■ Japan
Jobs needed for growth
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) yesterday urged Japan to help the young, women and older people to find jobs in a bid to support steady economic growth. "If labor productivity increases as slow as it has in the past 10 to 15 years, economic growth [in Japan] will be very small, something like 0.5 percent," OECD economist Raymond Torres said. He said those figures were estimates based on demographics and not official OECD growth forecasts. The jobless rate among the Japanese youth aged 16 to 24 is at 10 percent, much higher than the national rate of 4.4 percent.
■ Auto Industry
Japan mulls factory in EU
Japanese auto giant Toyota is considering building a new European engine factory or a hefty investment to expand existing plants in Poland in an effort to improve its image as a European carmaker, the Financial Times (FT) reported yesterday. According to the FT report, the company is keen to boost its local credentials to preclude any anti-Japanese backlash as its sales grow strongly, passing 5 percent of the market for the first time last year. A new plant would have the annual production capacity of 120,000 motors.
■ China
GDP forecast at 9.2 percent
China's GDP is expected to grow 9.2 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, the central bank said in a research report yesterday. That compared with 9.7 percent year-on-year growth rate recorded in the first half of last year. The central bank said in a research report published in the Financial News, a newspaper that it publishes, that it expects the full-year consumer price index to climb 2.7 percent. Some economists have been voicing concern about deflation as CPI growth eases, prices of capital goods fall and fixed-asset investments expand at a slower pace. They have urged the bank to ease its monetary policy slightly to avert possible deflation.
■ Computers
Adobe says security flawed
A security flaw in the popular document-sharing software, Adobe Reader, could be exploited to seize control of a computer system, according to the software's maker. Adobe Systems Inc issued a warning on its Web site on Tuesday saying that the flaw affects only the Adobe Reader versions 5.0.9 and 5.0.10, which were written for the Unix computer operating system. A hacker could exploit the security breach by e-mailing maliciously written PDF files. Unsuspecting computer users who open the PDF files would expose their hard drives to attack, Adobe said.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
Japan and the Philippines yesterday signed a defense pact that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a survival-threatening situation for Japan, triggering a military response. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East and South China
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