■ Retail
Wal-Mart China issues card
US retail giant Wal-Mart will issue a co-branded credit card with the US-based multinational company General Electric later this week, a company official said yesterday. "We will launch the GE Wal-Mart card this Friday, which will be offered in southern China," said Huang Jianling, a Shenzhen-based Wal-Mart spokeswoman. "It can be used inside China and abroad." A separate Wal-Mart credit card issued last month is already in service for northern China, she added.
■ Beverages
Coke two plead guilty
Two men on Monday pleaded guilty in a US court to conspiring to steal and sell Coca-Cola Co trade secrets, the state attorney's office in Atlanta, Georgia said in a statement. Ibrahim Dimson, Edmund Duhaney and a former Coca-Cola employee, who has pleaded not guilty, were arrested in July on charges of selling secrets from the Atlanta-based company to soft drink arch-rival PepsiCo. Each could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to US$250,000 if found guilty. Dimson and Duhaney admitted they had conspired with former Coke executive assistant Joya Williams to steal trade secrets and sell them.
■ Food and Drink
PepsiCo boss unveils plans
PepsiCo Inc's new chief executive, Indra Nooyi, said on Monday the snack food and beverage company's diverse portfolio would enable it to extend its growth and that she did not see a need for any drastic shift in strategy. Nooyi spoke to analysts and investors in her first public address about the company's strategy since she took over as CEO on Oct. 1, replacing Steve Reinemund and becoming one of the most prominent female CEOs in corporate America. "I realize when most companies change CEOs, there can be a fair amount of change and direction in strategy. That's not going to be the case today," Nooyi said.
■ Investment
Intel buys into Vietnam
Vietnam's leader in information technology FPT Corp said yesterday it had sold shares worth some US$36.5 million to US chip giant Intel Corp and private equity firm Texas Pacific Group. FPT said the deal with Intel's venture capital arm Intel Capital, and TPG marks "one of the largest cross-border investments in Vietnam by leading global investment firms, underlining the long-term confidence that institutional investors have in the country. Details of the two Intel Capital and TPG's respective investments were not immediately available. Last February, US chip giant Intel said it would build a US$300 million chip assembly and test plant in Vietnam.
■ Patents
IBM accuses Amazon
IBM, the holder of the largest patent storehouse in corporate US, filed two lawsuits against Amazon.com, contending that the company has built its big online retail business on technology developed by IBM. The suits, filed in two federal courts in Texas, seek unspecified damages, but IBM says that Amazon's infringement is broad, suggesting the potential for a sizable judgment or settlement. An IBM spokesman said the figure could run to hundreds of millions of dollars. "These patents are core to modern electronic commerce," said John E. Kelly III, senior vice president for technology and intellectual property at IBM. "Most if not all of Amazon's business is built on top of this technology."
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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