■ Shipping
Beijing unveils ports plan
China plans a major new port project on its southeastern coast near Taiwan, a step toward what it hopes will be "free trade" with Taiwan, state media reported yesterday. The port complex near the city of Xiamen will be one of two new ocean shipping centers, with another planned for the southern coast of Guangdong Province, west of Hong Kong, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported, citing the Ministry of Communications. The plan to build up ports in and near Xiamen is part of a "Western Shore Economic Zone" planned for the Taiwan Strait, the report said. China needs to upgrade its transport networks to match its economic growth, it cited Communications Minister Li Shenglin (李盛霖) as saying. Li said the Xiamen port was in preparation for "mainland-Taiwan free trade relations," the newspaper reported.
■ Aerospace
Japan eyes jet project
Stung by repeated setbacks, Japan's space agency plans to start talks next month with NASA about jointly developing a supersonic successor to the retired Concorde, an official said yesterday. Japan is trying to leapfrog ahead in the aerospace field with a plan to build a next-generation airliner that can fly between Tokyo and Los Angeles in about three hours. But a string of glitches, including a nose cone problem during the latest test flight in March, has led the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to look for an international partner. "In the future, we think we need some kind of cooperation with NASA," JAXA spokesman Kiyotaka Yashiro said. Japanese researchers and engineers plan to meet counterparts from the US space agency next month to discuss possible cooperation, Yashiro said, calling next month's meeting a "first step."
■ Telecoms
Vodafone to slash tariffs
Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phone company, announced plans yesterday to slash the amount it charges EU customers for making and receiving calls when abroad. The move followed the European Commission's recent publication of proposals aimed at forcing telecommunications companies to reduce so-called "roaming" tariffs within the EU. "Vodafone announces today that average European roaming costs for Vodafone customers will be cut by at least 40 percent by April next year, when compared to last summer," the telecoms giant said. The group added that the average call charge for a European customer when travelling within the EU should fall to below .0.0055 euros (US$0.007) per minute.
■ Automotive
Kia finishes European plant
South Korea's Kia Motors said yesterday it had completed its first European car plant in Slovakia and expects mass production to be underway by year-end. Kia Motors, an affiliate of South Korea's largest auto manufacturer Hyundai Motor, began constructing the 1 billion euro (US$1.2 billion) factory in Zilina, Slovakia, in October 2004. The Kia Motors Slovakia (KMS) plant already employs 1,200 locals and plans to hire up to 3,000 by 2009 to build around 300,000 cars a year, the company said. "We are now in a position to deliver high quality cars to the European market and achieve the highest satisfaction for our customers," KMS president Bae In-kyu said in a statement issued here.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
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