■ TRADE
Leaders battle protectionism
Leaders of Asia-Pacific economies will issue a call against protectionism and backing free trade at an upcoming weekend summit, despite the global financial crisis, an official from host Peru said on Monday. “The main theme we followed in this ... meeting is that we should avoid at any cost protectionism,” Peruvian Deputy Foreign Minister Gonzalo Gutierrez told a news conference. Gutierrez said that the 21-nation group should stick to its goal to achieve a free trade system in the region, echoing a call from world leaders at a G20 summit last weekend in Washington on the financial crisis. The G20 leaders agreed to refrain from imposing any new trade and investment barriers for the next 12 months.
■INDIA
Finance minister optimistic
Finance Minister P. Chidamabaram asked industry yesterday to cut prices and maintain production levels and said he was confident that the economy would bounce back in a year, news reports said. “We will take steps to stimulate the domestic economy to compensate for the downside caused by the downturn in the world economy,” Chidambaram said at the Davos-based World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit in New Delhi. “The classic response to demand slowdown is to cut prices for the short term,” he told a gathering of top business leaders, officials and economists.
■TAKEOVERS
Firm wants Triumph-Adler
Japan’s Kyocera Mita Corporation announced takeover plans yesterday for the German office services company Triumph-Adler AG. The Osaka-based company said it would submit an offer of 1.90 euros (US$2.40) per share in order to secure around 60 percent to 75 percent of the German firm’s share capital. Kyocera Mita already has a 29.9 percent stake in Triumph-Adler AG, the announcement said, adding that Triumph-Adler would remain a listed company. Triumph-Adler said the move unlocks considerable opportunities for expansion for both sides in terms of operating activities in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
■ELECTRONICS
Spansion sues Samsung
Spansion Inc wants to block US sales of iPods, BlackBerry gadgets and other devices because memory chips made by Samsung Electronics Co and used in those products allegedly violate Spansion patents. Sunnyvale, California-based Spansion, the world’s No. 3 maker of flash memory chips by revenue, sued Samsung on Monday. Spansion claims more than “100 million MP3 players, cellphones, digital cameras and other consumer electronic devices” are made with Samsung flash memory chips that violate Spansion patents. Spansion claims Samsung, the world’s biggest memory-chip maker, has sold US$30 billion in products over the past five years that contain patented Spansion technologies.
■MANAGEMENT
Carrefour to replace CEO
Carrefour SA said it would replace its chief executive with a former top manager at Switzerland’s Nestle SA, the culmination of long-simmering tensions over the French retail giant’s performance and strategy. Carrefour’s board named Swede Lars Oloffson to replace outgoing CEO Jose Luis Duran, effective on Jan. 1. Speculation over Duran’s future has mounted since last year when the company’s long-standing top shareholder ceded its position to a consortium controlled by French billionaire Bernard Arnault and US private-equity firm Colony Capital.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an
South Korea yesterday said that it was removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports to North Korea, as the new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor. The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. It said in June that Pyongyang stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean residents, a day after South Korea’s loudspeakers fell silent. “Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,”
RSS