■AUTOMOBILES
Volvo reaches pay accord
Volvo AB, the world's second-largest truckmaker, reached a three-year pay agreement with US workers, ending a strike that began on Feb. 1. Employees represented by the United Auto Workers have ratified a new contract covering about 2,600 members of UAW Local 2069 at the New River Valley, Virginia, plant, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company said yesterday in a statement.
■ COMMUNICATION
Post offices for sale
Deutsche Post AG says it will sell off 700 of its 800 nationwide branches to private partners that will then continue to offer its postal services to customers. Dirk Klasen, a spokesman for Deutsche Post, said on Sunday it planned to sell the branches to bakeries, supermarkets or stationery stores. He declined to give further details. An estimated 3,000 people are employed at the affected branches, but Klasen said they would remain employed by the Bonn-based company. The selloffs are aimed at cutting costs.
■ VIETNAM
New chain to open
Thailand's leading technology and trading company Loxley and consumer product giant Saha Group plan to open a chain of convenience stores in Vietnam, officials said yesterday. The first store was expected to open by the end of the year in Ho Chi Minh City, Loxley's executive director Jingjai Hanchalash said. He said the budget for the project was still being studied, but added new stores would sell a variety of goods, including clothes and sports shoes made by Saha. "Vietnam's economy is open and booming. This is a good opportunity to look at the market there and Vietnamese shoppers love Thai products," he said.
■ TELECOM
India mobile users double
India, the world's fastest-growing major mobile-phone market, will double its number of subscribers to 500 million by 2010, said Telecommunications Secretary Siddhartha Behura. The government plans to allow subscribers to retain their phone numbers when changing service providers from this year, Behura said at the India-Asia Investment Forum in Singapore yesterday. Record subscriber additions are crowding the airwaves, prompting companies including Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's largest mobile-phone operator, to seek more spectrum. The nation gained 8.77 million customers in January, taking the total to 242.4 million.
■ TELECOM
Hellenic sells stake
Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's biggest telephone company, agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA for 2.5 billion euros (US$4 billion), extending its reach to Greece and southeast Europe. Deutsche Telekom will pay 26 euros a share for the stake in Hellenic Telecom, an e-mailed statement from the Bonn-based company said. Deutsche Telekom is buying the stake from Marfin Investment Group SA, and the transaction is conditional on the getting approval from the Greek government. The acquisition will make Deutsche Telekom the biggest shareholder in the Greek operator after the Greek state. Hellenic Telecom is Greece's biggest phone company. Hellenic Telecom's closing share price was 19.14 euros on Friday
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