■ 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-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2