■ Electronics
Matsushita looks overseas
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, the world's biggest electronics maker, is seeking to triple the contribution of overseas earnings to 60 percent in three years through sales of digital video cameras and plasma televisions. "If we can earn 60 percent of our profit from abroad, that would be ideal," Fumio Ohtsubo, who became president of the Panasonic brand maker in June, said in an interview. "It would be desirable to realize the 60 percent to 40 percent ratio between overseas and Japan in the year ending March 2010." The company is aiming for 40 percent of the global plasma market this fiscal year.
■ Aviation
Air China scales back IPO
Air China, the national flag carrier, said yesterday it had scaled back its planned US$1 billion IPO in Shanghai by nearly half due to weak investor interest. Air China now plans to issue 1.639 billion A-shares at 2.8 yuan per share in its IPO, the carrier said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange. The reduction of nearly one billion shares means the carrier, already listed in Hong Kong and London, will now raise no more than about US$570 million compared with the US$1 billion it had originally hoped for. The lackluster demand comes as a blow to Air China, which had hoped to capitalize on the recent rush for new domestic shares sales after a year-long suspension on public fundraising was lifted in June.
■ Banking
ABN Amro staff detained
A state-owned Vietnamese bank has filed a lawsuit against ABN Amro in a dispute over foreign currency deals, and Hanoi police have detained four of the Dutch-based bank's local staff, sources and reports said. Two Vietnamese ABN Amro staff have been arrested and two placed under house arrest while police investigate the transactions conducted with a trader of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Vietnam (Incombank). A Hanoi court is scheduled to start hearing the civil suit against ABN Amro on Monday. Incombank has demanded ABN Amro pay US$5.4 million that it claims went missing in speculative deals carried out by the alleged rogue trader at Incombank's Haiphong branch, state media have reported.
■ Food
Krispy Kreme dips into HK
US doughnut maker Krispy Kreme began dipping into the massive Chinese-speaking market yesterday by opening a shop in Hong Kong. The shop marks Krispy Kreme's debut on Chinese soil and only its second foray into East Asia. So far, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Corp has nine shops in South Korea, but it's expanding aggressively in other parts of the region.
■ Computers
Lenovo rolls out AMD PCs
In another sign of the inroads Advanced Micro Devices Inc is making against rival Intel Corp, No. 3 computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) is rolling out a new line of desktop PCs with AMD chips. Lenovo has long offered PCs with AMD chips in Lenovo's home market of China, but not until February did Lenovo launch AMD-based PCs elsewhere. Now, AMD chips will be available in Lenovo's new ThinkCenter A60 PCs, which are targeted at big business customers. Intel sells about 80 percent of the world's microprocessors, but AMD has eaten up about 5 percentage points of Intel's market share.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from