■ Semiconductors
NEC releases sales target
NEC Electronics Corp, Japan's third-biggest chipmaker, targets sales of as much as ?30 billion (US$271 million) in fiscal 2007 for a chip that allows mobile phone users to receive digital broadcasts and download images faster. "We're trying to meet the demands of a mobile phone market that is evolving to add more functions," said Hidetoshi Kosaka, a vice president at NEC Electronics, at a press conference in Tokyo. NEC Electronics will join Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc and Japan's Renesas Technology Corp in the market for application processors. "Our first target is countries like Japan and South Korea, where the consumers use application-rich functions," Kosaka said. The new chip may also be used in consumer electronics such as car navigation systems, he added.
■ Communications
Softbank wants legal action
Softbank Corp president Masayoshi Son said his company may take legal action to stop the government from redistributing mobile-phone frequencies to Japan's two largest carriers so that Softbank can offer its own service. The company plans to offer mobile-phone services using the 800 megahertz frequency. The government plan would restrict that spectrum to NTT DoCoMo Inc and KDDI Corp, which already provide service at that frequency. "We are now discussing the matter with lawyers," Son told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo. "Those frequencies belong to the citizens of Japan." Softbank will start offering a fixed-line phone service in December.
■ Financial services
Banks seek Asian clients
European banks are beefing up their operations to attract and service new clients from previously untapped markets such as Thailand, Indochina and North Asia, a check of headhunters showed yesterday. Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are among those most actively recruiting senior people, the Straits Times found. Also getting into the act are relative newcomers such as Greek-owned EFG Bank Group, which set up shop in Singapore last year. The bright picture for private bankers has emerged only in the last 12 months. The preceding five years were relatively bleak as banks suffered heavy losses from loans made to business owners in the region who went bankrupt during the Asian financial crisis. Headhunters in Singapore said a senior private banker now commands an annual salary of S$300,000 (US$175,000) and an equivalent bonus.
■ Communications
Telestra details buy-back
Australia's dominant telecommunications firm, Telstra, unveiled yesterday details of a A$750 million (US$532 million) off-market share buy-back as part of a three-year, A$4.5 billion capital management program. Telstra Corp Ltd announced in June that it planned to return A$1.5 billion to shareholders each year for the next three years through a combination of special dividends and share buy-backs. It flagged the plan for the A$750 million buy-back when the corporation reported its net profit of A$4.118 billion on Aug. 12. The buy-back, combined with plans for a A$0.06 per share special dividend to be paid with the 2004/05 interim dividend, is part of the capital management program Telstra chief financial officer John Stanhope yesterday said shareholders who participate in the buy-back will get a return of capital and a fully franked dividend.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
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