■ AVIATION
Boeing delays test flight
Boeing Co said on Wednesday it was delaying the first test flight of its 787 Dreamliner by several weeks to complete final checks, but that the first deliveries were still planned for May. The US manufacturer had initially planned to mount a first flight of the Dreamliner, seen as the future profit driver for Boeing, late this month. Boeing executives said in a conference call that more time was needed to finish the Dreamliner's assembly and get key onboard computer equipment up and running. The first test flights are now set for between mid-November and mid-December.
■ BANKING
HSBC to open banks for rich
HSBC Holdings PLC announced yesterday it plans to launch its first retail banking branches for wealthy clients in Japan early next year. The British financial conglomerate said in a statement it will start banking services in January for individuals with at least 10 million yen (US$87,000) in assets. HSBC said the number of potential clients is estimated at 6.3 million in the Tokyo region and around the western metropolis of Osaka. HSBC said it plans to open the branches once it receives Financial Services Agency approval. Earlier this month, HSBC acquired a majority stake in South Korea's Korea Exchange Bank for US$6.3 billion.
■ BANKING
Reveal losses, says chief
Investment banks should reveal the full extent of losses they incurred in the recent credit crunch in the financial markets in an effort to boost investor confidence, Deutsche Bank's chief executive said in an interview published yesterday. Speaking to the Financial Times business daily, Josef Ackermann said that the "crucial question in the next few days and weeks is, how do you mark the positions?" "I can only hope that we do not muddle through -- that we mark them to market," he said, referring to financial markets terminology for assigning a value to a financial instrument, based on its market price.
■ TELECOMS
BT invests in China
BT Group Plc, Britain's largest phone company, will invest US$70 million in its first research and customer service facilities in China to meet customer demand. The company will open a research center in Shanghai and a customer service facility in Dalian this week, Francois Barrault, who runs the global services unit, told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Dalian yesterday. Barrault said he expected China to contribute US$250 million of revenue from this year through 2009, reiterating an earlier forecast. The new customer center will provide services to clients in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, BT said.
■ ADVERTISING
JCDecaux inks contract
French group JCDecaux said on Wednesday it had signed an exclusive 15-year contract to provide advertising on the Shanghai metro worth about US$2.05 billion. The firm already manages all advertising bar the television advertisements on trains and platforms on the city's existing five metro lines. Under the new contract, it will continue this and also manage advertising on the eight new lines planned by 2012, JCDecaux said in a statement. By 2010, when the World Expo takes place in Shanghai, the company will have a presence on nine metro lines and 250 stations, reaching 6 million passengers a day.
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)