■ Trade
US mulling regional FTA
The US has sounded out its Asian and Pacific partners on the possibility of creating a regional free trade agreement (FTA) as a "middle and long-term" objective, a press report said yesterday. The US administration would seek an agreement on its regional FTA proposal during the APEC summit in Hanoi on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported. The US State Department had approached the Japanese foreign and trade ministries in October and said Washington wanted to discuss the possibility of an APEC-wide FTA, the daily quoted Japanese government sources as saying.
■ Steel
Nippon buys into Usiminas
Japan's Nippon Steel Corp plans to buy a 1.7 percent stake in major Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas to expand its supply capacity for the Americas and Europe, a report said yesterday. The top Japanese steelmaker is also considering taking part in a blast furnace project in Brazil planned by Usiminas, or Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA, the leading business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. The two companies are due to announce the plan early this week with details of the investment to be worked out later, the paper said, adding that Nippon Steel would buy the equity by year's end.
■ Stock markets
NYSE to cut floor space
The NYSE has announced plans to cut back its floor trading space in a further move toward electronic trading as it tries to cut costs and keep up with global competition. The world's biggest equity market, one of the last that still uses a system of open-cry trading, said it would close one of its five trading floors within the next 18 months, citing improvements in technology that make trading more efficient. The NYSE traces its roots to a gathering of 24 brokers under a tree on Wall Street in 1792 but is now coping with rapid technological change and globalization. Wall Street's most well-known institution underwent a change last year to become a publicly traded company under the ticker "NYX."
■ Banking
DB hiring new staff
Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, said it would be hiring new staff in the years to come in both Asia and Germany, but rejected a news report on Saturday that it was transferring thousands of German jobs to India. Spokesman Ronald Weichert said, "We want to grow the workforce in Germany and worldwide," but gave no figures. Without providing further details, he rejected a report in the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel that three Deutsche Bank subsidiaries in India would increase their joint workforce to 2,200 by the end of this year and to 4,000 next year.
■ Oil
Shell mulls Iran bid
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's second-largest oil company, may bid on the "Master Development Plan" for Iran's offshore Kish gas field, the Iranian Oil Ministry said on its Web sites. Several domestic and foreign companies including Shell have shown interest in taking part in the tender on the field in the Persian Gulf, the report on the Web site said, citing Iran's Offshore Oil Company managing director Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh. The ministry didn't give further details. Shell, together with Madrid-based Repsol YPF SA and National Iranian Oil Co, holds a stake in a US$2.5 billion Iranian liquefied natural gas project.
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
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
‘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)