■ FINANCE
Standard opens in Jiangxi
Standard Chartered Plc, which runs 13 branches in China, will be the first foreign lender to open an outlet in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The branch was approved by the nation's banking regulator this month and will be the London-based bank's first in the central part of the country, Xinhua said. Standard Charted incorporated operations in China last March before receiving a license for local-currency business.
■ JAPAN
Former minister speaks out
Former economy minister Heizo Takenaka said the country needs "strong" measures to revitalize its economy. Possible steps may include reducing corporate taxes and extending operations around the clock at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, Takenaka said on a news program broadcast by TV Asahi. He did not elaborate. The former minister also said he expected the US to inject public funds to ease the impact of the subprime crisis. "Sooner or later, the US will take this measure," Takenaka said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai wins Qatar project
Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co, South Korea's largest builder by market value, received US$301 million of orders from Qatar to build power-generation facilities. Qatar General Electricity & Water Corp placed a US$201 million order for a transformer substation, Hyundai Engineering said in a statement yesterday. Hyundai Engineering also won a US$100 million power cabling contract from the company, also known as Kahramaa. The substation will take 30 months, while the cabling contract will be completed in 23 months, it said.
■ TRADE
Peru, China reach deal
Peru and China have agreed to boost trade and investment between their countries ahead of a free trade deal planned for November, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said. The countries, whose trade balance reached US$5.3 billion last year, will in coming months sign a preliminary partnership to increase commerce more than fourfold by 2015, Garcia told local media on Friday night, after a six-day visit to China and Japan. They plan to ink a formal trade deal during the annual APEC forum, to be held in Peru in November, Garcia said, giving no details on tariff reductions or other preferential terms of trade. China is Peru's second-largest commercial partner after the US.
■ TELECOMS
DoCoMo eyeing Android
NTT DoCoMo Inc may start employing a mobile phone-operating system developed by Google Inc by 2010, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The move would allow DoCoMo to simplify the platform software for mobile phones and gain better access to growing markets in other Asian countries, the report said, without saying where it obtained the information. The operating system, known as Android, was developed by Google and a group known as the Open Handset Alliance. DoCoMo previously developed a mobile phone operating system for domestic customers in Japan, the report said. Some Japanese mobile-phone handset makers have withdrawn their businesses because of shrinking demand at home, it said.
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
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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