■ MINING
Ecuador axes concessions
Ecuador’s constitutional assembly on Friday approved a decree revoking most of the mining concessions in the country, following up on the leftist government’s pledge to take greater control over natural resources. The decision by the government-controlled assembly, which is writing a new constitution, suspended 3,100 of the 4,112 active concessions in Ecuador and 1,220 concession requests. Affected companies include Canada’s Aurelian Resources Inc, EcuaCorriente and Iamgold Corp. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who is a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said the decree would not “impede future concessions, but rather, the current ones, the majority of which are awful.” “The current dilemma is not whether to say yes to mining, but to seek economically, socially and environmentally responsible mining,” he said in a presidential statement.
■ INVESTMENT
US bank raises US$5.88bn
US investment bank JPMorgan Chase quietly raised US$5.88 billion on Wednesday, the same day it published first-quarter earnings, a filing with the US market regulator showed. The capital infusion was neither mentioned in the bank’s earnings statement nor discussed by executives in its ensuing conference call. The document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed JPMorgan Chase issued preferred stock, which enjoys priority over common stock in the distribution of dividends and other assets. The shares are to pay a fixed dividend of 7.9 percent for 10 years, after which the rate floats.
■ BANKING
RBS expecting fresh losses
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Britain’s second-largest bank, is to announce around £4 billion (US$8 billion) in fresh losses linked to the credit crunch, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The report came after media said on Friday that the bank was set to ask shareholders for a massive cash boost after being hit by subprime-linked losses and surging costs related to its takeover of the ABN Amro bank. It points to the pressures currently facing some of the world’s largest financial institutions.
■ FOOD PRICES
Malaysia to lift production
Malaysia’s government said yesterday it would spend 4 billion ringgit (US$1.3 billion) to increase food production and tackle price hikes as the country faces spiraling global oil and food costs. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he would also set up a high-level anti-inflation committee to tackle these issues, state news agency Bernama reported. However, he did not say how the money would be allocated.
■ FINANCE
Fannie Mae officials to pay
Former Fannie Mae chief Franklin Raines and two top executives have agreed to a US$31.4 million settlement with the government over their roles in a 2004 accounting scandal. Raines, the company’s former chief financial officer Timothy Howard and former controller Leanne Spencer were accused in a civil lawsuit of manipulating earnings over a six-year period at Fannie, the largest US financier and guarantor of home mortgages. None of the three acknowledged wrongdoing in the settlement announced on Friday. The amount agreed to under the settlement is far less than what the government was seeking when it sued the executives in December 2006, and it appeared little of the money would come out of their own pockets.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
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