■JAPAN
Machinery orders rise
Core machinery orders rose at the fastest pace in nearly a decade in December, data showed yesterday, indicating firms are boosting spending on plants and equipment as the economy recovers. The core orders, a leading indicator of corporate capital investment, jumped 20.1 percent in December from the previous month, reversing an 11.3 percent drop marked in November, the government said. The rise was the sharpest since a 20.8 percent expansion in August 2000 and the third fastest on records dating back to 1987, it said.
■INDONESIA
Economy grows 4.5 percent
The economy grew 4.5 percent last year on resilient domestic demand and stimulus spending to counter the global economic crisis, officials said yesterday. Growth fell from 6.1 percent the year before, but last year’s figure was above government forecasts of 4.3 percent and puts Southeast Asia’s biggest economy on track to hit its 5.5 percent target for this year. “Domestic factors such as elections, fiscal stimulus and growing infrastructure projects helped Indonesia in 2009,” Statistics Agency deputy chairman Slamet Sutomo said.
■MINING
Peru awash in investment
Investment in Peru’s mining and energy sectors, which totaled US$4.88 billion last year, has created “extremely favorable” conditions for growth, the country’s private mining association said on Tuesday. Hans Flury, president of Peru’s Mining, Oil and Energy Association, said US$46.7 billion was expected to be pumped into the sectors in the next five to seven years, including US$35 billion in the mining sector.
■SEMICONDUCTORS
Micron eyes Numonyx
Micron Technology said it intends to buy fellow memory chip maker Numonyx in an all-stock transaction the companies value at US$1.27 billion. Micron plans to issue 140 million shares to Numonyx shareholders, Francisco Partners and chip makers Intel Corp and STMicroelectronics NV. Numonyx was created by the three companies in 2008. Micron will issue up to 10 million additional shares to Numonyx shareholders, depending on Micron’s average share price for 20 trading days. The transaction is expected to close within three to six months pending regulatory approval, Micron said.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi-Aventis profit soars
Sanofi-Aventis reported a 10 percent increase in fourth quarter net profit yesterday as strong sales of its vaccine against the swine flu drove higher than expected earnings for the year. France’s largest drug maker said net profit rose 10.4 percent in the three months ending on Dec. 31 to 1.8 billion euros (US$2.5 billion), up from 1.63 billion euros a year earlier. The company, whose Sanofi Pasteur division is the world’s biggest vaccines manufacturer, said the fourth quarter performance was lifted by record high growth in revenue from its human vaccines business of 64.6 percent.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Disney Q4 sales flat
The Walt Disney Co said on Tuesday it made US$844 million in the holiday quarter, roughly flat compared with a year earlier, as restructuring charges offset cost cutting and gains at ESPN and the Disney Channel. Net income came to US$0.44 per share, down US$0.01 per share, or US$845 million, from the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue rose 1 percent to US$9.74 billion.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft