■ Germany
August trade surplus down
The German trade balance showed a surplus of 11.2 billion euros (US$14.1 billion) in August, down from 13.2 billion euros in July, official data showed yesterday. On a 12-month basis, the German trade surplus was lower than the 11.6 billion euros recorded in August last year, the federal statistics office, Destatis, calculated in preliminary figures. The statisticians calculated that Germany, the biggest eurozone economy, exported 69.4 billion euros worth of goods in August, up 9.6 percent on the year, while imports rose even more strongly, expanding 12.5 percent to 58.2 billion euros. Taking into account trade in services and income, Germany's current account showed a surplus of 2.4 billion euros in August, down from 7.2 billion euros in July and 3.0 billion euros in August last year.
■ Airlines
BA executive resigns
British Airways' commercial director Martin George resigned yesterday, admitting that some staff in his department may have been involved in inappropriate discussions with competitors about fuel surcharges. George, had been on leave of absence since June when the Office of Fair Trading and the US Justice Department began an investigation into alleged price-fixing agreements on fuel surcharges. Iain Burns, British Airways' head of communications, also resigned. He also had been on a leave of absence. Robert Boyle, British Airways' director of planning, was appointed to replace George as commercial director. Thomas Coops, former communications director at Abbey National, was appointed to Burns' post on an interim basis, the company said.
■ Aviation
Emirates orders 10 jets
Dubai's government-owned carrier Emirates Airline said on Sunday it has finalized an order for 10 freighter versions of Boeing Co's 747 jumbo jet. The deal is worth US$2.8 billion at list prices, though airlines typically negotiate discounts on bulk orders. Emirates SkyCargo, the company's air freight division, will receive its first delivery of the planes in 2010, said Sheik Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai-based Emirates. "Dubai has seen tremendous growth in the opportunities to provide our customers across the globe custom-tailored freight solutions," Sheik Ahmed said. "Moreover, developing this side of our business is elemental to Emirates maintaining a leading position amongst the world's airlines and we will take full advantage of the extended capacity these new Boeing freighters offer."
■ Oil
Firm investing in Riau
ChevronTexaco's Indonesian unit is to spend US$1 billion to help boost output at its declining oil fields in Riau Province, company president Suwito Anggoro said. Enhanced oil recovery technology would be used to limit the decline in output there to 8 percent to 9 percent per year, he told reporters late on Sunday. Chevron Pacific Indonesia's output is 500,000 barrels of oil per day, nearly half of the country's entire output. Its Riau operations account for about 430,000 barrels per day. Anggoro said the company was also planning to invest US$6 billion in developing a gas field off the province of East Kalimantan. He gave no further details. The gas field is expected to start production in 2012, although Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla has asked the company to make it sooner.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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