■ Banking
Banks join forces
Megabank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp plans to establish a corporate revitalization firm that integrates the expertise of major Japanese and US firms, a news report said yesterday. It is in talks with US financial giant Goldman Sachs and major Japanese brokerage Daiwa Securities SMBC, which specialize in revitalization, on the tie-up, the Yomiuri Shimbun said citing banking sources. Sumitomo Mitsui, which wants to speed up corporate revitalization and bad-loan disposal, hopes to benefit from the extensive expertise of the firms in merger and acquisitions, and the securitisation of bad loans, the newspaper said. If an agreement was reached, Sumitomo Mitsui would include the envisioned tie-up in its plan to improve its earnings which it will submit next month to the Financial Services Agency, responsible for inspecting and supervising the banking sector, the Yomiuri said.
■ Currencies
Sweden's PM pushes euro
Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said on Saturday Swedes should vote "Yes" in a forthcoming referendum on joining the euro to help counterbalance the economic supremacy of the US. "The fact that we are cooperating against currency speculators [by dealing in only one currency] does not mean that we are entering a superstate. It means that we are putting a halt to the emerging superstate, which is controlled by the multinational companies," Persson said. "I am a radical, I want a counterbalance to the global capital which we lack today and for that purpose we should use and develop the EU to the best of our abilities," he said in a speech in the heavy industry town of Skelleftea almost 1,000 km north of Stock-holm. Persson is trying hard to persuade Swedes to vote to join the euro in their September 14 referendum but the pro-euro lobby is far behind in opinion polls.
■ Beverags
Pepsi wants report blocked
PepsiCo Inc asked an Indian court to block the release of a report by a New Delhi-based research institute, which claims beverages sold by the company contained traces of pesticides. Pepsi and bottler Pearl Drinks submitted the appeal on Friday to the Delhi High Court, AFP said, citing the petition. The findings of the report were released at a press conference on Tuesday. The court will hear Pepsi's appeal tomorrow. The Center for Science and Environment study found traces of lindane, DDT and malathion in 12 soft-drink brands. In its submission, Pepsi said the research methods used by the institution were suspect and urged the court to direct the government not to base policy on it, AFP said. Both Coca-Cola Co and PepsiCo last week disputed the study's claims that traces of pesticide in the drinks exceeded European standards by as much as 45 times.
■ Telecom
Vodafone buys Singlepoint
Vodafone Group Plc, the world's biggest mobile-phone company, plans to buy Singlepoint, an independent mobile service provider in the UK owned by British entrepreneur John Caudwell, for ?L400 million (US$641 million), the Sunday Telegraph reported. Singlepoint buys airtime from network operators to resell it to its 1.4 million customers, and profits from as much as 25 percent of clients' bills, the paper said, without saying how it obtained the information.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
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