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.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
TECH WINNERS: Taiwan and South Korea reported robust trade, which suggests that they have critical advantages in the rapidly expanding AI supply chain, an official said Exports last month surged to a new high, as booming demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure fueled shipments of advanced technology components, underscoring the nation’s pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Outbound shipments climbed to US$80.18 billion, the highest ever for a single month, rising 61.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the 29th consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. “The surge was driven primarily by global investment in AI infrastructure,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said. The mass production of next-generation AI computing systems has accelerated procurement across the semiconductor supply
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