■ SINGAPORE
GIC buys ProLogis property
The government said it has acquired the property interests of a US-based firm in China and Japan for US$1.3 billion. Government investment firm GIC said in a statement late on Tuesday that it would pay cash to acquire the property operations of US-based ProLogis in the two Asian countries. The transaction was due to be completed next month, it said. GIC is one of two investment vehicles of the Singapore government and manages the country’s foreign reserves of more than US$100 billion through various investments.
■ELECTRONICS
RIM sues Motorola
Motorola Inc was sued by BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) over claims the mobile-phone maker is improperly blocking it from offering jobs to laid-off Motorola workers. RIM, in a complaint filed yesterday in state court in Chicago, asked for an order invalidating an agreement the companies reached this year not to solicit each other’s employees. The agreement expired in August and is no longer enforceable, the complaint said. Motorola, the world’s third-largest mobile-phone maker, is improperly trying to expand the agreement “to prevent the RIM entities from hiring any Motorola employees, including the thousands of employees Motorola has already fired or will fire,” RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, said in the complaint.
■AUTOMOBILES
Parts maker’s profits drop
Japan’s leading car parts maker Denso Corp said yesterday its full-year net profit would be one-tenth of an earlier forecast because of the poor performance of the auto industry and a strong yen. Denso, a major supplier to Toyota Motor Corp, now estimates its group net profit at ¥10 billion (US$110 million) for the year to March, down from ¥101 billion it projected less than two months ago. The financial crisis triggered in the US had affected the whole world, said Sadahiro Usui, managing officer of Denso. Denso also downgraded its sales projection to ¥3.3 trillion from ¥3.65 trillion estimated on Oct. 30. Its operating-profit forecast was lowered to ¥38 billion from ¥178 billion.
■FINANCE
Chinese bank to relaunch
Agricultural Bank of China will relaunch as a stock-holding company before the Lunar New Year on Jan. 26, bringing it a step closer to an eventual stock market listing, state media said yesterday. The lender has finished hiving off its bad loans, the China Business News reported, citing an unnamed source. The bank reported 818 billion yuan (US$119 billion) in non-performing loans at the end of last year. The bank, the weakest of China’s four major state-owned commercial banks, received a US$19 billion government cash injection last month as part of its preparations for an eventual stock listing.
■TRADE
China protests duties
China has protested at the WTO over US anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed on some Chinese-made products, state media reported yesterday. The China Daily newspaper said the protest was the second by China since its 2001 entry into the WTO and was aimed at thwarting trade protectionism amid the global downturn. Import duties on four product categories including steel pipes and off-road tires were first levied by the US in September. Despite China’s protests, the US International Trade Commission claimed the duties were necessary to offset subsidies by the Chinese government to those exports, the report said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
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