirement account plan. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, says Block advised clients to buy an "unsuitable, fraudulently marketed, poorly performing, fee-ridden `retirement vehicle' called the Express IRA," an account that actually shrinks over time. The court papers, filed by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, say the money in the retirement account decreases because the only investment option offered is a money market account with an interest rate so low that it does not cover the fees -- "fees that H&R Block fails to adequately disclose."
■ Telephony
US bid for Vodafone K.K.
Two US investment firms are preparing a US$15 billion bid for Vodafone's struggling Japanese unit to try to thwart a possible purchase by local group Softbank, a report said yesterday. Cerberus Partners LP and Providence Equity Partners Inc are expected to bid for the Japanese operations of the British group, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The US private equity firms have been racing in recent days to secure financing for the offer, the newspaper said in its online edition. Vodafone announced earlier this month it was in talks to sell the unit, Vodafone K.K., to Japanese Internet and telecoms group Softbank Corp.
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
‘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)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary