■AUTOMOBILES
GM to dissolve Europe HQ
General Motors Co will not move its European headquarters to Germany as previously announced, an Opel spokesman said on Saturday. Last month, GM had said it was planning to move its headquarters from Zurich to Adam Opel GmbH’s Ruesselsheim headquarters in Germany. “The old headquarters will simply cease to exist in its current ways,” Opel spokesman Andreas Kroemer said. “All relevant operations of Opel and Vauxhall will be bundled in Ruesselsheim.” A report by Automobilwoche weekly said that most of the 150 employees who worked at GM headquarters in Zurich have already returned to their home countries where they have found new jobs with the company’s national branches.
■MARKETS
S&P 500 to add companies
Standard & Poor’s will add Mead Johnson Nutrition Co, Visa Inc, Ross Stores Inc, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc and SAIC Inc, to the S&P 500 index. S&P said on Friday it was making the changes effective after the close of trading on Friday because several companies currently in the index are no longer representative of the market indicator. Infant formula maker Mead Johnson, which is splitting from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, will replace insurer and investment management company MBIA Corp. It said MBIA is ranked last in the S&P 500 and is no longer representative of the indicator’s market capitalization range. Payments processor Visa will replace telecommunications and network equipment company Ciena Corp.
■TELECOMS
Orascom may grow
Orascom Telecom Holding SAE is considering a plan to increase capital by 5 billion Egyptian pounds (US$914 million). The Cairo-based company, which made the announcement in a newspaper advertisement yesterday, has called for an extraordinary general assembly to consider the plan.
■BANGLADESH
Foreign investment needed
Dhaka said yesterday it was seeking US$5 billion of foreign investment for power and gas projects to end a chronic energy crisis in the fast-growing country. Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, energy advisor to the prime minister, said officials would meet foreign companies in London this week for talks on investing in nine power plants and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. “At least 50 companies have registered to attend,” Chowdhury told reporters. “We need foreign investment to produce more than 3,200 megawatts of electricity and to build an LNG terminal in the Bay of Bengal. “Together, the nine projects would require around five billion dollars’ investment,” he said, adding that the government would sign contracts for the projects next year.
■TRADE
Chavez, Castro sign deals
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed US$3.2 billion in cooperation agreements with Cuba on Saturday. Chavez arrived in Havana on Friday for a meeting yesterday of the regional ALBA group, and met shortly after landing with Cuban President Raul Castro, who took over from his now 83-year-old brother Fidel after the longtime Cuban leader underwent surgery in 2006. Chavez and Raul Castro on Saturday signed some 285 cooperation agreements, which will go into effect next year. Close political partners Cuba and Venezuela have expanded their economic ties since 2000, reaching a cumulative exchange of US$8.7 billion, said Chavez’s Oil and Energy Minister Rafael Rodriguez, who is also visiting.
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
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