■ 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.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from