■ ENERGY
Jamaica sells sugar firm
Jamaica’s agricultural minister said a Brazilian renewable energy company expects to buy the struggling Sugar Co of Jamaica to boost its ethanol production. Minister Christopher Tufton said Infinity Bio-Energy will take over in September. Jamaica will retain a 25 percent share in the company for three years. Officials did not cite a sale amount. Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding said on Friday that the company’s six factories have lost a total of US$283 million since Jamaica bought them in 1998. Almost 13,000 workers will be let go. It is the second major investment that Infinity Bio-Energy has made in the Caribbean. It agreed last year to spend more than US$200 million to produce ethanol by next year with Dominican Republic’s Bioetanol Boca Chica SA.
■ POWER
SIEPAC nears completion
Central America plans to complete by early 2010 an electric transmission line spanning from Guatemala to Panama that would also connect into Mexico and Colombia, project director Teofilo de la Torre said. “Today we are in the final stretch to complete this beautiful project,” he said on Saturday in Villahermosa, Mexico, at a summit of regional leaders. The system will help lower energy costs for the region, he said. The Electrica de los Paises America Central project, known as SIEPAC, has been in the works for more than a decade. The electric lines will be 1,800km long and require an investment of US$400 million. Mexico will connect to the grid through Guatemala, while Colombia will be connected through Panama, de la Torre said.
■ BANKING
US$35m raised for housing
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC and Finance House PJSC helped Sawaeed Investment LLC and Mountain Gate Property Investment LLC raise 127.8 million dirhams (US$35 million) to build a residential camp for workers. The eight-and-a-half-year project financing uses a combination of Islamic and conventional debt and equity transactions, Finance House said in a statement posted on Dubai-based business Web site Ame Info on Friday, without being more specific. The borrowers’ camp at Mafraq in the United Arab Emirates is expected to provide homes for about 7,000 workers when completed next March, the statement said.
■ EMPLOYMENT
Women 'dislike' tech fields
Women continue to lack enthusiasm for technical fields, whether in academia or the workforce, a new German study showed. The survey by Bitkom, an industrial association, said that half of new university students last fall were female. But women only make up 16 percent of students in fields such as computer science, engineering and electrical engineering. A higher percentage of female students enrolled in civil engineering — 25 percent. Additionally, mathematics courses enjoyed nearly 50 percent female enrollment. The number of women seeking apprenticeships in technological fields actually declined, from 14 percent in 2002 to 9.1 percent last year.
■ MERGERS
Indian companies merge
Subhiksha Trading Services, a food and grocery discount chain, said it bought a majority stake in Blue Green Constructions and Investment. The boards of the two companies planned to meet today to complete the merger, Subhiksha said in a statement. The merged company will be called Subhiksha Ltd and be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
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