■ Technology
EBay's results disappoint
Online auctioneer eBay Inc said on Wednesday its quarterly profit increased by 36 percent, disappointing investors. In a statement, the San Jose, California-based company said its fourth quarter consolidated net income increased 36 percent to US$279.2 million, or US$0.20 a share, from US$205.4 million, or US$0.15 a share, a year ago. Revenue grew by 42 per cent to US$1.3 billion, the company added. "Q4 capped off a remarkable year for eBay," said eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman in a statement. The company said it had 180.6 million confirmed registered users at the end of the fourth quarter, a 33 percent increase over the 135.5 million users reported a year earlier.
■ Auto industry
Mercedes' China sales jump
DaimlerChrysler AG, the world's fifth-largest carmaker, said sales of its Mercedes-Benz brand rose 39 percent in China last year, as increasing affluence spurred more people to buy S-Class luxury cars. The company sold 16,128 Mercedes cars to consumers in China last year, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Sales by the Chrysler Group rose 5 percent to 30,394 units last year. "This year DaimlerChrysler will launch several new models from Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Jeep in the region, where we continue to see tremendous growth potential," said Till Becker, chairman and chief executive officer of DaimlerChrysler in northeast Asia. DaimlerChrysler's sales in the northeast Asia region including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and South Korea increased 15 percent last year to 58,245 units.
■ Logistics
New port opens in Busan
South Korea yesterday opened a new cargo port in the city of Busan, stepping up a regional race to become the leading shipping hub in Asia. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun attended the opening and vowed to turn the new port into "a logistics hub for Northeast Asia" in a televised speech at the opening ceremony near Busan, 450km southeast of Seoul. The new port has three container berths initially, growing to 30 berths capable of handling 8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year by 2011. The new port sits between Busan, the world's fifth-largest container port with 21 berths, and the neighboring port of Jinhae on the southern coast. "Let's work together to make it successful. Let's realize our dream of creating a logistics hub in Northeast Asia," Roh said.
■ Corruption
D'Long founder's trial starts
Tang Wanxin (唐萬新), a businessman whose conglomerate once was China's biggest stockholder went on trial yesterday in central China on charges of alleged illegal banking and share price manipulation, state media reported. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, D'Long (德隆), founded by Tang, allegedly amassed more than 45 billion yuan (US$5.5 billion) in deposits by illegally offering guarantees to its clients. The China Business News said Tang had pleaded innocent to the charge he illegally took public deposits, or engaged in illegal banking, an offense with a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment. However, he did not contest the lesser charge of stock price manipulation, which carries a maximum sentence of five years, it said.
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
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
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
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