■ Hong Kong
Sales tax being mulled
Hong Kong may introduce a sales tax after three years, risking the territory's reputation as a duty-free shopping haven to bring government finances into balance. The deficit in the year ending March 31 will probably be HK$49 billion (US$6.3 billion), lower than the government's previous HK$78 billion forecast, and may fall to HK$42.6 billion next fiscal year, Financial Secretary Henry Tang (唐英年) said in his first budget speech. He forecast economic growth will accelerate to 6 percent this year from 3.3 percent last year. A sales tax won't be introduced for at least three years, Tang said, adding that a 5 percent rate would generate HK$20 billion to HK$30 billion a year. Tang said the government expects a HK$6 billion budget surplus in five years time.
■ Food
Imports add spice to kimchi
South Korean kimchi may not always be as Korean as people think. Imports of the fermented food soared to a record 2,396 tonnes in January, tripling from 698 tonnes over the same period last year, according to figures released yesterday by South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Nearly all the imports came from China, where costs for such ingredients as cabbage, garlic and spicy red pepper are much lower than those in South Korea. Last year, South Koreans gobbled up 1.18 million tonnes of kimchi, about two-thirds of it homemade. Kimchi imports for last year totaled 26,042 tonnes, worth US$10.3 million. South Korean kimchi producers are trying to counter the challenge of rising imports by also cutting costs and focusing on niche markets for "high-quality" native kimchi.
■ Mobile phones
Nokia No. 1 in the US
Nokia Oyj regained the No. 1 position in the US mobile-phone market from Motorola Inc, helped by a new range of handsets that use Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, newspaper Kauppalehti reported, citing researcher Gartner Inc. The Finnish company has a market share of 34 percent in North America, the Helsinki-based financial daily reported. Nokia has also been helped by delivery problems at Motorola, the paper said. Nokia's global market share was 35 percent last year, down 0.4 percentage points from 2002, the paper said. In Europe, Nokia's fourth-quarter market share fell to 45 percent from 53 percent in the year earlier period.
■ Airlines
Japanese carrier to cut jobs
Asia's top carrier, Japan Airlines System Corp, will reduce its group work force by almost 8 percent in the next three years, a report said yesterday. The job cuts, which will affect mainly ground staff, are intended to trim operating costs after the integration of Japan Airlines and Japan Air System in April, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The group's work force would be reduced by 4,500 from the current 57,000 by March 2007, the newspaper report said. The airline believes it will be able to achieve the payroll reduction through natural attrition alone, it said. At the same time, it will push ahead with the consolidation of administrative divisions and group companies to eliminate duplication, the newspaper said. The company hopes the personnel reduction will help turn around its business to post a profit of about ¥100 billion in fiscal 2006.
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
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