■ STEEL
China may block merger
China has sanctioned state-owned companies to examine three possible strategies to block BHP Billiton's proposed takeover of mining giant Rio Tinto, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Citing unnamed sources, the daily said that strategies include forming a local consortium to bid for Rio Tinto, a joint bid by domestic and foreign firms, or purchasing Rio shares on the open market. "[Companies] have approval from the State Council to go ahead and get actively involved," one source was quoted as saying. China International Capital Corp and Bank of China International have been retained by the government in an overall advisory role, the report said.
■ BANKING
ECB to tackle inflation
European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet pledged, in an interview published yesterday, to focus on eurozone inflation and not let interest-rate cuts in the US and the UK distract the bank from tightening monetary policy. Speaking to the Financial Times in Frankfurt in an interview conducted on Dec. 13, Trichet said any evidence of "second-round effects" leading to an acceleration in inflation would be "decisive." The ECB's main interest rate currently stands at 4 percent. Eurozone inflation hit 3.1 percent last year, the highest level in six-and-a-half years owing to rising costs of energy and food products. ECB directors have a mandate to keep inflation slightly below 2 percent.
■ PHILIPPINES
Record remittances
More than 1 million Filipinos left for short-term work abroad this year, the Philippine labor department said yesterday. At this rate of deployment, the labor migrants would most likely send home a record US$14 billion to their families this year, Philippine Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said in a statement. A total of 1,012,954 Filipinos left for more than 190 countries between Jan. 1 and Dec. 9, representing a 1.1 percent rise from the figure a year ago, he said. Brion said annual remittances should "continue to approach, if not reach, US$14 billion for the first time in history by year-end 2007."
■ FINANCE
Japan mulling reforms
Japanese regulators have announced the largest financial market reforms in a decade in the face of hot competition to be Asia's financial hub. On Friday the Financial Services Agency unveiled a plan to enhance "the competitiveness of financial and capital markets" with deregulation and liberalization. The agency plans to submit the bills to parliament early next year to revise existing regulations, agency officials said. Under the latest package, Tokyo will remove ban on creating a comprehensive financial market to handle the trading of stocks, bonds and financial and commodity derivatives in two years.
■ SHIPBUILDING
Samsung wins huge orders
South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's second-largest shipbuilder, said yesterday it had secured US$2.41 billion in new orders. The company said it won a US$1.15 billion contract to build two semi-submersible floating drilling rigs by September 2010 for an unidentified Russian client. Separately, clients in Africa and in the Americas ordered two oil drilling ships worth US$1.26 billion, which will be delivered by May 2011, it said.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
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