■Banking
Osborne urges lending
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne told the country’s banks they must use their first-half profits to start lending to businesses again, in an interview in the Sunday Telegraph. With Britain’s top banks preparing to reveal they went back in the black during the first six months of the year, they must get credit flowing, Osborne told the newspaper. Osborne said the government “will not tolerate” banks heaping pressure on small and medium-sized businesses and said they had an “economic obligation” to lend. “The danger is that, particularly next year, when there is a huge amount of refinancing required, that the small and medium-sized businesses suffer from a lack of access to working capital,” he said.
■Energy
Spain cutting solar subsidies
Spain will reduce subsidies for new solar power plants by as much as 45 percent because the cost of equipment has fallen, the Ministry of Industry said in an e-mailed press release yesterday. Ground-based panels will face the biggest price cuts while photovoltaic generators mounted on large roofs will see prices cut by 25 percent and plants on small roofs will see a 5 percent cut, the statement said. The subsidy cuts are included in a draft law that the ministry sent to the nation’s energy regulator for consultation. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government wants to keep a lid on electricity costs in order to boost the competitiveness of industry as the country struggles to shrug off an almost two-year recession.
■Stocks
TCL selling new shares
TCL Corp (TCL, 集團) raised 4.5 billion yuan (US$664 million) selling 1.3 billion new shares in a private placement last month, the company said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The shares, sold at 3.46 yuan each, will be locked up for at least 12 months before becoming tradable, according to the statement.
■Trade
S Korea has trade surplus
South Korea posted a trade surplus of US$5.67 billion last month, the sixth straight month of gains thanks to robust exports, officials said yesterday. Exports, led by automobiles and semiconductors, rose 29.6 percent on-year to US$41.35 billion, while imports gained 28.9 percent to US$35.68 billion, the South Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. The trade surplus is the second-largest this year after a surplus of US$6.43 billion dollars in June, the ministry said, adding the overall surplus in the first seven months of this year stood at US$23.3 billion. South Korea’s annual trade surplus will reach US$30 billion, it said.
■Mining
Australian miners scorn tax
A group of Australian mining companies yesterday launched an advertising campaign against Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s resources profits tax just three weeks ahead of national elections. The media campaign comes weeks after Gillard struck a crucial deal with three mining giants to impose the 30 percent tax that effectively watered down an earlier tax proposal that helped bring down her predecessor, Kevin Rudd. However, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, which represents small and medium-sized miners who say the deal was skewed in favor of the giant resources groups, denies its campaign is politically motivated.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a