■ Retail
Wal-Mart union formed
The first labor union at a Wal-Mart store in China has been formed following a lobbying campaign by the country's official All-China Federation of Trade Unions, a news report said yesterday. Thirty employees at a Wal-Mart store in the southeastern city of Quanzhou, in Fujian Province, voted on Saturday to form a union, the official Xinhua news agency reported. It said a 29-year-old employee named Ke Yunlong was elected chairman of its seven-member committee. Wal-Mart opened its first Chinese outlet in 1996 and says it has 28,000 employees in China.
■ Malaysia
Abdullah touts Johor as hub
Economic development planned in southern Johor state will turn the area into a world-class hub on par with Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday. The South Johor Economic Region, located just across the strait from Singapore, will be developed by the government's investment arm, Khazanah Nasional Bhd, over the next five to seven years.
■ Biotech
Singapore to up funding
Singapore will pump almost S$1.5 billion (US$949 million) into the biomedical sciences sector as the city-state seeks to expand the industry which has become a new engine of growth. The funding will go towards boosting Singapore's foundation in basic sciences and also to develop capabilities in translational and clinical research over the next five years, the National Research Foundation said. Since its establishment in 2000, the biomedical sciences sector has become a vital part of Singapore's key manufacturing sector.
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