■ Banking
UFJ bankers sentenced
Three former executives of a major Japanese bank received suspended sentences yesterday in a scandal centered around hiding information about mounting bad debts from government inspectors. Former UFJ Bank Vice President Kazuyoshi Okazaki was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for three years, and two other former executives, Sen Hayakawa and Masayuki Inaba, were each sentenced to eight months, suspended for three years, by the Tokyo District Court, a court official said on customary condition of anonymity. UFJ Bank also was ordered to pay ?90 million (US$854,000) as a penalty, the court said. Authorities say the executives lied, hid documents about corporate borrowers and transferred thousands of electronic files between August and October 2003 to try to obstruct an inspection by financial regulators into the bank's debts.
■ Economy
Arroyo urges higher taxes
President Gloria Arroyo told the Philippines on Thursday to "bite the bullet" of higher electricity tariffs and potentially higher taxes saying they were preferable to the "nightmare" of an economic meltdown. Regulators on Friday authorized the debt-stricken state utility National Power Corp (Napocor) to raise its basic rates by an average 5.56 centavos per kilowatt-hour, on top of a 98-centavo raise granted in September. The utility said the rate increase of 1.04 pesos (US$0.19), which was still less than the 1.87-pesos adjustment it sought, would reflect on monthly billings from the middle of this year. "We have to bite the bullet to gain a better economic footing through the VAT bill and the Napocor rate hike," Arroyo spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement. "Our worst nightmare would come from failure to act to protect the public interest in the long run. If we lose market confidence, we will lose the strength to [attract] investment which will create the jobs and livelihood opportunities."
■ Internet
Google changes ads
Hoping to boost its already rapidly rising profits, online search engine leader Google Inc is offering to place ads on specific Web sites instead of distributing them throughout its marketing network. The Mountain View, California-based company is hoping the approach, announced yesterday on a test basis, appeals to advertisers who are particular about where their brand appears or are aiming for a certain demographic. Google makes most of its money by placing text-based advertising links on its own home page and thousands of other Web sites in its marketing network. Last year, Google also started distributing banner ads to other sites. Until now, the participating advertisers had no control over where their commercial links or banner ads appeared.
■ Internet
Carrier gives up `WiBro'
South Korea's second-largest Internet broadband carrier, Hanarotelecom, said yesterday it would give up its license for new wireless Internet services. Hanarote-lecom, SK Telecom and KT Corp were allowed to provide services of the new technology, dubbed "WiBro," from next year that would allow broadband Internet access through mobile phones and other portable devices. However, Hanarotelecom, now controlled by US investors, said its board agreed to give up the WiBro service and focus instead on its broadband Internet business.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
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