■ COMPUTERS
Dell plans new 3Par offer
Dell Inc is planning a second offer to try to keep data storage maker 3Par Inc out of Hewlett-Packard Co’s (HP) hands, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The exact timing and amount of Dell’s offer are not known. The person said Dell’s bid would likely top HP’s offer on Monday of US$1.5 billion, although according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Dell only needs to match HP’s offer to stay in the running. Dell had previously offered US$1.13 billion for 3Par.
■ ECONOMY
Irish agency slams S&P
Ireland’s debt agency has criticized Standard Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services for cutting the country’s credit rating, saying the downgrade was based on a flawed analysis. The ratings agency cut the government’s long-term sovereign credit rating to “AA-” from “AA.” The outlook is negative. John Corrigan, chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, says that S&P’s debt calculations did not accord with the approach of the IMF or the EU’s statistics agency.
■ PHILIPPINES
Growth strongest in 20 years
The government said yesterday it recorded its best half-year economic growth for more than 20 years as confidence returned following smooth national elections. The economy expanded 7.9 percent in the first six months of this year, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board, helped by better-than-expected data in the second quarter. “It is likely that full-year GDP growth in 2010 will be leaning towards the upper-end of the 5 to 6 percent GDP target, perhaps even higher,” National Economic and Development Authority Director-General Cayetano Paderanga told reporters.
■ AVIATION
Boeing expands China plant
US aircraft maker Boeing plans to double the number of employees at its parts factory in northern China to keep up with renewed demand for planes, state media reported yesterday. Boeing Tianjin Composites Co Ltd will increase its workforce to 1,200 in the next three to four years, Boeing China president David Wang (王建民) was quoted by the China Daily newspaper as saying. “We have to enlarge the place because the needs of commercial airlines is growing fast,” Wang said. The factory makes composite secondary structures and interior parts for the B737, B747, B767, B777 and the B787 Dreamliner aircraft, the report said.
■ COSMETICS
L’Oreal forecasts growth
The head of L’Oreal SA says the French cosmetics company will continue to grow faster than the global market for beauty care products this year after a strong performance in the first half. Jean-Paul Agon said yesterday the world cosmetics market grew about 4 percent in the first half and will continue at that pace the rest of the year. “L’Oreal is clearly out of the crisis,” he said. In the first half, L’Oreal’s sales rose 10.2 percent to 9.7 billion euros (US$12.3 billion).
■ BEVERAGES
Diageo profit rises slightly
Diageo, the world’s biggest maker of alcoholic drinks, said yesterday that annual net profits rose slightly on a strong second half driven by growth in emerging markets which offset weakness in the West. The maker of Guinness, Baileys liqueur and Smirnoff vodka said profits after tax increased by 1.5 percent to £1.629 billion (US$2.536 billion) in the 12 months to June compared with the period of 2008 to last year.
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
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing