■ Trade
Poultry imports banned
The nation has temporarily banned imports of poultry from South Africa to prevent bird flu and other epidemics, the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture said. The council made the announcement in a statement issued over the weekend, citing the fact that a large number of ostriches in various areas of South Africa's eastern Cape Province, such as Bedford, Cradock and Somerset, have died from bird flu. The country's poultry raisers should heighten their alert against a spread of bird flu-related epidemics, as other countries in Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and mainland China have also been affected by avian flu, officials with the council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection said.
■ Energy
Thai firms to gear down
Siam Cement Pcl, Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl and other large Thai companies agreed with a government request to reduce their consumption of electricity, fuel and other energy by as much as 20 percent to trim surging imports. Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak today called a special meeting with executives from Siam Cement, the country's biggest cement maker, Charoen Pokphand and other companies after crude oil prices rose to a record on last Friday. The Thai government has spent 22 billion baht (US$531 million) to subsidize retail gasoline prices since January to prevent rising fuel costs from hurting economic growth and stoking inflation. Thailand, Southeast Asia's second-largest crude oil buyer, had a current account deficit of 19 million baht in April, its first monthly shortfall in two years, on rising oil imports.
■ Fiscal Policy
Bank to act on inflation
India's central bank governor said the monetary authority will seek to ensure price stability amid the fastest inflation in 3 and half years. He didn't give details. India's inflation, as measured by the rise in wholesale prices from a year earlier, unexpectedly accelerated to 7.51 percent in the week ended last month 24 from 6.52 percent in the prior week, the government said in a report last Friday. Inflation was higher than the bank had expected in its May monetary policy, Reserve Bank of India Governor Y.V. Reddy told reporters in the western city of Pune. He said basically, it appears that global factors played a critical part in this increase though the domestic factors such as liquidity overhang and monsoon conditions also played a role.
■ Investing
Buffet's bet cuts profits
Billionaire Warren Buffett's bet against the US dollar and his preference for cash over other investments caused Berkshire Hathaway Inc to post its smallest quarterly earnings since 2002. Net income at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, run by Buffett since 1965, fell 42 percent in the second quarter to US$1.28 billion, or US$834 a share, from US$2.23 billion, or US$1,452, a year earlier, the company said yesterday. The drop was caused by US$172 million of realized investment and currency losses, compared with a US$905 million gain a year earlier, when Berkshire sold most of its US Treasuries. Buffett, 73, is accumulating cash to make acquisitions, a strategy that also cut interest and dividend income 16 percent in the quarter. "You've got an avalanche of cash," Donald Yacktman, who manages US$1 billion at Yacktman Asset Management, said in an interview last week.
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
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
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
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
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