■ Trade
China surplus hits US$157bn
The nation announced yesterday a trade surplus of US$157 billion for the first 11 months of the year, just days before a key visit to Beijing by top US economic policy makers. The trade surplus was up 72.5 percent from the same period a year ago, the customs bureau said in a statement on its Web site. The bureau said it expected a trade surplus for the full year of US$168 billion which would imply a relatively moderate US$11 billion surplus in December.
■ Entertainment
Rank to sell Hard Rock
Rank Group PLC said Thursday it would sell its Hard Rock business, which includes the eponymous cafes, to the Seminole tribe of Florida for US$965 million. The Hard Rock business includes 124 Hard Rock Cafes, four Hard Rock Hotels, two Hard Rock Casino Hotels, two Hard Rock Live! concert venues and stakes in three unbranded hotels. Rank said it would keep the Hard Rock Casino in London but under the Rank Gaming brand. The sale, which is subject to shareholder approval, is scheduled to be completed in March.
■ Trade
Panama invited to join bloc
Panama has been asked by Brazil to join South America's Mercosur trade bloc as an observer, the Foreign Ministry said. The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that during a visit by Panamanian Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro, Brazil invited the Central American nation to join as an observer at a summit of the group in Rio de Janeiro in January. Observer status would allow Panama to participate in meetings of the trade bloc, which counts Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela as full members and Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as associate members.
■ Direct marketing
Firms win China licenses
Amway Corp and Mary Kay Inc have received direct-marketing licenses in China, ending an eight-year ban that limited the rival companies' recruitment of distributors. The relaxed rules could further open a market that, with more than US$2 billion in annual sales, has become the largest for Amway's parent company, Alticor Inc. Almost a third of Alticor's sales are made by Amway's subsidiary in China. "It's good news for us because it formalizes our regulations for the market, which is good news for any company. And while the rules for direct selling in China are different from the rest of the world, things have always been different in China," Amway spokesman Rob Zeiger said on Wednesday.
■ Technology
Microsoft to unveil library
Microsoft Corp planned to unveil an online library yesterday that would compete with Google Inc's controversial project to digitize the world's books. Microsoft said it would launch a US test of Live Search Books featuring tens of thousands of out-of-copyright books, including works from the British Library and major universities in Toronto and California. "With this initial release we've focused on making the reading experience as natural as possible," project director Cliff Guren wrote in a weblog entry posted on the Microsoft website. The Redmond, Washington, company has made fresh book-scanning partnerships with New York Public Library and the American Museum of Veterinary Medicine, according to Guren.
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)