Opportunity to buy' treasuries
Taiwan, which has the world's third-largest foreign-currency reserves, says a decline in US Treasuries means it's a good time to buy them, Reuters reported, citing a central bank official.
"When prices fall sharply, we buy more," Reuters quoted George Chou (周阿定), director-general of the foreign exchange department at the central bank, as saying. "This is an opportunity to buy."
Chou said the central bank usually holds the bonds to maturity.
The island doesn't have plans to diversify its foreign-exchange holdings into the euro because that currency is expensive, Reuters said, citing Chou. The euro rose 5.7 percent against the US dollar this year.
Taiwan's foreign-currency reserves in July rose 3 percent to US$182.2 billion from the previous month. Only Japan and China have higher reserves.
Dell switches flat-screen order
Dell Inc switched an order for its first flat-screen televisions to Samsung Electronics Co from Amtran Technology Co (瑞軒科技), a Chinese-language newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.
Dell and Hewlett-Packard Co are preparing to sell flat-screen TVs because the personal computer makers want to enter the consumer electronics business, the report said.
South Korea's Samsung won the Dell order because it has been a supplier to the Texas-based company and Samsung makes flat panels while Amtran only assembles the panels into displays, the report said.
Privatization on track
The privatization of state-owned China Shipbuilding Corp (中船) is going well and is set to be completed by the end of the year, the Commission of National Corporations under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday in a statement.
The commission said that potential investors such as US-based MPH Group Inc, Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) and Chinese Maritime Transport Ltd (中國航運) have expressed interest in acquiring a certain amount of stakes in the Kaohsiung-based shipbuilding company.
But privatization in other two state-run companies, Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp (台鹽) and Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), did not progress as smoothly, due to disputes with labor unions, the commission said.
Taiwan Salt is stuck with laborers' disputes about its stake release that was postponed from June to September.
Chinese Petroleum was supposed to finish privatization by the end of the year, but the measure cannot proceed before the company has reached agreement with its union.
Gaming academy launched
National Taipei Teachers College yesterday launched its Toy and Game Design graduate school, featuring the nation's first academy catering for the toy and gaming sector.
"We expect this academy will become the brainpower behind Taiwan's gaming industry," said Chang Yu-cheng (張玉成), principal of the college
Online gaming has generated NT$4.8 billion last year, up from NT$90 million in 1999 when online games were first introduced into Taiwan, according to China External Trade Development Council statistics.
Courses provided by the school include toy and game software design, marketing and digital content entertainment.
NT dollar trades higher
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, up NT$0.005 to close at NT$34.353 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$446 million.
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