TAXATION
US, India reach tax deal
The US on Wednesday said it had reached a deal to lift never-implemented levies on India in exchange for the easing of its tax targeting international tech firms. India is among countries that had imposed a tax on foreign digital services, which earned Washington’s ire since it considers such levies an unfair attack on US tech giants. The US Department of Treasury said in a statement that India would instead follow a minimum tax deal reached last month by 140 countries under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. That agreement would see the imposition of a 15 percent minimum corporate tax worldwide and is expected to come into effect in 2023.
ENVIRONMENT
China eyes methane control
China will look into methane emissions in key industries, including coal mining, agriculture and petroleum, and publish a nationwide methane emission control action plan, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment told a news briefing yesterday. China’s methane emissions were 55.29 million tonnes in 2014, accounting for 10.4 percent of total greenhouse gases emission in the nation, the latest official data showed. The energy sector contributed 45 percent of the methane discharge, while agriculture accounted for 40 percent. The ministry said it would roll out thorough research on China’s methane emission control situation and set effective emission reduction measures.
ENERGY
IEA head appeals to OPEC
International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol on Wednesday called on OPEC and its allies to take measures to help bring oil prices down to reasonable levels. “I very much hope to see in the next meeting or meetings they ... make the necessary steps in order to comfort the global oil markets and help bring the prices down at reasonable levels,” Birol told reporters. He also took aim at Russia over gas. “Russia can easily increase exports to Europe about 15 percent ... and significantly comfort the European gas markets,” Birol said.
MEXICO
Woman to head central bank
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday nominated Deputy Minister of Finance Victoria Rodriguez as the next Bank of Mexico governor, the first woman to head the central bank. The announcement came a day after former minister of finance Arturo Herrera said Lopez Obrador had withdrawn his candidacy for the post, unsettling financial markets. “For the first time, a woman will be heading the Bank of Mexico,” Lopez Obrador told reporters, saying the nomination, which requires approval by the senate, was part of efforts to promote gender equality. As deputy finance minister, Rodriguez “has acted with great responsibility so as not to spend just to spend,” he added.
AIRLINES
Cathay to slash HK flights
Cathay Pacific yesterday said it would slash passenger flights into Hong Kong next month as the territory’s strict travel curbs continue to keep international travelers away at a time when rivals are seeing their prospects improve. As the peak holiday season approaches, the airline will convert about one-third of flights bound for Hong Kong to handle cargo, the South China Morning Post reported, citing company sources.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
NO SHORTCUTS: Asked about Elon Musk’s Terafab initiative, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said it takes two to three years to build a fab and another one to two to ramp it up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its revenue growth forecast for this year to above 30 percent, up from the 25 percent it estimated three months earlier, citing extremely robust artificial intelligence (AI)-related chip demand. “Our customers and customers’ customers, who are mainly cloud service providers, continue to send us very positive signals and outlook,” TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at an earnings conference. The company also hiked its capital expenditure for this year toward the higher end of its forecast, or US$56 billion, as it aims to step up advanced chip capacity expansions, such as
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