■ SINGAPORE
GIC buys ProLogis property
The government said it has acquired the property interests of a US-based firm in China and Japan for US$1.3 billion. Government investment firm GIC said in a statement late on Tuesday that it would pay cash to acquire the property operations of US-based ProLogis in the two Asian countries. The transaction was due to be completed next month, it said. GIC is one of two investment vehicles of the Singapore government and manages the country’s foreign reserves of more than US$100 billion through various investments.
■ELECTRONICS
RIM sues Motorola
Motorola Inc was sued by BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) over claims the mobile-phone maker is improperly blocking it from offering jobs to laid-off Motorola workers. RIM, in a complaint filed yesterday in state court in Chicago, asked for an order invalidating an agreement the companies reached this year not to solicit each other’s employees. The agreement expired in August and is no longer enforceable, the complaint said. Motorola, the world’s third-largest mobile-phone maker, is improperly trying to expand the agreement “to prevent the RIM entities from hiring any Motorola employees, including the thousands of employees Motorola has already fired or will fire,” RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, said in the complaint.
■AUTOMOBILES
Parts maker’s profits drop
Japan’s leading car parts maker Denso Corp said yesterday its full-year net profit would be one-tenth of an earlier forecast because of the poor performance of the auto industry and a strong yen. Denso, a major supplier to Toyota Motor Corp, now estimates its group net profit at ¥10 billion (US$110 million) for the year to March, down from ¥101 billion it projected less than two months ago. The financial crisis triggered in the US had affected the whole world, said Sadahiro Usui, managing officer of Denso. Denso also downgraded its sales projection to ¥3.3 trillion from ¥3.65 trillion estimated on Oct. 30. Its operating-profit forecast was lowered to ¥38 billion from ¥178 billion.
■FINANCE
Chinese bank to relaunch
Agricultural Bank of China will relaunch as a stock-holding company before the Lunar New Year on Jan. 26, bringing it a step closer to an eventual stock market listing, state media said yesterday. The lender has finished hiving off its bad loans, the China Business News reported, citing an unnamed source. The bank reported 818 billion yuan (US$119 billion) in non-performing loans at the end of last year. The bank, the weakest of China’s four major state-owned commercial banks, received a US$19 billion government cash injection last month as part of its preparations for an eventual stock listing.
■TRADE
China protests duties
China has protested at the WTO over US anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed on some Chinese-made products, state media reported yesterday. The China Daily newspaper said the protest was the second by China since its 2001 entry into the WTO and was aimed at thwarting trade protectionism amid the global downturn. Import duties on four product categories including steel pipes and off-road tires were first levied by the US in September. Despite China’s protests, the US International Trade Commission claimed the duties were necessary to offset subsidies by the Chinese government to those exports, the report said.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an
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