A member of the Iraqi Governing Council said Lebanon will return the Iraqi millions in its banks, but he gave no indication Friday of when it will happen. \nMouwafak al-Rubaie met the speaker of Lebanon's parliament, Nabih Berri, together with fellow Governing Council member Younadem Kanna. \n"The talks were good, and we spoke about the Iraqi money held in Lebanon. We heard good comments that Iraqi money in Beirut will be released," al-Rubaie said. He did not elaborate. \nIn May, a US Treasury official said Lebanon had US$495 million in Iraqi funds from the years when former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was in power. Lebanon has acknowledged it has Iraqi money, but it has not released a figure. Its authorities have said the money will be returned when Iraq has a sovereign government. \nIn November, Iraqi Finance Minister Kamel al-Gailani said in Beirut that Lebanon and Iraq were developing a means of returning the Iraqi assets. \nAl-Rubaie's comments came a day after he and Kanna held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus about the Iraqi funds in Syrian banks, which are estimated at US$300 to US$500 million. \nKanna said afterward that Assad told him "the Iraqi money that exists in Syria is secure and will be turned over to Iraqi authorities." \nBut Kanna reported Assad as saying the money would be given to an elected Iraqi government, not the current US-appointment administration. \nIt is likely that Lebanon, which closely follows Syria in diplomacy, will adopt the same position. \nRelations between Lebanon and the US-appointed Governing Council have been cool because of Lebanon's strong opposition to the US occupation of Iraq. Lebanon still has not recognized the council as representing the Iraqi people.
From India to China to the US, automakers cannot make vehicles — not that no one wants any, but because a more than US$450 billion industry for semiconductors got blindsided. How did both sides end up here? Over the past two weeks, automakers across the world have bemoaned the shortage of chips. Germany’s Audi, owned by Volkswagen AG, would delay making some of its high-end vehicles because of what chief executive officer Markus Duesmann called a “massive” shortfall in an interview with the Financial Times. The firm has furloughed more than 10,000 workers and reined in production. That is a further blow
Answering to a reported request by Germany to help address a chip shortage in its auto industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that it was in talks with domestic chip suppliers. Foreign media over the weekend reported that German Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier had sent a request to Taipei to ask Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to cooperate more closely with German automakers to provide microchips and sensors, to bridge a shortage that has emerged over the past few months. The MOEA said that it had not yet received the request and could therefore not elaborate
FOCUS ON FOUNDRIES: An analyst said that some investors would be disappointed because they were expecting a larger announcement of a partnership with TSMC Intel Corp’s incoming chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger on Thursday pledged to regain the company’s lead in chip manufacturing, countering growing calls from some investors to shed that part of its business. “I am confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured internally,” Gelsinger said. “At the same time, given the breadth of our portfolio, it’s likely that we will expand our use of external foundries for certain technologies and products.” He plans to provide more details after officially taking over the CEO role on Feb. 15, but Gelsinger was clear that Intel is sticking with its once mighty
AWARENESS NEEDED: The central bank urged lenders to know their customers before undertaking business for them and to seek funding in conventional ways The central bank yesterday said that it would take action against four foreign lenders for their involvement in helping companies trade in the deliverable forward market in contravention of foreign-exchange regulations. Some grain merchants newly based in Taiwan have since July 2019 been practicing questionable currency-trading activity, with the help of branches and subsidiaries of six foreign banks, the monetary policymaker told an unscheduled news conference. Affiliated firms as of July last year completed currency-related deals they referred to as trading that totaled US$11 billion, which was not in sync with their real business needs, the central bank said after wrapping up
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