■ Management
Bank ordered to improve
Japan's financial regulator has ordered major lender UFJ Holdings Inc to improve its management after pointing out the bank made an inadequate assessment of the amount of its bad loans, reports said yesterday. Following the order, UFJ, Japan's fourth-ranked banking group, would have to submit a management improvement plan to the Financial Services Agency, which would then conduct inspections to check the bank's management, Jiji Press said. Both the FSA and UFJ declined to comment. "We do not comment on an individual case," said an FSA spokeswoman. According to Kyodo News, UFJ's assessment of bad loans at the end of March last year was about 40 percent lower than the amount estimated by the government.
■ Airlines
Qantas to fly to Shanghai
Australian flag carrier Qantas said yesterday it would relaunch direct flights to China's financial hub of Shanghai and India's largest city, Bombay, as it taps growth opportunities in the burgeoning markets. The airline said it also planned to increase flights or capacity to Hong Kong, Japan, the US and New Zealand in a three-year growth drive. "We believe it is the future for us -- India and China," Qantas Airways Ltd executive general manager John Borghetti told reporters. Two new Airbus A330-300 jets would fly between Sydney and Shanghai from Dec. 2 and Borghetti said Qantas expected to add even more services to China, which has one of the world's fastest growing economies. Qantas began flights to Shanghai and Bombay in 1996, but axed them as an economy measure in 2001 and 2002 respectively.
■ Region
Asia to grow briskly
Economic growth in the Asia-Pacific will continue to outpace the rest of the world in the next five years but a Chinese slowdown looms as a genuine threat to the region, the Economist Intelligence Unit said. In a report received yesterday, the London-based EIU said the Asia-Pacific's economies, outside Japan, would grow at an average annual rate of 5.8 percent between this year and 2008, faster than any other region in the world. The EIU said the region's growth this year was likely to be 6.5 percent, but the environment will be less friendly next year and beyond with Beijing's efforts to rein in its red-hot economy the main reason. The EIU said China's economy should slow to below 8 percent between this year and 2008, down from the more than 9 percent rates experienced recently, and a potential investment bubble is not expected to balloon out of control.
■ Biotechnology
Brewer produces cow
Kirin Brewery Co, Japan's No. 2 beer maker, said yesterday it had produced jointly with a US company a cow that is immune to mad cow disease. The animal, produced through genetic manipulation, carries none of the prion proteins that cause the brain-wasting disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a Kirin spokeswoman said. The cow, still in its mother's womb, is expected to be born early next year, she said. Kirin produced the cow after conducting joint research with US biotechnology firm Hemateck LLC in Connect-icut. The two firms plan to use the cow to develop medicines for diseases such as hepatitis C, pneumonia and rheumatism, she said.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
The Executive Yuan yesterday warned against traveling to or doing business in China after reports that Beijing is recruiting Taiwanese to help conceal the use of forced Uighur labor. The government is aware that Taiwan-based influencers and businesses are being asked to make pro-Beijing content and offered incentives to invest in the region, Executive Yuan acting spokeswoman Julia Hsieh (謝子涵) told a news conference. Taiwanese are urged to be aware of the potential personal and reputational harm by visiting or operating businesses in China, Hsieh said, adding that agencies are fully apprised of the situation. A national security official said that former Mainland
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