■ TRADE
US beef to return to S Korea
South Korea announced it will resume US beef imports from today after negotiating extra safeguards against mad cow disease, despite protests by tens of thousands over recent weeks. Opponents vowed to continue the candlelit rallies, which sparked a political crisis for the new government of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Ministers said they have strengthened safety rules since Seoul reached a controversial April agreement to resume most imports after a five-year suspension. New rules on the imports will be posted today in the government gazette, the party said in a statement after meeting senior government officials.
■ MINING
Alcoa may buy into project
Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc announced on Tuesday that it would consider buying a stake in a refinery project with a state-owned minerals development company in Vietnam. Under an agreement with Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Group, an Alcoa subsidiary will conduct due diligence on buying a 40 percent stake in the proposed Nhan Co alumina refinery. The facility, to be built in Dak Nong Province, would produce 600,000 tonnes per year of alumina. If the transaction goes ahead, Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals will own 40 percent, the Vietnamese company 51 percent and other investors 9 percent of the Nhan Co refinery and bauxite mine.
■ MANAGEMENT
Siemens heads 'too German'
The chief of German industrial group Siemens, Peter Loescher, feels his company’s managers are too German, white and male, he said yesterday in an interview. “The management board are all white males,” the Austrian-born Siemens chief executive told the Financial Times and Financial Times Deutschland. Loescher said his priority this year would be to improve the group’s “cultural diversity,” after spending his first year trying to help it recover from a scandal sparked by widespread corruption. Failing to bring onboard top directors from countries like China and India would make Siemens less competitive, he added, noting: “Our top 600 managers are predominantly white German males. We are too one-dimensional.”
■ ELECTRONICS
Samsung unveils new policy
South Korea’s largest business group Samsung yesterday announced management changes in the wake of a scandal that saw its boss Lee Kun-hee step down. Lee announced in April he was quitting after prosecutors charged him with tax evasion and breach of trust. The strategic planning office, once seen as the “control tower” of the loose-knit group, was scrapped at the same time. A seven-member committee led by a Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Yoon-woo will decide on new projects and coordinate investment by subsidiaries, Samsung said in a statement.
■ COMMUNICATIONS
Nokia makes code available
Nokia said on Tuesday that it would make the software that runs its phones available to outside developers, as the company tries to head off competition and stimulate the use of mobile music, video, e-mail and other services. The company will spend 264 million euros (US$411 million), to buy the 52 percent it did not already own in Symbian, whose software runs two-thirds of the world’s smartphones and other advanced mobile devices, said Canalys, a researcher in Reading, England. The adoption of such phones, which include the Apple iPhone, has greatly increased the use of high-speed wireless data networks.
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