■ China
Bankruptcy rules changing
Beijing will close 2,000 money-losing state com-panies and phase out special bankruptcy rules that allowed laid-off workers to be paid before creditors, state media reported yesterday. The shutdowns, expected over the next three to five years, will be the last in China's drive to streamline its state-run sector, and the last time it invokes its policy of giving workers priority when disbursing funds from the sale of assets, newspapers and the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The announcement comes as China's legislature prepares to review a draft law on corporate bankruptcy that would remove differences in treatment for state-owned, private and foreign-invested companies. That law would ensure that all 8 million companies in the country follow standard international practice of using recovered funds to first pay back creditors, the reports said.
■ Economy
Rising oil prices cause risk
Sharp increases in oil prices in recent months pose a risk, although a manageable one, for Asian economies as long as governments use the right policies, the Asian Development Bank said yesterday. "Asia remains particularly vulnerable to an oil shock because of its high dependence on oil imports," said the report by bank economist Park Cyn-young. Asia produces 10 percent of world crude supply but consumes 24 percent, with consumption in China and India rising, adding to the pressure on prices. Asia's increased appetite for oil "is not a temporary phenome-non," it said. It said GDP of 10 Asian nations would suffer a 0.1 percentage point reduction this year and a 0.5 to 0.6 percentage point reduction next year if oil prices remain at about US$40 a barrel. Inflation would also be higher in many of these countries particularly India, Indo-nesia, Malaysia, the Philip-pines, Singapore and Thailand.
■ Automobiles
BMW adapts to iPod
Apple Computer and BMW Group on Monday intro-duced an adapter that allows iPod and BMW customers to plug their music collections directly into their car sound sys-tems. The two companies worked for a year to jointly develop the system that will work in BMW's newer model 3 Series, Z4 Roadster, X3 and X5 sports utility vehicles and the Mini Cooper. Apple chief execu-tive Steve Jobs called the product a groundbreaking move -- one he hopes will lead to more integrated products between the auto industry and Apple's hot-selling iPod portable music player. Owners of iPods usually resort to third-party products to use their iPods in their cars. The BMW iPod Adapter will be available starting July 12 for 2002 to 2004 models. The Mini Cooper iPod adapters will be available later.
■ Telecoms
French, Motorola ink pact
France Telecom and US equipment maker Motorola have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop and deploy inte-grated wireless services, they said in a statement on Monday. The companies will set up joint research and development teams, share research funding and intel-lectual property resulting from the collaboration."This collaboration aims at devel-oping and deploying new and innovative, integrated services, using a wide range of wireless access networks and technologies, for the home, office, car and on the move," the statement said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
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