■ Currencies
Samsung turns to euro
Samsung Electronics Co, South Korea's biggest exporter, is planning to reduce dollar transactions after the US currency fell 11 percent against the won in the past year, said public relations manager Cho Sung-in. "With the weakening dollar and strengthening euro, we are currently examining ways to conduct more of our transactions in euros," Cho, Seoul-based manager of overseas public relations at Samsung Electronics, said in an e-mail. Cho didn't elaborate. The dollar's decline exceeded the 9.4 percent drop in the euro against the South Korean currency in the past 12 months.
■ Brands
Adidas sues over stripes
Adidas-Salomon AG, the world's second biggest athletic apparel maker, filed a lawsuit accusing clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch Co of improperly using the three stripes that are associated with Adidas products. The German shoemaker began selling sneakers with three stripes along the side more than 50 years ago, and expanded into clothing around 1967. The lawsuit, filed in Portland, Oregon, claims that Abercrombie is selling pants and jackets with three side stripes and is "passing off its goods as those of Adidas." Adidas has been aggressive in protecting what it contends is its ownership of stripes on athletic wear, with about three-dozen lawsuits since 1999. The Abercrombie suit, filed Dec. 23 in US federal court, seeks an order that blocks sales of any clothing with stripes, forces the destruction of existing merchandise and makes Abercrombie pay damages.
■ Telecoms
KDDI gaining on rival
KDDI Corp, Japan's No. 2 mobile-phone company, signed up more subscribers last year than its bigger rival, NTT DoCoMo Inc, and the local unit of Vodafone Group Plc. Tokyo-based KDDI signed up a net 2.7 million subscribers last year, and now offers mobile services to 22.4 million users. DoCoMo added 2.2 million subscribers last year for a total of 47.9 million, while Vodafone KK gained 437,000, bringing its total to 15.2 million. KDDI is catching up with bigger rival DoCoMo by getting more customers to transfer to high-speed, or third-generation, services that allow faster downloading of music, video and other data than on older networks. In December, KDDI signed up a net 257,100 subscribers, beating DoCoMo, which added 247,500. Vodafone KK gained 900.
■ Infrastructure
Dubai to build new airport
Dubai, the base of Emirates, the largest Arab airline, will start building a second airport next month that can handle 120 million pass-engers a year to help it become a global center for world transport, Gulf News reported. The new airport will cover 140km2 adjacent to Jebel Ali seaport, the Middle East's largest shipping terminal, west of the main city of Dubai, the newspaper reported, citing the official state news agency. The sheikhdom already plans to invest US$5.3 billion in the next five years expanding its existing airport, boosting capacity to 70 million passengers a year by 2010 from 22 million now, accord-ing to a prospectus for bonds to finance the airport. The target capacity for both airports would exceed last year's total for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Internat-ional Airport, the world's busiest, and London's Heath-row, according to data from the Airports Council Inter-national industry group.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
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