■ Corporate taxes
Singapore to cut taxes
Singapore will lower its existing corporate tax rate of 20 percent by at at least one percentage point to stay competitive, former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) said in remarks published yesterday. "You know this is a tough and competitive world. People don't come because they like Singapore," Lee, the influential minister mentor in his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's (李顯龍) Cabinet, was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times. "They come because the returns are better," he said. In reference to Hong Kong, where companies are taxed at just 17.5 percent, one of the lowest in the world, Lee said Singapore had to lower its corporate tax rate or lose out to the former British colony in attracting investors. Details will be announced on Feb. 15.
■ Health products
TV show a false advertiser
Japanese newspapers vented their anger yesterday after a popular local television program made false claims about the weight loss benefits of fermented soybean. The program, aired earlier this month, claimed that eight people who ate the substance -- called natto in Japan -- for two weeks at breakfast and dinner lost as much as 3.4kg. The program, Encyclopedic Discovery, triggered a buying frenzy, emptying shelves of the product. But the show's producers reluctantly admitted the weight loss claims were fabrications and apologized on Saturday.
■ Fishing
Tuna tracking in the works
International fisheries officials are expected to push for a global tracking system that would certify the origin of every tuna headed to market at an unprecedented conference that convenes today to reverse a sharp decline in tuna catches. The conference brings together the world's regional tuna management groups and runs through Friday in Kobe, Japan. Attendees, representing commercial fishing and government regulators, will seek the creation of a framework to produce certificates of origin for all species of tuna they catch, Kyodo News reported yesterday.
■ Toys
Crocodile Hunter doll
A talking "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin action figure with his recorded voice will go on sale across the US next month. The toys will also be sold in Canada, the UK, France and Germany. The 39-piece Steve Irwin Wildlife Adventure Series will launch next month at the 2007 International Toy Fair in New York, toy maker K&M International said. Irwin recorded the voice for the toy before his death last year. The doll says phrases like "Do you see that? It's a giant golden orb spider and she's built her web right across our path! It's super sticky for catching small birds and bats. Let's not disturb it."
■ Insurance
Chinese market booms
China's insurance market expanded 14.4 percent to US$73 billion last year as demand for insurance coverage rises. Insurance companies' total assets rose by 29 percent, according to documents issued at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission's annual conference yesterday in Beijing. The premiums on property and casualty cases jumped 22.6 percent to 150.9 billion yuan, while life premiums rose 10.7 percent to 359.3 billion yuan, the regulator's Chairman Wu Dingfu (吳定富) said. Efforts to dismantle the welfare system are spurring sales.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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