■TELECOMS
Vodafone eyes T-Mobile
The UK’s Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile phone company by revenue, is exploring a bid to buy T-Mobile UK, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Citing people familiar with the situation, the daily said Vodafone was considering making an offer or setting up a joint venture, in a move that would give it a 40 percent share of revenue paid by mobile phone users in the UK. Vodafone has a market share of about 25 percent, compared with 27 percent for O2, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, 22 percent for France Telecom’s Orange, 15 percent for T-Mobile and 8 percent for Hutchinson Whampoa’s 3.
■TRADE
Canada, Jordan sign FTA
Jordan and Canada signed a free-trade agreement yesterday aimed at boosting the competitiveness of Jordanian exports, the state-run Petra news agency reported. The agreement, which is the first between Canada and an Arab country, will eliminate customs on goods of Jordanian origin exported to the Canadian market immediately after it comes into effect later this year, the government-run news agency reported. Jordan will reduce customs on Canadian goods during a five-year period. Bilateral trade between the two countries reached 61 million dinars (US$86 million) last year.
■AVIATION
Incheon airport to expand
South Korea will spend more than US$3 billion expanding Incheon International Airport to help it compete better with regional rivals, officials said yesterday. Work on the 4 trillion won (US$3.12 billion) project will start in 2011 and finish by 2015, the ministry of land, transport and maritime affairs said in a statement. A second passenger terminal will be built and existing facilities including the cargo terminal expanded. The airport, now capable of handling 44 million passengers and 4.5 million tonnes of cargo per year, will be able to handle 62 million passengers and 5.8 million tonnes annually once the expansion is complete, the ministry said.
■VIETNAM
Firm buys hotels abroad
Vietnam’s leading travel service company will buy five hotels overseas to expand its operations and develop its brand internationally, a company official said yesterday. “Taking advantage of falling property prices in the economic crisis, we decided to buy hotels overseas to expand our operations and develop our brand name into an international one,” said Nguyen Huu Tho, general director of Saigontourist Holding Company. “This is the first time a Vietnamese tourist company plans to buys hotels overseas.” Tho said the company had hired US law firm Baker & McKenzie to help complete negotiations for a 252-room hotel located in Fisherman’s Wharf, a popular tourist destination in San Francisco, California. Saigontourist would purchase four other hotels in Tokyo, Berlin, Hong Kong and Moscow after the first deal was completed.
■FRANCE
Recession to slow down: IMF
The French recession will slow down this year and the country will begin a return to “sluggish” growth early next year, the IMF said on Sunday. “The economic contraction is expected to slow in the remainder of 2009, followed by a sluggish return to growth beginning in early 2010,” the IMF said in a report following consultations with France, the fourth-largest contributor to the international body. But the fund cautioned that “the country remains in deep recession, and short-term policies to support recovery are essential.”
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
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
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
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2