■ Telecoms
Orascom may boost stake
Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, the Middle East's largest mobile-phone operator by subscriptions, may boost its stake in Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (和記電訊) by 3.3 percent, chief executive officer Naguib Sawiris said on Saturday. Orascom, which agreed last December to buy a 19.3 percent stake in Hutchison for US$1.3 billion, wants to merge with the Asian telecommunications company, Sawiris said. Hutchison is a unit of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (和記黃埔), which is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠). Sawiris is seeking to expand in Asia and Africa to make Orascom one of the world's 10 largest telecommunications companies.
■ Automobiles
VW `planning price cut'
Volkswagen, which is at odds with unions over high labor costs and over-staffing, is planning to cut the price of one of its volume cars and introduce a Brazilian-made model, an industry newspaper, Automobilwoche, said on Saturday. It said the company's head of brands, Wolfgang Bernhard, proposed to cut the cost of manufacturing the Polo, by 2,000 euros (US$2,500) per vehicle from 2008. The weekly said he also wanted to offer Europeans a no-frills model, the Fox, which is currently produced in Brazil. Volkswagen declined to respond, saying it did not comment on speculation about models. The company also partly denied a report in a news weekly, Der Spiegel, that 30,000, not 20,000 jobs in Germany, might be eliminated as Volkswagen raises productivity. VW's head of personnel, Horst Neumann, said through a spokesman he had not spoken of any specific number. The spokesman declined to say which number was correct.
■ Banking
Lawmakers urge revisions
Japanese ruling and opposition lawmakers urged the Bank of Japan yesterday to introduce asset disclosure rules after the central bank chief admitted having kept a scandal-tainted investment. "They should revise their internal regulations" on asset disclosure, said Toranosuke Katayama, a senior official of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party. "I think at least assets held by a governor of the Bank of Japan must be disclosed," Katayama said. Embattled central bank chief Toshihiko Fukui said on Friday he made millions of yen in profits from an investment in a scandal-tainted fund that has triggered calls for his resignation. Fukui, who first made the investment just before taking office, pledged to report precise figures by tomorrow. Fukui, who was then in the private sector, had invested in the fund of Yoshiaki Murakami, a former bureaucrat who became an activist for shareholder rights.
■ Banking
Japanese looking to Islam
Japan will study Islamic financial practices in a bid to attract Middle Eastern oil money, a daily said yesterday. The government-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has formed a four-man advisory board of Islamic legal scholars the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. JBIC will also study Islamic-style finance in a tie-up with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, the business daily said. The aim is to help Japanese private financial institutions enter the Islamic financial market, Nihon Keizai said.
Taiwan is gearing up to celebrate the New Year at events across the country, headlined by the annual countdown and Taipei 101 fireworks display at midnight. Many of the events are to be livesteamed online. See below for lineups and links: Taipei Taipei’s New Year’s Party 2026 is to begin at 7pm and run until 1am, with the theme “Sailing to the Future.” South Korean girl group KARA is headlining the concert at Taipei City Hall Plaza, with additional performances by Amber An (安心亞), Nick Chou (周湯豪), hip-hop trio Nine One One (玖壹壹), Bii (畢書盡), girl group Genblue (幻藍小熊) and more. The festivities are to
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
‘IRRESPONSIBLE’: Beijing’s constant disruption of the ‘status quo’ in the Taiwan Strait has damaged peace, stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region, MOFA said The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China’s launch of another military drill around Taiwan, saying such actions are a “unilateral provocation” that destabilizes regional peace and stability. China should immediately stop the irresponsible and provocative actions, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said, after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) yesterday announced the start of a new round of joint exercises around Taiwan by the army, navy and air force, which it said were approaching “from different directions.” Code-named “Justice Mission 2025,” the exercises would be conducted in the Taiwan Strait and in areas north, southwest, southeast and east of Taiwan
UNDER WAY: The contract for advanced sensor systems would be fulfilled in Florida, and is expected to be completed by June 2031, the Pentagon said Lockheed Martin has been given a contract involving foreign military sales to Taiwan to meet what Washington calls “an urgent operational need” of Taiwan’s air force, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The contract has a ceiling value of US$328.5 million, with US$157.3 million in foreign military sales funds obligated at the time of award, the Pentagon said in a statement. “This contract provides for the procurement and delivery of 55 Infrared Search and Track Legion Enhanced Sensor Pods, processors, pod containers and processor containers required to meet the urgent operational need of the Taiwan air force,” it said. The contract’s work would be
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