■CHINA
Zoellick calls for revaluation
World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Monday that it was timely for China to revalue its currency. He said that as export-driven China remakes its society to depend more on consumer spending, it could become an opportunity to revalue the currency. Zoellick told Wall Street Journal Online that aside from increasing the purchasing power of ordinary Chinese people, an appreciating currency would also send a signal to local firms to focus future investment and capacity more toward domestic demand rather than producing for export. “People who focus on structural explanations say a quick change in currency appreciation is not going to lead to automatic shifts in industrial structure,” he said.
■GREECE
Bond issue raises 5bn euros
Greece raised 5 billion euros (US$6.74 billion) on Monday with a seven-year bond issue, in a crucial first borrowing test after the euro zone unveiled a rescue last week to help Athens cope with its acute debt crisis. However, the government’s borrowing costs remain higher than it wants. The bonds were sold at a coupon yield of 5.9 percent, a statement from the Public Debt Management Agency said. State-run media said around 7 billion euros in offers were received. The high yield comes before deadlines in next month and May to refinance about 20 billion euros in debt, with total borrowing needs at 54 billion euros this year.
■ELECTRONICS
Pegatron to make iPhones
A subsidiary of Taiwan netbook PC pioneer Asustek has won orders to manufacture Apple’s iPhone to run on the CDMA standard, a source said yesterday. Apple is said to be developing a CDMA-compatible iPhone that would work on leading US mobile carrier Verizon Communications Inc’s network, the Wall Street Journal had reported earlier, citing people familiar with the matter. The Taiwanese firm, Pegatron (和碩), will begin shipping the phones from next year, a source close to the firm said. The source could not confirm if the products would be for Verizon’s network.
■HONG KONG
Hutchison profit rises 12%
Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa (和記黃埔) said yesterday net profit rose 12 percent last year, as property sale gains more than offset losses at its energy and 3G technology units. The port-to-telecoms conglomerate said in a statement to the region’s stock exchange net profit was HK$14.17 billion (US$1.8 billion) last year, up from HK$12.68 billion in 2008. However, total revenue dropped 14 percent to HK$300.55 billion, mainly due to a business slump at its Canada-listed affiliate Husky Energy due to sharp declines in oil and gas prices last year, it said.
■CHINA
McDonald’s to double
McDonald’s said yesterday it plans to nearly double its number of outlets in China by the end of 2013 as the US fast-food giant seeks to expand its presence in the world’s biggest developing economy. The company aims to boost the number of its outlets in China to 2,000 from around 1,100 in three years, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing Tim Fenton, the company’s president of Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. McDonald’s will open 150 to 175 outlets in the country this year, its China chief executive Kenneth Chan (曾啟山) 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
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
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
South Korea yesterday said that it was removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports to North Korea, as the new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor. The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. It said in June that Pyongyang stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean residents, a day after South Korea’s loudspeakers fell silent. “Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,”
RSS