■FINANCE
US Fed states concerns
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke underlined on Tuesday the extent of his concerns about the credit crunch when he suggested that struggling Wall Street banks may be able to continue borrowing emergency cash into next year. Bernanke is considering whether to extend the primary dealer credit facility, which was set up in March and comes to an end in September. The facility offers all the large US investment banks access to funding at a discounted interest rate of 2.5 percent. He also said the US Congress may wish to consider whether new tools are needed to liquidate any “systemically important” investment bank on the verge of bankruptcy, such as in the case of Bear Stearns, which the Fed helped bail out with US$29 billion.
■ECONOMY
Inflation ‘out of control’: IMF
Inflation in some emerging countries “is getting out of control” and higher interest rates may be required to rein in prices, IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said yesterday. Inflation is now the biggest threat to the global economy, he told reporters on the sidelines of a G8 summit in northern Japan. “In some emerging countries and in some low income countries inflation is getting out of control. That means that monetary policy has probably to be tightened,” he said. He did not say which countries he was referring to, but indicated that it included some countries in Latin America and Africa.
■AUTOMOBILES
Denso turns to algae
Major Japanese auto parts maker Denso Corp has begun investigating if it can use algae to absorb carbon dioxide emissions from its factories, a company spokesman said yesterday. Denso, part of auto giant Toyota, is looking at minute green algae called pseudochoricystis, which can be found in hot springs, among other places. “The main purpose of the study is to make the algae absorb CO2 emissions from our factories and facilities,” the spokesman said. He said the algae also produced “light oil or biodiesel” but that Denso had no firm plan to mass-produce light oil at the moment.
■SHIPBUILDING
Chinese ‘spy’ arrested
A Chinese inspector sent by a US ship classification society to a South Korean shipyard has been arrested for allegedly stealing key technology, prosecutors said yesterday. The 35-year-old unidentified man was arrested on June 27 and indicted for stealing technology to manufacture oil drilling ships and platforms, said the prosecutors’ office in the southern port city of Busan. “This case shows that China is using all means available to steal advanced technology from our shipbuilding industry,” the office said in a statement. The Chinese inspector was the first foreigner to be charged in South Korea with technology theft.
■OIL
Firms mull India refinery
Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, Total SA, India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp and GAIL India Ltd will decide by the end of this year whether to set up a refinery in southern India, an official with the French oil producer said. Discussions are under way on the 14 million-tonne-a-year refinery project at Visakhapatnam City in Andhra Pradesh State, Thierry Pflimlin, Total’s senior vice president for Asia Pacific, told reporters in New Delhi yesterday. Investment may total 300 billion rupees (US$7 billion), the Financial Express reported. State-run explorer Oil India Ltd may also invest in the project, Pflimlin said.
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
The zero emissions ship Porrima P111 was launched yesterday in Kaohsiung, showcasing the nation’s advancement in green technology, city Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said. The nation last year acquired the Swiss-owned vessel, formerly known as Turanor PlanetSolar, in a bid to boost Taiwan’s technology sector, as well as ecotourism in Palau, Chen said at the ship’s launch ceremony at Singda Harbor. Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) also attended the event. The original vessel was the first solar-powered ship to circumnavigate the globe in a voyage from 2010 to 2012. Taiwan-based Porrima Inc (保利馬) installed upgrades with
ENHANCE DETERRENCE: Taiwan has to display ‘fierce resolve’ to defend itself for China to understand that the costs of war outweigh potential gains, Koo said Taiwan’s armed forces must reach a high level of combat readiness by 2027 to effectively deter a potential Chinese invasion, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) published yesterday. His comments came three days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the US Senate that deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan requires making a conflict “cost more than what it’s worth.” Rubio made the remarks in response to a question about US policy on Taiwan’s defense from Republican Senator John Cornyn, who said that Chinese
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