■UAE
Developers merge
The Dubai developer behind the world’s tallest building says it is merging with three rivals owned by the sheikdom’s ruler, a deal that will create a real estate giant with a low debt and greater flexibility in a market hard hit by the global recession. The proposed merger between Emaar Properties and Dubai Holding subsidiaries Dubai Properties LLC, Samar Dubai LLC and Tatweer LLC marks a push to shore up the property market in an Arab boomtown where an oversupply of units has driven prices down sharply over the past year. In a statement issued yesterday, Emaar said the new company would have a total asset base of 194 billion dirham (US$52.8 billion) and debt of 13.4 billion.
■HONG KONG
Economy uncertain: Tsang
Hong Kong, heading for its first full-year economic contraction since 1998, has “yet to emerge from the impact of the financial tsunami,” Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) said yesterday on Radio Television Hong Kong. “While recent statistics have shown some signs of economic stability returning, there are still many uncertainties in the global market,” he said, according to a statement released on the government’s Web site. The city’s GDP will probably shrink as much as 6.5 percent this year, after a 2.4 percent expansion last year, the government has forecast.
■ENERGY
Iraq to award oil contracts
Iraq will this week unveil which foreign firms have won contracts to develop its oil and gas fields, nearly four decades after Saddam Hussein nationalized the country’s energy infrastructure. The deals, likely to be announced live on television today and tomorrow, will provide the government with much-needed revenue as it struggles to rebuild the country after three wars and 20 years of debilitating economic sanctions. Thirty-one companies have submitted bids to develop six giant oil fields and two gas fields.
■AUTOMOBILES
Luxury brands enter India
India’s Tata Motors yesterday announced the entry of luxury British marques Jaguar and Land Rover into India, but insisted there were no plans to assemble them in the country for the time being. Six models — three each from Jaguar and Land Rover — will be sold from today in India, which is among the world’s fastest-growing global automobile markets. “This launch ushers in a new breed of vehicles in India, which had been disconnected with consumers here for some years,” Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, told a news conference in Mumbai. Senior Jaguar and Land Rover executives were reluctant to divulge how many cars they expected to sell in India, where the luxury car market already includes Porsche, BMW, Mercedes and Audi.
■ELECTRONICS
GE to open Michigan center
General Electric Co (GE) said on Friday it will build a US$100 million manufacturing technology center in Michigan that will eventually employ about 1,200 workers. The Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center will include a GE research and development facility. They will develop manufacturing technologies for GE’s renewable energy, aircraft engine, gas turbine and other products. The center, which is expected to open later this year in Van Buren Township, Michigan, also will develop software, networking and other services. GE has four other research facilities in Munich; Shanghai; Niskayuna, New York, and Bangalore, India.
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 Department Store Xinyi A13 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
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)