■CHINA
Zoellick calls for revaluation
World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Monday that it was timely for China to revalue its currency. He said that as export-driven China remakes its society to depend more on consumer spending, it could become an opportunity to revalue the currency. Zoellick told Wall Street Journal Online that aside from increasing the purchasing power of ordinary Chinese people, an appreciating currency would also send a signal to local firms to focus future investment and capacity more toward domestic demand rather than producing for export. “People who focus on structural explanations say a quick change in currency appreciation is not going to lead to automatic shifts in industrial structure,” he said.
■GREECE
Bond issue raises 5bn euros
Greece raised 5 billion euros (US$6.74 billion) on Monday with a seven-year bond issue, in a crucial first borrowing test after the euro zone unveiled a rescue last week to help Athens cope with its acute debt crisis. However, the government’s borrowing costs remain higher than it wants. The bonds were sold at a coupon yield of 5.9 percent, a statement from the Public Debt Management Agency said. State-run media said around 7 billion euros in offers were received. The high yield comes before deadlines in next month and May to refinance about 20 billion euros in debt, with total borrowing needs at 54 billion euros this year.
■ELECTRONICS
Pegatron to make iPhones
A subsidiary of Taiwan netbook PC pioneer Asustek has won orders to manufacture Apple’s iPhone to run on the CDMA standard, a source said yesterday. Apple is said to be developing a CDMA-compatible iPhone that would work on leading US mobile carrier Verizon Communications Inc’s network, the Wall Street Journal had reported earlier, citing people familiar with the matter. The Taiwanese firm, Pegatron (和碩), will begin shipping the phones from next year, a source close to the firm said. The source could not confirm if the products would be for Verizon’s network.
■HONG KONG
Hutchison profit rises 12%
Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa (和記黃埔) said yesterday net profit rose 12 percent last year, as property sale gains more than offset losses at its energy and 3G technology units. The port-to-telecoms conglomerate said in a statement to the region’s stock exchange net profit was HK$14.17 billion (US$1.8 billion) last year, up from HK$12.68 billion in 2008. However, total revenue dropped 14 percent to HK$300.55 billion, mainly due to a business slump at its Canada-listed affiliate Husky Energy due to sharp declines in oil and gas prices last year, it said.
■CHINA
McDonald’s to double
McDonald’s said yesterday it plans to nearly double its number of outlets in China by the end of 2013 as the US fast-food giant seeks to expand its presence in the world’s biggest developing economy. The company aims to boost the number of its outlets in China to 2,000 from around 1,100 in three years, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing Tim Fenton, the company’s president of Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. McDonald’s will open 150 to 175 outlets in the country this year, its China chief executive Kenneth Chan (曾啟山) said.
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
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique