■ POVERTY
Ban appoints Douste-Blazy
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed former French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on Tuesday to look for innovative ways to finance UN goals to fight poverty. The goals include cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring an elementary school education for all children, and halting and reversing the AIDS pandemic, all by 2015. He will serve as Ban's special adviser on innovative financing for development, with the rank of undersecretary-general and a salary of US$1 a year. UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe, who announced the appointment, said aid from governments was noy enought to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Smart car makes a splash
Daimler AG's Smart car has made a big splash in the US, with sales off to a speedy start in its first month on the market, distributor Penske Auto Group said on Tuesday. "We're really excited about the smart business," Roger Penske said. "We think it's the right car at the right time." Smart USA expects to sell between 20,000 and 25,000 of the fuel-sipping two seaters this year and Penske said he was pressing Daimler to ship more vehicles. The Smart is the first French built car sold in the US in more than 20 years.
■ BANKING
A&L profit down
British bank Alliance & Leicester's (A&L) profit last year tumbled 30 percent as it suffered a £185 million (US$360.4 million) writedown on its exposure to risky assets. A&L, Britain's seventh-biggest listed bank, reported a pretax profit of £399 million yesterday, down from £569 million in 2006 and below an average forecast of £416 million from 12 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. The bank said underlying core operating profit rose 3 percent from 2006 to £602 million. It raised its full-year dividend by 2.2 percent to 55.3 pence per share, below an average forecast of 56.2 pence.
■ RETAIL
Carrefour Malaysia to invest
Carrefour Malaysia is planning to invest some US$373 million over the next three years to double the number of its hypermarkets here to 26, a report said yesterday. The New Straits Times said the expansion, including the construction of three more outlets this year, would create 4,200 jobs. "We expect to spend not less than 1.2 billion ringgit [US$373 million] over the next three years for openings," Carrefour customer operations and marketing director Sivakumar Haridas told the daily. "Prior to 2006, we only had eight stores. Between 2006 and January 2008 we have already added five stores," he said.
■ INVESTMENT
Japanese stock alluring
The chief operating officer of Dubai International Capital said it is time to buy sluggish Japanese stocks, a news report said yesterday. "It is a good investment opportunity," Anand Krishnan was quoted as saying by the Nikkei Shimbun. The investment company, owned by the ruler of the booming Persian Gulf city-state, has been keen on overseas investment opportunities. The fund said in November it has acquired a stake in Sony Corp, without specifying ownership percentage. Krishnan said that the fund is seeking out Japanese shares besides Sony, the Nikkei said. Krishnan said he was interested in companies with significant market shares in emerging markets.
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