ENERGY
Tajikistan pipeline planned
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) signed a deal at a regional summit to build a gas pipeline through the impoverished ex-Soviet country of Tajikistan, Tajik television reported on Saturday. The pipeline will transport gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to China in as part of a huge supply deal. “Carrying out this project will allow us to attract more than US$3 billion of direct investments from China into the economy of Tajikistan,” the press service of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonv said. It will supply China with between 25 billion and 30 billion cubic meters of oil per year, the press service said. China is eyeing the vast oil and gas resources of ex-Soviet Central Asia for its fast-growing domestic economy and is also keen to assert political influence in a region that was dominated by Moscow for decades. The new pipeline is due for completion in 2016 and will run for more than 400km within Tajikistan.
EUROPEAN UNION
Finance tax work goes on
The European Commission rebuffed on Saturday an EU legal opinion that questioned the legality of a planned financial transaction tax and said work on the levy in 11 countries would go on. The legal services of the European Council, the institution which represents governments of the 28-nation union, said in their 14-page legal opinion dated Sept. 6 that the commission’s transaction tax plan “exceeded member states’ jurisdiction for taxation under the norms of international customary law.” Finance ministers discussed the financial transaction tax briefly on Saturday, with the commission saying there was a misunderstanding on the opinion. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia were planning to adopt the tax on stocks, bonds, derivatives, repurchase agreements and securities lending. European Commissioner Algirdas Semeta, who is responsible for taxation, said first reading of the proposal by the member states was already concluded.
BALKANS
Trade resumes
Goods from Kosovo and Macedonia crossed their border yesterday, ending a trade dispute that closed the frontier between the neighbors to goods and vehicles for six days. The dispute started in July, when Macedonia limited the import of wheat and flour from all members of the Central European Free-Trade Agreement, including Kosovo, in an effort to protect domestic production. Kosovo first responded by banning imports of Macedonian food, beverages and cigarette products, and then introduced a blanket ban on Macedonian goods from midnight on Sunday last week, after Skopje introduced a levy on Kosovars entering Macedonia. After days of talks between the two countries failed to break the deadlock, the ban ended only after the Macedonian limit on flour expired yesterday and Kosovo lifted its restrictions.
UNITED STATES
Home purchases likely fell
Purchases of previously owned homes probably fell last month as mortgage rates at a two-year high began to slow the progress in residential real estate, economists said before a report this week. Contract closings fell 2.6 percent to a 5.25 million annualized rate from the highest level since November 2009, according to the median forecast of 62 economists in a Bloomberg survey ahead of National Association of Realtors data due on Thursday. Another report is projected to show home construction starts rose last month.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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