■CHINA
CCP promises stable policies
Government leaders yesterday promised to maintain stable economic policies over the year ahead as they wrapped up an annual planning meeting amid a massive stimulus effort, a state news agency said. The meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ruling Central Committee “agreed that the country should maintain the continuity and stability of the macroeconomic policies,” Xinhua news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch. It gave no details. Companies and investors were watching the meeting for signs of possible changes in policy as the government carries out a 4 trillion yuan (US$586 billion) program to pump up growth and ward off the impact of the global downturn.
■SOUTH KOREA
Current account rises
The nation’s current-account surplus rose to a four-month high last month on brisk exports and reduced overseas travel spending, the Bank of Korea said yesterday. The surplus was US$4.94 billion last month, up from a revised US$4.03 billion in September. October was the ninth consecutive month that the current account balance, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, was in the black as sluggish domestic demand undercut imports. For the 10 months to last month, the accumulated surplus now stood at US$37 billion, the bank said. Senior bank official Lee Young-bog said the surplus was expected to fall this month owing to an ongoing railway strike, but the full-year figure would still exceed the US$40 billions.
■AUTOMOBILES
Volkswagen invests in Brazil
Volkswagen’s Brazilian affiliate announced plans on Thursday to spend some US$3.5 billion to 2014 for capital improvements and the development of new auto products. The spending is meant to maintain Volkwagen’s “growth trajectory in Brazil for the coming years,” the company said in a statement, adding that the spending would focus in large measure on increasing production capacity. “This year, we will grow significantly in Brazil,” said Thomas Schmall, president of Volkswagen Brazil. “Our aim it to sell a million cars each year through 2014, which will give a significant boost” to overall company success.
■ENERGY
Swiber inks Myanmar deal
A Singaporean marine engineering company has signed a multimillion dollar contract to lay gas pipelines off Myanmar next year. Singapore-based firm Swiber Holdings will construct 150km of gas pipelines after signing a US$77 million contract with “a Myanmar oil and gas company,” Swiber said in a statement yesterday. The statement did not give the name of the other company involved. The project will start in the first quarter of next year and will last six months, it said.
■RETAIL
Carphone earnings rise
Britain’s Carphone Warehouse raised its full-year earnings forecast after a strong first-half performance at both its telecoms and retail arms and said it was on track to split in two by the end of next March. The group, Europe’s biggest mobile phone retailer and also Britain’s second-largest broadband provider, said yesterday that underlying earnings per share leapt 88 percent to 6 pence (US$0.09) in the six months to Sept. 30, helped by a rise in broadband customers and strong demand for smartphones like Apple’s iPhone. Carphone raised its full-year earnings forecast to between 14 and 15 pence, compared with analysts’ current average estimate of 13.7 pence.
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