■ Aviation
AirAsia eyes ringgIt market
Low-cost carrier AirAsia may finance the purchase of 27 Airbus aircraft in the local market, in a billion-dollar deal that would be a major boost for the Malaysian finance sector, officials and analysts said. "We will go to the market by year-end to finance some of the aircraft which will be delivered to us post-2007," AirAsia's group deputy chief executive, Kamarudin Meranum said. "I do not discount the possibility we may do a ringgit-denominated financing for some of the aircraft which are yet to be financed in view of the strength of the ringgit and vis a vis the appreciation of the US interest rate." Officials familiar with the ringgit financing option say the cost of the 27 A320 aircraft could be about US$1 billion dollars and that the central bank was pushing for a ringgit financing as the market was "flush with liquidity." Kamarudin said AirAsia had received "favorable indication from local bankers" to participate in the funding exercise.
■ Retail
MUJI targets US market
Japan's household goods and clothing label MUJI is planning to expand into the US market in a bid to establish itself as a global brand, reports said yesterday. Ryohiin Keikaku Co, which sells the MUJI brand of products including stationery, furniture and food product lines, plans to open its first US store in New York early next year, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The company then hopes to launch a nationwide network of stores, the newspaper said, without citing its sources. MUJI, known for its simple, contemporary design, already has some 300 stores in Japan and 51 stores in Europe and Asia.
■ Software
Pune center planned
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India's biggest software maker, will open a new center near Mumbai, as cost pressures in the US and Europe boost demand for the company's services. Tata Consultancy has signed an initial agreement to buy land in Pune city from a unit of the administration of Maharashtra to build the center employing 5,000 people, the Mumbai-based company said in an e-mailed statement on Saturday. Investments in the center will be as much as 5 billion rupees (US$109 million) and the company may later double the workforce at the site, which is located near Mumbai. "Pune is emerging as a promising information technology hub for companies" chief executive officer S. Ramadorai was cited as saying in the statement. The center, besides a team of software writers, will also employ research and engineering specialists.
■ Tires
Michelin CEO to stand alone
Michel Rollier, the new head of Michelin, said on Saturday that he alone would run the world's leading tire maker following the death of managing partner Edouard Michelin. The question of naming a co-director "is not on the agenda," Rollier told a news conference. "Michelin has a boss. I am the boss." Rollier took the helm of the company, based in Clermont-Ferrand, France, following the death May 26 of Edouard Michelin in a boating accident off the coast of Brittany. Rollier, 62, was co-director with Michelin. However, in his first statement as director, he said he would be accompanied by no one in running the firm, which employees 130,000 people around the world.
The company is famed for its restaurant guides, maps, inventing radial tires, and for its Michelin Man logo.
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