■ Finance
Nikko Cordial fined millions
Japan's financial authority yesterday imposed its largest-ever fine of ?500 million (US$4.2 million) on brokerage firm Nikko Cordial for issuing a false earnings report. The Financial Services Agency said in a statement Nikko Cordial must pay the fine by March 6 in line with a recommendation made by the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission. Nikko Cordial, Japan's third-largest trading house, admitted last month it had improperly booked capital gains on derivative arrangements by two of its subsidiaries in 2005. Nikko Cordial's chairman and president stepped down last week. The Tokyo Stock Exchange has decided to place Nikko Cordial under monitoring to ascertain whether the firm breached TSE's listing rules.
■ Telecoms
LG expects overseas boost
South Korea's LG Electronics Inc aims to sell about 80 million mobile handsets this year, up from an estimated 65 million sold last year, the company said yesterday. "Replacement demand from the overseas market should help boost our handset sales this year," LG Electronics spokesman Song Keun-young said. The company is aiming to boost its global handset market share to 7.3 percent this year, from an estimated 6.5 percent last year, Song said.
■ Computers
Dell moves jobs to Asia
US computer maker Dell Inc will move more of its global supply chain management and manufacturing operations to Singapore, adding up to 400 new jobs in the region, a newspaper reported yesterday. Dell, which has its headquarters for the Asia-Pacific and Japan in Singapore, expects that most of the 300 to 400 new jobs will be added in the Singapore, the Business Times reported, citing Dell spokesman T.R. Reid. The company, based in Round Rock, Texas, employs 24,800 people across the Asia-Pacific region, with about 400 in Singapore.
■ Aviation
Budget airline launched
Malaysian aviation tycoon Tony Fernandes yesterday launched a new long-haul budget airline named AirAsia X, which will start flying to destinations in China and Britain in July. The new carrier is owned by Fly Asian Express, or FAX, a small airline serving rural routes in Malaysia, and will collaborate with AirAsia, which Fernandes, 42, rescued from bankruptcy in 2001 and turned into the region's biggest low-cost carrier. He owns part of both airlines. Fernandes told a news conference AirAsia X expects 500,000 passengers in the first year of operations, which will ultimately cover China, India, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. Ticket prices will be about half the price of full service airlines, he said.
■ China
Deposit reserve ratio up
The central bank ordered major commercial banks yesterday to set aside more money in reserves in a renewed effort to slow its red hot economy, the first such cooling measure of this year. The People's Bank of China said in a statement that the required deposit reserve ratio for commercial lenders would rise 0.5 of a percentage point to 9.5 percent on Jan. 15. It said that the action came as a result of sharp increases in the trade surplus, while a rising tide of liquidity in the banking system was making credit dangerously easy to get. The required deposit ratio was raised a similar 0.5 percentage point three times last year.
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)