■JAPAN
More boosts may be needed
Tokyo is ready to take more stimulus measures if the deteriorating US economy continues to impact here, the finance minister said yesterday. Speaking on a program on the public broadcaster NHK, Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa cited US consumer spending at Christmas and the fates of troubled big US companies as among factors to watch. “These movements across the Pacific might affect Japan ... It is only natural that we carry out what is necessary, including fiscal, financial and tax measures, immediately after the second supplementary budget,” he said. The government is working on a second extra budget for the current fiscal year for submission to parliament possibly in January.
■SOUTH KOREA
Injection coming: report
Seoul’s central bank is likely to inject up to US$3.3 billion into a state fund aimed at easing a credit squeeze in the country’s debt market, a report said yesterday. The Financial Services Commission, the country’s financial watchdog, has promised to set up a 10 trillion won (US$6.7 billion) bond fund by pooling money from banks, pension funds and others. The Bank of Korea is highly likely to contribute up to 5 trillion won to the fund, which will be used to buy financial and corporate debts, Yonhap news agency said. It is scheduled to hold a policy meeting today to finalize the amount, Yonhap said.
■SWEDEN
Official goes salary-free
Lars Nordstrom isn’t the only official being criticized these days for earning too much money during the world financial crisis, but he may be one of the few who has reacted by deciding to work for free. Since becoming head of the Swedish postal service in July, Nordstrom has been paid 900,000 kronor (US$110,000) a month. And that is on top of the millions he receives in a retirement package from his previous job as chief executive officer of the banking group Nordea AB. The Swedish media have criticized Nordstrom for making more money as CEO of Posten Sverige AB than 45 letter carriers do, and seven times more than the prime minister. Nordstrom said on Saturday that he will give back all the money he has earned with the postal service and work for free from now on.
■BANKING
Dubai-based groups merge
Amlak Finance and Tamweel, two Dubai-based property finance groups with total assets of around US$7 billion, have begun a merger process, the WAM news agency reported on Saturday. The merger of the two banks under the supervision of UAE Real Estate Bank will create the largest real estate finance institution in the country, the UAE finance ministry said. “The merger of Amlak Finance and Tamweel is a milestone development for the UAE financial sector,” a ministry official said. The combined group will be compliant with Islamic Shariah rules, which ban the charging of interest, WAM said.
■SAUDI ARABIA
Interest rate slashed
The government announced yesterday that it is slashing its key interest rate by one percentage point to 3.0 percent on softening inflationary pressures, al-Arabiya news channel reported. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency said it was reducing the repurchase (repo) rate, the country’s lending benchmark, by 100 basis points, the Dubai-based satellite channel said. It is the third cut in six weeks and the rate has almost halved since early last month, when it stood at 5.5 percent.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the