■ Banking
Boss warns of bubble
A bank boss has warned that property prices in Hong Kong are rising too fast and could be heading for a bubble, a news report said yesterday. HSBC chairman David Eldon spoke out after a turnaround which has seen property prices in the territory rebound 20 percent since August. "Sentiment may be running ahead of fundamentals," the South China Morning Post quoted Eldon as saying. "If [speculators] pay far too much and if they are going to ride property prices up too quickly, I don't think it's a good thing for Hong Kong," he warned. Eldon's comments were supported by Liu Chong Hing Bank senior general manager Brian Cheung. "I really feel housing prices are rising too fast. The recent surge is unhealthy," Cheugn told the newspaper.
■ IPR Protection
China opens patent Web site
Chinese inventors have a new, electronic option for registering and advertising patents. Under foreign pressure to stamp out rampant piracy of patents and other intellectual property, the government launched the site in collaboration with state television. The site -- www.cipmun.net -- is in Chinese only. Launched Tuesday, it is crammed with information on patents, news and a patent search service. Sponsors include the State Intellectual Property Office, China Central Television and local television stations. Among the patented products listed on the site Wednesday: A bicycle with solid tires (no more hunting down a sidewalk repair stall for a bicycle pump). A voice-controlled cellphone advertised as "convenient for the elderly and disabled." A biodegradable plastic said to be "kind to the environment."
■ Privatization
Singapore to sell firms
Singapore's government will this year sell stakes in some state-controlled companies that aren't of strategic importance, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a televised interview. The government said two years ago it plans to sell companies that aren't strategic to Singapore in terms of being a critical resource or having the potential to expand beyond the city-state. It didn't specify which companies or say when those sales would be made. "The companies are no longer relevant to our mission," said Lee, 52, who has been named as a successor by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. Lee declined to name the companies, saying it may hurt his "bargaining position." Last month, Temasek Holdings Pte, the government's investment arm, reduced its stake in Singapore Telecommunications to as little as 61.5 percent, from more than 67 percent.
■ Electronics
Device sales down 29%
Sales of handheld devices in the Asia-Pacific outside of Japan fell 29 percent on year to 1.59 million units last year, hurt by weaker demand in China where consumers now prefer products like digital cameras, a report said yesterday. "The sheer size of China's market dragged down the entire region as locally produced low-end handhelds fell out of favor there," said Manny Lopez, IDC's regional senior research analyst for personal systems. "But the silver lining is that more sophisticated products are continuing to sell across the region. Devices that go beyond just basic organizer features, such as multimedia and Wi-Fi, are helping to stir interest in the market."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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