■ South Korea
Exports to stay strong
South Korea yesterday forecast a 10.4 percent rise in exports this year over last year despite an expected global economic slowdown and the won's rise against the dollar. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said exports are expected to rise to US$360 billion from US$326 billion last year. It would be the fifth consecutive year for exports to grow at a double-digit rate. Imports may grow 10.9 percent to US$343 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$17 billion compared with a surplus of US$16.7 billion in 2006, the ministry said.
■ Singapore
Economy grows 7.7 percent
Singapore's economy accelerated in the last quarter to bring full-year growth to 7.7 percent, the government said yesterday. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, Singapore's economy grew 7.6 percent in the fourth quarter, faster than the 5.6 percent rate in the third quarter, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry's advance estimate. Compared to the same quarter a year ago, the economy expanded 5.9 percent, the government said. In his annual New Year's message on Sunday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) affirmed the government's target for this year of 4 percent to 6 percent growth.
■ Food
Starbucks reduces trans fat
Starbucks Corp is cutting trans fats from the doughnuts, muffins and other treats in half of its US stores this week and plans to eventually drop the artery-clogging fats from company-operated coffeehouses across the country, a company spokesman said on Tuesday. The world's largest specialty coffee retailer has been working to eliminate trans fats from its food menu for about two years, spokesman Brandon Borrman said. Trans fats, listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, are believed to be harmful because they wreak havoc with cholesterol levels.
■ China
Bank plan approved
The nation has approved a plan to turn its huge postal savings system into a bank, which is set to become the nation's fifth-largest lender, state media said yesterday. The approval for the China Postal Savings Bank to start operations was given by the Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Daily said. The bank will be wholly owned by the China Post Group, a US$10 billion company formed out of the State Post Bureau, formally both the supervisor and a major player in postal services, the China Daily said, citing the commission. The deposit balance of post savings recorded 1.3 trillion yuan (US$166 billion) by the end of 2005, accounting for nearly 10 percent of China's household savings.
■ Trade
China raises luxury tariffs
China has started from the beginning of this year to raise tariffs on individual travelers' purchase of luxury goods from overseas, a move aimed to narrow the price difference between imported and domestic goods, according to state media reports last week. The increase in consumption tax for some luxury goods purchased abroad or shipped back to China was approved by the Ministry of Finance, the China Daily reported. The new tariff will be raised from 10 percent to 30 percent for golf equipment and luxury watchers, as well as from 20 percent to 50 percent for cosmetics, the paper said.
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
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘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)