TRANSPORTATION
Uber to tout public transport
Ride-hailing app Uber yesterday said it was joining a global public transport association to improve mobility in the cities it operates in. Uber also said it was joining the International Association of Public Transportation (UITP) to connect more people to public transport. Aligning the company with public transport authorities is a good way to make Uber a better partner for cities, Uber head of transportation policy and research Andrew Salzberg said. UITP represents public transport providers around the world, including Transport for London, which in September stripped Uber of its operating license.
INTERNET
Facebook expands UK staff
Facebook Inc is to hire 800 new staff in London, expanding its UK headquarters despite coming under increasing scrutiny from the nation’s lawmakers. The new hires — predominately in engineering roles and to be recruited over the next year — would bring the number of staff working for Facebook in the UK to 2,300. Facebook’s expansion comes at a time when Britain is so alarmed by the extent and scale of Russian interference in UK politics via social media networks that its lawmakers are getting ready to interrogate Silicon Valley giants — including Facebook and Twitter Inc — in Washington.
GAMBLING
Crown hit with class action
Australian gambling giant Crown was yesterday hit with a class action after 18 employees were arrested in China, alleging it did not give shareholders enough information about the risks being taken. The employees, who pleaded guilty, were held for 10 months on charges of luring rich Chinese to Australia, before being released in August. The case hurt the James Packer-controlled casino operator’s high-roller revenues, with anti-corruption laws in China banning organizing gambling activities overseas for wealthy Chinese. Class action specialists Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said the case on behalf of hundreds of investors centered on a sharp share price drop of almost 14 percent when news of the arrests emerged.
UNITED STATES
NAFTA rewrite impact feared
Economists expect a tax overhaul to provide a modest boost to the US economy, but are increasingly worried that a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would take a toll on growth. A National Association of Business Economics (NABE) survey found that forecasters expect tax law changes to add 0.2 percentage points of growth to the US economy, down slightly from what they expected in the previous NABE survey in September. The survey was taken from Nov. 6 to Nov. 15, before the Senate passed a major tax overhaul early on Saturday. Forty-six percent of 51 panelists believe the renegotiation of NAFTA would do at least some damage to the US economy, up from 27 percent in September.
CHINA
Banking stress indicator falls
A warning indicator for banking stress in China fell for a fifth straight quarter, signaling that Beijing’s drive to squeeze risk from the financial system is making progress. China’s credit-to-gross domestic product “gap” declined to 18.9 percent in the second quarter from 22.1 percent in the first three months of this year, according to data released on Sunday by the Bank for International Settlements. That is down from a high of 28.8 percent in the first quarter of last year.
‘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
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
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
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
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