■ Manufacturing
Rolls Royce doing fine
The chief of British aircraft engine maker Rolls Royce PLC said yesterday that the company's earnings outlook would not be hurt by its recent suspension of production of engines for the Airbus A380. "We make deliveries to Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Gulfstream, Embraer, Cessna and a whole range of other companies. This represents a relatively small proportion of our turnover," chief executive John Rose told reporters during a visit to Malaysia. He said the firm's deliveries for the next two years are "completely unaffected by the orders in the shorter term."
■ Internet
Google offers Korean e-mail
Google Inc launched a Korean-language version of its free e-mail service yesterday in an effort to strengthen its presence in South Korea. The launch of Google's Korean-language Gmail service came a month after it announced a US$10 million investment in a planned research center in the country. Google started its Korean-language search site in 2000 and began offering its English-language Gmail service two years ago in South Korea, where many Internet users have preferred local free e-mail services. Local search engine Naver controls more than 60 percent of South Korea's search traffic.
■ Environment
`New Kyoto' wanted
After repeatedly blocking domestic carbon trading, Australia said yesterday it would now push for Asia-wide emissions trading to combat global warming as part of a planned "new-Kyoto" pact. The turn-around comes as an opinion poll showed most Australians believe Canberra should sign Kyoto. Environment Minister Ian Campbell told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio that Canberra wanted to forge a "New Kyoto" out of a six-nation alliance of the world's biggest polluters -- China, India, the US, Australia, South Korea and Japan. Australia, which has failed to ratify Kyoto Protocol, is already feeling the brunt of global warming with the worst drought in 100 years eating into economic growth.
■ Automobiles
Hyundai faces probe
South Korea's fair trade watchdog is investigating the Hyundai Motor group on suspicion of unfair trading, company officials said yesterday. "Hyundai Motor and some of its subsidiaries are being investigated by the Fair Trade Commission for suspected unfair trading inside the group," a group spokesman said. "The investigation started around Sept. 11 and is expected to last until Friday." The spokesman said Hyundai Motor and its affiliates including Hyundai Card, Hyundai Glovis and Hyundai Capital were the target of the investigation. Hyundai Glovis is the group's auto shipping unit and Hyundai Capital provides consumers with loans to buy cars.
■ Telecoms
Alfa Group eyes Vodafone
Russian conglomerate Alfa Group is seeking to buy 20 percent of British mobile phone giant Vodafone, valued at about £15 billion (US$28.6 billion), the Times said yesterday. Alfa's telecoms arm, Altimo, has targeted Vodafone with a view to either a joint venture or a merger as it seeks to grow outside Russia, the newspaper said. "We are in negotiations with Vodafone, and with other large Euro-pean telecoms companies," it quoted Kirill Babaev, a vice-president of Altimo, as saying. But a Vodafone spokesman denied the report.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS