■ ENERGY
Clean energy investment up
Investments in solar power, wind energy, bio-fuels and fuel cells surged 40 percent last year to US$77.3 billion and will more than triple in the next decade, the US industry group Clean Edge said. Investment in alternative energy has jumped as oil topped US$100 a barrel, coal reached records in global markets and governments faced increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Installations of wind turbines, which last year reached a record 20,000 megawatts worth US$30.1 billion, will jump to US$83.4 billion in 2017, Clean Edge said. Solar, with almost 3,000 megawatts installed last year, will more than triple to a US$74 billion market by 2017.
■ CHINA
Beijing mulls equity funds
Beijing is considering a proposal to set up four private equity funds to help finance development of ship building, water treatment and other key industries, a state-run financial magazine reported yesterday. The National Development and Reform Commission has submitted the plan to the State Council for approval, Caijing magazine said without naming sources. The proposed 30 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) Huayu Water Industry Investment Fund would target water services in inland cities such as Xian, the report said. The other three funds named were the Tianjin Ship Industry Investment Fund, the Northeast Equipment Manufacturing Industry Investment Fund and the Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Fund.
■ AUSTRALIA
Consumer confidence down
Consumer confidence has plunged to a near 15-year low this month, figures showed yesterday, which economists said could signal the end of rising interest rates. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell 9.1 percent this month to 88.6 points, its lowest reading since September 1993, after successive rate hikes and stock market turmoil spooked consumers. "The decline over the last three months -- 23.9 points or 21.2 percent -- is the sharpest three-month decline since the index was first measured in January 1975," Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said.
■ JAPAN
Growth rate revised down
Japan's economy grew 3.5 percent at an annual pace in the October-December quarter, the government said yesterday, revising down the previously announced figure of 3.7 percent. The downward revision was due largely to weaker-than-expected business investment. Japan's GDP increased a price-adjusted 0.9 percent on quarter during the October-December period, or 3.5 percent in annualized terms, the Cabinet Office said.
■ FINANCE
GIC to take Sintonia stake
A Singapore sovereign wealth fund will invest about 1 billion euros (US$1.5 billion) into the share capital of Italian holding company Sintonia, the Italian company said. Sintonia SA, one of the Benetton family's two holding companies, said on Tuesday it had signed an agreement with the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, or GIC. GIC's private equity unit will acquire a 3 percent stake in Sintonia SA, based in Luxembourg, Sintonia said. GIC will also subscribe to a capital increase in the company that will raise its stake to about 14.3 percent, the statement said.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
RSS