■ ECONOMY
S Korea records surplus
South Korea recorded a current account surplus last month, the Bank of Korea said yesterday, ending six straight monthly deficits on the back of rising exports and financial inflows. South Korea’s current account surplus came in at US$1.82 billion, the central bank said. The country recorded a deficit of US$378 million in May. The current account — South Korea’s broadest measure of trade — includes goods, services and investment flows. Though imports narrowly outpaced exports, the export and financial gains offset a widening of the services deficit and helped push the current account into surplus, the central bank figures showed.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota lowers sales target
Toyota Motor Corp, in a close race with General Motors for the title of the world’s top automaker, lowered yesterday its global sales target for this year as US demand slumps. The Japanese auto giant said it forecast global sales of 9.5 million vehicles this year, down from a previous estimate of 9.85 million. The revision came as slowing US economic growth and high fuel costs at the pump have hit demand for large vehicles in the US.
■ INTERNET
Horie makes bail
Former dot.com star Takafumi Horie, who is appealing his conviction on securities laws violations to the Japanese Supreme Court, made bail on a ¥600 million (US$5.6 million) bond yesterday, a court official said. On Friday, the Tokyo High Court, an appeals court, upheld a guilty verdict and two-and-a-half-year prison term for Horie, a relatively harsh ruling for white collar crime in Japan. Horie had been handed the imprisonment in March last year by a lower court, which found him guilty of masterminding a network of decoy investment funds to manipulate earnings at his Net services startup Livedoor Co.
■ FOOD
Manila subsidizes rice
The Philippines could spend as much as US$570 million this year to keep subsidizing low-cost rice for the poor, the agriculture minister said yesterday. The government spent 10 billion pesos in the first half of the year so that people could buy rice at about US$0.41 per kilo, or about half the market price, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said. “At the rate we’re going, we would go up to 25 billion pesos [US$569 million] minimum, just for rice,” he told reporters. The Philippines produces only about 93 percent of the rice requirements of its 90 million people, a third of whom live on a dollar a day or less. Yap said the rice farming sector was under pressure because of the high costs of oil-based fertilizer, which he said accounted for 30 percent of farmers’ production costs.
■ AGRICULTURE
Hanoi limits golf courses
Vietnam intends to restrict the growth of new golf courses encroaching on rice farms to ensure national food security and protect thousands of poor farmers, state media reported yesterday. More than 140 golf courses, either operating or in the planning stages, would take up almost 50,000 hectares of land, the Vietnam News daily quoted a Ministry of Planning and Investment report as saying. New golf courses had been licensed at a rate of more than one per week since early 2006, when foreign investor interest surged in the “emerging tiger” economy, which saw growth of 8.5 percent last year.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source