■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.
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