■ TECHNOLOGY
Texas Instruments cuts jobs
US microchip maker Texas Instruments Inc is slashing 400 jobs in the Philippines to cope with falling orders amid the global economic crunch, labor officials said yesterday. The Dallas-based company notified the Philippine Labor Department of its plan to seek 400 volunteers to take “generous” severance packages among 2,300 employees in its plant in the northern city of Baguio, said Ana Dione, a Labor Department official. Apart from 400 workers, another 100 employees were to be transferred to Texas Instruments’ other plant north of Manila, she said.
■ELECTRONICS
Polaroid files for bankruptcy
Polaroid Corp and its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, saying that allegations of fraud at its parent company are to blame. In a statement, Concord, Massachusetts-based Polaroid said its ongoing financial restructuring process and Thursday’s filing in US Bankruptcy Court in Minnesota are the result of the federal investigation into its parent, Petters Group Worldwide. Petters Group has owned Polaroid since 2005. Petters Group and its venture capital unit Petters Co Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October following a federal investigation into a US$3 billion fraud scheme allegedly run by the company’s founder, Tom Petters.
■AVIATION
ANA postpones purchase
Japan’s All Nippon Airways said yesterday it was putting on hold plans to buy any new giant aircraft, either Boeing’s 747-8 or the Airbus A380 superjumbo, because of the global economic downturn. The purchase plan “will remain on hold until the company deems market conditions conducive to resuming the selection process,” said Rob Henderson, a spokesman for ANA, Japan’s second largest carrier. The decision does not affect All Nippon Airways’ plans to be the launch customer of Boeing’s next-generation Dreamliner. European consortium Airbus had been pushing hard to win the order since ANA launched the search in July, seeing it as a chance to break into the Japanese market.
■LOGISTICS
FedEx cuts salaries
US delivery giant FedEx said on Thursday it was slashing salaries for many employees to cope with the global economic downturn. “Our financial performance is increasingly being challenged by some of the worst economic conditions in the company’s 35-year operating history,” said Frederick Smith, who is chairman, president and chief executive. Smith will take a 20 percent cut in base pay while other senior executives will see a reduction of between 7.5 percent and 10 percent and other salaried personnel will get a 5.0 percent cut. The company also said it was freezing hiring and eliminating merit pay increases for next year.
■CHINA
Unemployment increases
The real number of unemployed in China is much more severe than statistics show after 670,000 small firms closed this year under pressure from the global financial crisis, an adviser to China’s Cabinet said yesterday. About 6.7 million jobs vanished, many in the export hub of Guangdong, pushing unemployment well above the official figure of 8.3 million, State Council adviser Chen Quansheng (陳全生) said at a forum in Beijing. “The real employment situation is much more grave than the official statistics, which only show the registered urban jobless number,” he said. Chen urged official support for labor-intensive industries to create jobs.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
The China Coast Guard has seized control of a disputed reef near a major Philippine military outpost in the South China Sea, Beijing’s state media said, adding to longstanding territorial tensions with Manila. Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and has waved away competing assertions from other countries as well as an international ruling that its position has no legal basis. China and the Philippines have engaged in months of confrontations in the contested waters, and Manila is taking part in sweeping joint military drills with the US which Beijing has slammed as destabilizing. The Chinese coast guard
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