■TECHNOLOGY
TECRO offers symposiums
The Investment and Trade Office of the Taipei Economic and Cultural and Representative Office (TECRO) said yesterday it would hold two free symposiums on investment and technology related topics in the next two months. The symposiums will be arranged together with several technology associations from the US east coast, TECRO said. The first symposium will be held on Aug. 8 and the second on Sept. 5 at TECRO’s office in New York. Lecturers will include prominent figures in the fields of investment and technology. Four Taiwanese professors will also give lectures. The speakers will discuss the effect of the subprime crisis, conditions on Wall Street and investment strategies to weather the global economic slump, TECRO said in a statement.
■AVIATION
Thai carrier suspends flights
Thailand’s low budget airline One-Two-Go announced yesterday it was suspending its operations for eight weeks, to allow time for financial restructuring. Services will stop from Tuesday until Sept. 15 as the impact of high fuel prices hits the no-frills carrier. “One-Two-Go have been affected by fierce price competition, other surcharges and continued high fuel prices and local political turmoil,” the company statement said. “The airline executive must be prudent and map out a new strategy focusing on its customers,” it said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Downturn gets worse
The economic downturn is worse than previously thought and there is no extra money available for public spending, Finance Minister Alistair Darling said in an interview published yesterday. Darling also told the Times newspaper that taxpayers were at the limit of what they were willing to pay, a day after official data showed a record deficit in public finances and reports that the government might bend its budget rules. “At Christmas most people remained hopeful there would be an improvement by the autumn,” Darling said.
■TOYS
Mattel wins court case
The world’s largest toy maker, Mattel, on Friday won a court case against competitor MGA, maker of the Bratz dolls that have drawn customers away from its classic Barbie dolls. A 10-member federal jury in Riverside, California, ruled that the design for the Bratz, with their modern, urban look and cartoonish large heads and eyes, was conceived by designer Carter Bryant while he was working under contract at Mattel. It found MGA chief executive Isaac Larian interfered with Bryant’s contractual duties, taking Mattel property for MGA’s use. In the next stage of the case, the jury will determine if the dolls themselves infringe on the designs owned by Mattel and award any damages.
■AGRICULTURE
China must increase crops
China, the world’s biggest grower and consumer of grains, must boost crop yields by at least 1 percent a year to ensure the country has enough food to feed its 1.3 billion people, the Chinese Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai (孫政才) said. The country will accelerate introduction of high-yield rice and genetically modified crops, protect farmland and raise rural incomes to retain farming interest, Sun said in a statement on the central government’s Web site on Friday. China’s growing incomes and population are increasing food demand even as more agricultural workers seek higher-paying jobs in cities.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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