■ STEEL
China may block merger
China has sanctioned state-owned companies to examine three possible strategies to block BHP Billiton's proposed takeover of mining giant Rio Tinto, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Citing unnamed sources, the daily said that strategies include forming a local consortium to bid for Rio Tinto, a joint bid by domestic and foreign firms, or purchasing Rio shares on the open market. "[Companies] have approval from the State Council to go ahead and get actively involved," one source was quoted as saying. China International Capital Corp and Bank of China International have been retained by the government in an overall advisory role, the report said.
■ BANKING
ECB to tackle inflation
European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet pledged, in an interview published yesterday, to focus on eurozone inflation and not let interest-rate cuts in the US and the UK distract the bank from tightening monetary policy. Speaking to the Financial Times in Frankfurt in an interview conducted on Dec. 13, Trichet said any evidence of "second-round effects" leading to an acceleration in inflation would be "decisive." The ECB's main interest rate currently stands at 4 percent. Eurozone inflation hit 3.1 percent last year, the highest level in six-and-a-half years owing to rising costs of energy and food products. ECB directors have a mandate to keep inflation slightly below 2 percent.
■ PHILIPPINES
Record remittances
More than 1 million Filipinos left for short-term work abroad this year, the Philippine labor department said yesterday. At this rate of deployment, the labor migrants would most likely send home a record US$14 billion to their families this year, Philippine Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said in a statement. A total of 1,012,954 Filipinos left for more than 190 countries between Jan. 1 and Dec. 9, representing a 1.1 percent rise from the figure a year ago, he said. Brion said annual remittances should "continue to approach, if not reach, US$14 billion for the first time in history by year-end 2007."
■ FINANCE
Japan mulling reforms
Japanese regulators have announced the largest financial market reforms in a decade in the face of hot competition to be Asia's financial hub. On Friday the Financial Services Agency unveiled a plan to enhance "the competitiveness of financial and capital markets" with deregulation and liberalization. The agency plans to submit the bills to parliament early next year to revise existing regulations, agency officials said. Under the latest package, Tokyo will remove ban on creating a comprehensive financial market to handle the trading of stocks, bonds and financial and commodity derivatives in two years.
■ SHIPBUILDING
Samsung wins huge orders
South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's second-largest shipbuilder, said yesterday it had secured US$2.41 billion in new orders. The company said it won a US$1.15 billion contract to build two semi-submersible floating drilling rigs by September 2010 for an unidentified Russian client. Separately, clients in Africa and in the Americas ordered two oil drilling ships worth US$1.26 billion, which will be delivered by May 2011, it said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2