■ECONOMY
IMF head sees better 2010
The world will begin to emerge from the economic crisis in the first quarter of next year, and the recovery will start in the US housing market, the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was quoted yesterday as saying. “The crisis began in the US, in the housing sector. The recovery will announce itself first in the US. Therefore we must keep an eye on American real estate prices. The end of the fall in prices will be an important sign,” Strauss-Kahn told the daily Le Figaro. In an interview the IMF head also noted that US housing prices were very close to bottoming out. “That is why we foresee the recovery for the first quarter of 2010,” he said. Another important indicator would be the status of industrial inventories, Strauss-Kahn said. “When the destocking ends, production can resume,” he said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Royals may invest in Opel
Abu Dhabi’s royal family might be set to invest in automaker Opel, a press report said yesterday. The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper quoted family member Sheikh Hamdan indirectly as saying however that “no decision has been taken yet.” Sheikh Hamdan said that a meeting he had had last week with German regional premier Juergen Ruettgers of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to an Opel plant, was nonetheless “very positive.” Abu Dhabi said late last month it would take a 9.1 percent stake in Daimler, the owner of Mercedes Benz autos for 1.95 billion euros (US$2.64 billion), becoming its biggest shareholder.
■OUTSOURCING
Xerox looks to India
Xerox Corp will pay US$100 million over six years to outsource data-center services to India’s HCL Technologies Ltd, a Xerox spokesman said on Sunday. HCL will manage disaster-recovery preparation and consolidate Xerox’s data centers in North America and Europe, said spokesman Bill McKee. The printer and copier maker has been cutting costs and announced last year it would slash 3,000 jobs from its worldwide payroll of 57,000. McKee said the deal with HCL is not related to the restructuring.
■TELECOMS
Privatization bid approved
A Hong Kong court yesterday approved telecom giant PCCW’s (電訊盈科) controversial privatization bid, despite allegations by the city’s financial watchdog of vote-rigging. Presiding judge Susan Kwan (關淑馨) gave the scheme the green light in Hong Kong’s High Court, in a case that has gripped the financial hub. The Securities and Futures Commission claimed that the shareholder vote approving the buyout by PCCW chairman Richard Li (李澤楷) and his partner China Netcom (中國網通) had been manipulated unfairly.
■OIL
Prices rise in Asian trade
Oil prices rose above US$53 in Asian trade yesterday on hopes a global effort to lift the world economy out of recession would yield results. New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month, gained US$0.90 to US$53.41 a barrel in afternoon trade. Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month advanced US$0.68 to US$54.15. “Investors believe that there will be cooperation to lift the world economy out of the recession [after the G20 summit],” said Tony Nunan, a risk management executive at Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo. “They are coming back into the market based on the belief that the economy is not as bad as it could have been.”
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Xinyi A13 Department Store last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined at
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)