■ MINING
Ecuador axes concessions
Ecuador’s constitutional assembly on Friday approved a decree revoking most of the mining concessions in the country, following up on the leftist government’s pledge to take greater control over natural resources. The decision by the government-controlled assembly, which is writing a new constitution, suspended 3,100 of the 4,112 active concessions in Ecuador and 1,220 concession requests. Affected companies include Canada’s Aurelian Resources Inc, EcuaCorriente and Iamgold Corp. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who is a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said the decree would not “impede future concessions, but rather, the current ones, the majority of which are awful.” “The current dilemma is not whether to say yes to mining, but to seek economically, socially and environmentally responsible mining,” he said in a presidential statement.
■ INVESTMENT
US bank raises US$5.88bn
US investment bank JPMorgan Chase quietly raised US$5.88 billion on Wednesday, the same day it published first-quarter earnings, a filing with the US market regulator showed. The capital infusion was neither mentioned in the bank’s earnings statement nor discussed by executives in its ensuing conference call. The document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed JPMorgan Chase issued preferred stock, which enjoys priority over common stock in the distribution of dividends and other assets. The shares are to pay a fixed dividend of 7.9 percent for 10 years, after which the rate floats.
■ BANKING
RBS expecting fresh losses
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Britain’s second-largest bank, is to announce around £4 billion (US$8 billion) in fresh losses linked to the credit crunch, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The report came after media said on Friday that the bank was set to ask shareholders for a massive cash boost after being hit by subprime-linked losses and surging costs related to its takeover of the ABN Amro bank. It points to the pressures currently facing some of the world’s largest financial institutions.
■ FOOD PRICES
Malaysia to lift production
Malaysia’s government said yesterday it would spend 4 billion ringgit (US$1.3 billion) to increase food production and tackle price hikes as the country faces spiraling global oil and food costs. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he would also set up a high-level anti-inflation committee to tackle these issues, state news agency Bernama reported. However, he did not say how the money would be allocated.
■ FINANCE
Fannie Mae officials to pay
Former Fannie Mae chief Franklin Raines and two top executives have agreed to a US$31.4 million settlement with the government over their roles in a 2004 accounting scandal. Raines, the company’s former chief financial officer Timothy Howard and former controller Leanne Spencer were accused in a civil lawsuit of manipulating earnings over a six-year period at Fannie, the largest US financier and guarantor of home mortgages. None of the three acknowledged wrongdoing in the settlement announced on Friday. The amount agreed to under the settlement is far less than what the government was seeking when it sued the executives in December 2006, and it appeared little of the money would come out of their own pockets.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
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