■Marketing
Thailand to ban liquor ads
Thailand may ban liquor and energy drink commercials on television for most of the day to reduce road accidents, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said. The cabinet today will consider a proposal to block advertisements of alcoholic and energy beverages daily between 5am and 10pm, Thaksin told reporters before a meeting that started in Bangkok at 10am. "We want to cut cases of drunk driving," he said. "Television should not promote drinking." The ban may hurt sales at BEC World Pcl, the nation's biggest publicly traded television operator, and ITV Pcl because makers of beer, whiskey and energy drinks are their largest customers, some analysts said. The government raised the penalty for drunk driving after road accidents claimed the lives of 569 people and injured 37,151 others during the five days of the nation's biggest holiday in April.
■ Telecom
Vodafone adds customers
Vodafone Group Plc, the world's biggest mobile phone company, added customers in Australia and New Zealand last quarter by introducing new service such as photo messaging and games. Vodafone, which competes with Telecom Corp in New Zealand, had 1.349 million subscribers in the nation as of June 30, an increase of 4.7 percent in the quarter and 20 percent from a year ago, according to figures on Vodafone's Web site. In Australia, where it competes with Telstra Corp and Singapore Telecom Ltd, Vodafone said it had 2.593 million customers, a 1.1 percent increase on the previous quarter, and a 20 percent gain on the year. Newbury, England-based Vodafone Group said Monday that it added a total 3 million customers in the quarter, increasing total subscribers to 122.7 million.
■ Macroeconomics
Japan's jobless rate falls
Japan's jobless rate fell to 5.3 percent last month and household spending had its biggest gain in almost two decades, prompting Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to say he sees "positive signs" for an economic recovery. The jobless rate fell from 5.4 percent in May, the first drop in four months, as the economy added 470,000 jobs. Spending by households headed by a salaried worker rose 4.8 percent last month from May, seasonally adjusted, the most since February 1984, the government's statistics bureau said in Tokyo. Meanwhile, sales at large Japanese retail stores last month declined 2.9 percent year-on-year after falling 3.6 percent in May, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said yesterday.
■ Trade
Japan imposes beef tariffs
Japan will raise tariffs on chilled beef to 50 percent from 38.5 percent beginning Friday, ignoring protests from its trading partners and favoring domestic farmers because meat imports rose fast enough to trigger safeguards. Chilled beef imports from the US, Australia and other countries rose 34 percent in the three months to June 30, the Ministry of Finance said. Under WTO rules, Japan can impose the higher tariffs if imports rise more than 17 percent from the same period a year ago. Tariffs will also increase on pork. Retail prices will rise about 2.5 percent, he added. Food companies in Japan and beef farmers in Australia and other countries argue that the increase in customs charges is unfair because the rise in imports reflects an overall recovery in beef demand after an outbreak of mad cow disease, or BSE, hurt consumption last year.
Agencies
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
SHIFTING FOCUS: Investment in China fell due to increasing costs, the US-China trade war and China’s economic development slowdown, a spokesperson said The percentage of Taiwanese businesses investing in China has been steadily declining since 2010 due to increased costs, the US-China trade war and the slowdown of China’s economic development, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) spokesperson Li Pao-wen (黎寶文) said. In terms of Taiwan’s total outward investment, the percentage of businesses investing in China has dropped from 83.8 percent in 2010 to 11.4 percent in 2023, 7.5 percent last year and 2.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, Li said in an exclusive interview with Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister paper. Li said that 70 percent of these businesses experienced
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