■ Currency
Speculation discouraged
Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki warned against sudden moves in the currency market yesterday after the yen spiked to a three-month high against the US dollar. In reaction to comments over the weekend by Group of Seven finance officials, the US dollar has plunged to the ¥114 level since Friday, when it stood in the ¥117 range. "Sudden speculative moves are undesirable," Tanigaki said, describing the current market condition as rough. Expectations that China's yuan will gain has prompted traders to buy the yen due to Japan's regional proximity to China. "It's necessary to watch the currency markets carefully," Tanigaki said, adding that the G-7 group believes that currency rate fluctuations need to accurately reflect market "fundamentals."
■ Mobile phones
Sharp now Japan's No.1
Sharp Corp overtook NEC Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co as Japan's biggest mobile phone maker by shipments for the first time, MM Research Institute said in a report released on Monday. Shipments by Sharp gained 20 percent to 7.6 million units in the year ended March 31, accounting for 16.3 percent of the total 46.3 million shipments, the researcher said. Second-ranked Matsushita's shipments fell 1.8 percent to 7.5 million units, a 16.1 percent share. NEC, which had been the biggest phone maker in Japan for the past four years, slid to third place with a 15.8 percent share. Its shipments fell 10.6 percent to 7.3 million units. Total shipments gained 5.2 percent in the year ended March 31 from the previous year as carriers introduced new models that can download music, browse the Web more widely and perform other functions, the researcher said.
■ Investment
S$620 million in contracts
The Singapore government plans to award S$620 million (US$390 million) in information technology contracts in the year ending March 2007, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore said today in a press release. The amount is lower than the S$700 million the government was projecting to spend last year. The government eventually awarded S$1 billion in contracts for the year ended March 2006. "Technology, capital, knowledge and talent are crucial factors," Chan Yeng-kit, chief executive officer of Infocomm Development Authority, the city-state's phone and information technology regulator, said in the statement. "We will continue to use infocomm to propel Singapore forward and establish Singapore to become a leading city."
■ Piracy
US may take China to WTO
The US has not ruled out taking Beijing to the WTO over rampant counterfeiting in China, Washington's point man on piracy said yesterday. Chris Israel, US Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement, said recent steps by the Chinese leadership to tackle piracy had given him some cause for optimism but the situation was still far from ideal. "We remain consistent and clear in our policies that we consider all trade tools open and available," Israel told reporters in Beijing when asked if the US may still take legal action against China at the WTO. "We view the commitment from Chinese leaders as meaningful and significant, and the execution of those commitments and meaningful results is really what we are focused on right now," added Israel, who was on his fourth trip to China.
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)
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