■ BANKING
DPJ eyes BoJ candidates
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Secretary-General Yukio Hatoyama said his party could consider Haruhiko Kuroda and Hirofumi Watanabe as candidates for the next head of the Bank of Japan (BoJ). On March 12, the upper house of Japan's parliament controlled by the opposition rejected the government's nomination of BoJ Deputy Governor Toshiro Muto to succeed Toshihiko Fukui as head of the bank. DPJ leaders have asked Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to propose a candidate other than Muto, arguing that his previous career at the Ministry of Finance threatens the bank's independence.
■ AVIATION
HK airport gets busier
Hong Kong International Airport, Asia's third-busiest airfield by passenger numbers, handled 7.3 percent more people last month than the same month last year because of increased Lunar New Year travel. The airport handled 3.9 million people last month, Airport Authority Hong Kong said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Cargo volume increased 5.1 percent 247,000 tonnes, it said. "It was a good start to the year," chief executive officer Stanley Hui (許漢忠) said in the statement. "Hong Kong people took advantage of the buoyant local economy and treated themselves to a Lunar New Year holiday."
■ OIL
PDVSA turns to euro
Venezuelan state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) will sign some oil contracts in euros in the face of a plummeting dollar, local media reported, citing officials. "There are some contracts in euros, contracts for crude, products and spot markets in euros. This is a subject which we are working on," Energy Minister and PDVSA chief Rafael Ramirez said in an interview with the journal El Universal published on Friday. It remained unclear which oil sales would require payment in euros. Venezuela, Latin America's leading petroleum producer, has previously backed Iran's proposals for OPEC to abandon the dollar and use the euro for oil pricing.
■ MALAYSIA
Projects on, Abdullah says
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pledged to push ahead with big-spending development projects amid concerns of possible economic fallout after his ruling coalition's election losses. The stock market fell 7.8 percent last week after the opposition won control of five states and a third of parliament. Abdullah's government remained in power, but with its lowest parliamentary majority in 51 years of rule. Abdullah insisted the economy remained "fundamentally strong" and said plans for US$325 billion in public and private investment to create five economic zones in rural areas would go ahead even though some of the states were in opposition hands.
■ BANKING
China loan growth healthy
Chinese banks' loan growth may top a government target for the first quarter, Wu Xiaoling (吳曉靈), a former vice governor of the People's Bank of China, said yesterday. "We still have one month to watch lending growth for the first quarter and it may still exceed our target," Wu, a deputy head of the Fiscal and Economic Committee, said in an interview in Beijing. She didn't specify the target. The government is trying to prevent excess liquidity from fueling 11-year high inflation and investment leading to industrial overcapacity.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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