■ SECURITIES
China to encourage bonds
China will encourage publicly traded companies to issue bonds as a way of diversifying their corporate borrowings, the central bank said yesterday. "Our financial system is immature and one of the main reasons is our corporate bond markets are so small," the People's Bank of China said in a statement posted on its Web site. "We need more forms of corporate financing in order to create a healthy market." Most companies in China rely on bank financing, totaling 2.3 trillion yuan (US$310 billion), while listed companies have raised 1 trillion yuan from the stock markets and only 880 billion yuan from corporate bonds, the central bank said.
■ TRADE TALKS
S Korea, EU work for pact
South Korea's trade minister forecast yesterday that Seoul could agree on a free trade pact with the EU by the end of this year despite a dispute over automotive tariff concessions. Speaking ahead of a fourth round of talks scheduled in Seoul on Oct. 15, South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon said both sides had to compromise. A deal with the EU would be the biggest ever for South Korea, surpassing an agreement signed in June with the US, which awaits ratification by the legislatures of both countries.
■ THEME PARKS
Disney in Malaysian talks
Walt Disney Co is holding talks with Malyasian investment company Khazanah Nasional about building a theme park in Johor State that would face Singapore, a business paper reported yesterday. The Edge business weekly said Walt Disney officials met officials from Khazanah last week to discuss developing a park in the Iskandar Development Region. "They [Walt Disney] met Khazanah managing director Azman Mokhtar and had discussions with other top Khazanah executives," it said. But it said Khazanah was also in negotiations with other theme park players including Warner Brothers.
■ COMMUNICATIONS
Japan seeks new standard
A research group will be established in Japan to develop optical technology that could replace the Internet Protocol as the new international standard in communications, a report said yesterday. The group will be established next month by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, which is backed by the government, and private companies such as NTT Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, KDDI Corp, Hitachi Ltd, Toshiba Corp and NEC Corp, the Nikkei Shimbun said. By 2015, it will aim to develop and commercialize a network that can transfer data at 10 gigabits per second.
■ IPR
French company fined
An court in eastern China has ordered a French electrical company to pay 330 million yuan (US$44 million) for infringing on the copyright of a Chinese firm, the Beijing News reported yesterday. In a ruling issued on Saturday, the Wenzhou intermediate court in Zhejiang Province ordered Schneider Electric to pay 330 million yuan in compensation to the Chint Group for infringing on the patent for its low-voltage electrical equipment, the newspaper reported. The amount of compensation is believed to be the highest in China in an intellectual property rights case, the paper said. "We absolutely disagree with this decision; it is absolutely unreasonable," said Guy Dufraisse, director of China operations for Schneider Electric.
THREATS: Naval facilities have been built in Shanghai and Zhejiang, while airbases have been expanded in Xiamen, Fuzhou and Zhangpu, across the Strait from Taiwan The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building large-scale military infrastructure at five sites along the eastern coast of China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a recent report. The latest issue of the council’s Mainland China Situation Quarterly said satellite photos showed military infrastructure such as air force and naval bases being constructed along the eastern coast of China. That means the CCP might be preparing for potential conflict in Taiwan, it said, adding that there are five such construction sites from north to south. A naval base has been built in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, with underground oil storage tanks, railway
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
GIVE BACK: The president thanked immigrants, recounting heartwarming stories, from a gymnast helping athletes shine internationally to a spouse helping the disadvantaged There is no need to amend the law to exempt Chinese spouses from single allegiance to the Republic of China (ROC), President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that such changes would only increase the public’s doubts toward new residents from China and would not improve social harmony. Taiwan is a democratic, diverse and free country, he said. “No matter which ethnic group you belong to, where you come from or when you arrive, as long as you identify with Taiwan, you are masters of this country,” he said. Taiwan is a democratic nation that follows the rule of law, where immigrants are
A trial run of the north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s new Terminal 3 is to commence today, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The eight additional boarding gates would allow for more aircraft parking spaces that are expected to boost the airport’s capacity by 5.8 million passengers annually, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Kuo-shian (林國顯) said. The concourse, designed by a team led by British architect Richard Rogers, provides a refreshing space, Lin said, adding that travelers would enjoy the tall and transparent design that allows sunshine to stream into the concourse through glass curtain walls. The
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