■ELECTRONICS
World Cup boosts sales
South Korean firms are enjoying a boom in sales of 3D televisions thanks to rising demand stoked by the World Cup in South Africa, officials said yesterday. Samsung Electronics has sold more than 26,000 3D TVs in the domestic market so far this year, including 6,000 this month, thanks to the World Cup, a company spokesman said. Samsung’s domestic rival, LG Electronics, has also seen a jump in 3D TV sales this month, selling more than 3,000 units at home.
■BANKING
RBS cashes out of UAE
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank says it has agreed to buy the Royal Bank of Scotland’s retail banking business in the United Arab Emirates. The Abu Dhabi bank said yesterday that the deal was valued at US$100 million. The announcement comes a day after RBS said it had agreed to sell its operation in Pakistan to Faysal Bank Ltd for about US$50 million.
■BANKING
Swiss tax treaty passed
Swiss lawmakers approved a UBS AG tax treaty, ending a two-year legal battle with the US authorities that threatened the bank’s US operations. The agreement, through votes in both chambers of parliament, came after eleventh-hour negotiations between the upper and lower house, in which deputies dropped a demand for the treaty to be subject to a nationwide referendum.
■TRADE
Singapore exports soar
Singapore’s exports, led by electronics, surged last month, laying the groundwork for the city-state to post a second consecutive quarter of double-digit economic growth. Exports excluding oil rose 24 percent last month from a year earlier to S$13.5 billion (US$9.7 billion), according to Trade and Industry Ministry figures released yesterday. Sales abroad fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent from April, it said.
■STEEL
POSCO invests in Africa
South Korea’s POSCO, the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker, said yesterday it was planning joint ventures in Zimbabwe as part of an effort to secure stable supplies of essential raw materials. The firm has signed a memorandum of understanding with Zimbabwe-based Anchor Holdings to cooperate in exploiting silica and other minerals, a spokesman for the South Korean firm said. The steelmaker said it also agreed to buy a 7.8 percent stake in a coal mine in Mozambique but gave no value for the deal.
■INTERNET
AOL to sell Bebo
AOL, the once high-flying Web company, is close to selling the social networking site Bebo to a California-based private investment firm, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The newspaper, citing “people familiar with the matter,” said the exact terms of the deal were not available, but the selling price is a “small fraction” of the US$850 million AOL paid for Bebo two years ago. US technology blog TechCrunch reported AOL was selling Bebo for “US$10 million or less.”
■FINANCE
Mortgage buyers delist
Government-sponsored mortgage purchasers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to delist their shares from the New York Stock Exchange after having trouble meeting stock listing requirements. The companies’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, expects their shares to trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, an electronic quotation service, starting next month.
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