■AUTOMOBILES
Porsche head avoids crisis
Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking has managed to steer clear of the immediate fallout of the global financial crisis, telling a German newspaper yesterday he has avoided investing in shares. “I’ve never had any shares” the CEO of the iconic German sports car manufacturer was quoted as saying in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Instead Wiedeking said he preferred to invest into real estate, start-up companies, and even restaurants. He said he had just realized one of his dreams by buying a cafe in the North-Rhine Westphalia region. “The cafe is doing very well, I can recommend it to everyone: good food, good beer and reasonable prices,” Wiedeking said.
■REAL ESTATE
Amlak, Tamweel to merge
The two largest property financiers in the booming Gulf emirate of Dubai — Amlak Finance PJSC and Tamweel PJSC — announced on Saturday that they have opened merger talks. The two firms said they had the blessing of Dubai emir Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who is also vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a statement carried by the official WAM news agency. Tamweel chairman Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed bin Saqer al-Nahayan said that the major shareholders — Emaar Properties for Amlak Finance, and Dubai Islamic Bank and Dubai World for Tamweel — were “fully supportive of the merger discussions.” Amlak Finance chairman Nasser bin Hassan al-Sheikh, who is also director general of the Dubai finance department, said the merged firm would have a combined balance sheet of more than 27 billion UAE dirhams (US$7.35 billion).
■SEMICONDUCTORS
Chip exports plunge
South Korea, the world’s top memory chip producer, suffered a drop in semiconductor exports for a third straight month last month amid a market glut and a slow US economy, data showed yesterday. Statistics from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, disclosed by Yonhap news agency, showed semiconductor exports plunged 9.9 percent year-on-year to US$2.96 billion last month, a consecutive fall since July. Semiconductors account for a quarter of the country’s exports of information technology goods, such as mobile handsets and flat TV or computer display screens, the ministry says. Market research firm iSuppli Corp warned in a statement online on Saturday that memory chip makers, reeling from a major downturn in business conditions, face difficulty in securing capital due to the US credit crunch. It said some memory chip suppliers could face serious liquidity issues in the near future.
■ECONOMICS
Japan mulls stimulus plans
Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said the government might form economic packages in addition to the current stimulus plan being suggested. Liberal Democratic Party officials are urging lawmakers to approve ¥1.8 trillion (US$17 billion) of additional spending to help small companies cope with high oil and food prices before parliament is dissolved. Opposition and ruling party lawmakers haven’t agreed on a timetable to debate the legislation. Nakagawa hasn’t forgotten a promise of balancing the budget by fiscal 2011, he said yesterday on Asahi Television’s Sunday Project. Former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi set a goal in 2006 of balancing the primary budget, which excludes interest payments, so Japan could start to cut debt that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates is about 180 percent of the economy.
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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