■ TRADEMARKS
Record applications in PRC
China’s trademark office was the world’s busiest for the sixth consecutive year last year, receiving 708,000 trademark registration applications, the China News reported yesterday. The number of trademark registration applications filed by foreigners totaled 103,000 last year, making up 14.5 percent of the total, the paper said on its Web site, citing figures from an industry forum. Intellectual property is gradually emerging as a more important concept in China, although foreign companies frequently complain about continuing abuses.
■ TRADE
NZ official opposes FTA
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said yesterday he and his political party would vote against the free-trade agreement (FTA) with China signed a day earlier. There was not enough in the deal to erase a US$3.6 billion annual trade deficit with China, Peters told reporters. Prime Minister Helen Clark oversaw the signing of the agreement in China on Monday, which made her country the first developed economy to enter such a pact with the Asian giant. Peters leads the nationalist New Zealand First party, which joined Clark’s Labour Party-led government after 2005 polls.
■MACHINERY
Japan firms discuss merger
Japanese heavy machinery makers IHI Corp and JFE Holdings Inc said yesterday they had agreed to begin concrete talks on merging their shipbuilding subsidiaries, a move that would create the country’s biggest shipbuilder. The move comes as Japanese shipbuilders face intensifying competition from regional rivals South Korea and China. IHI and JFE will establish a committee to discuss the details of how operations of IHI subsidiary, IHI Marine United Inc, and its JFE counterpart, Universal Shipbuilding Corp, can be integrated, the firms said in a joint statement. They will also discuss production details, merger ratios and ways to stay competitive in shipbuilding operations, they said.
■SECURITY
Firms plan ratings agency
Eighteen Japanese firms said yesterday they were creating the world’s first ratings agency looking at data security, which they said was a rising concern for companies. The new firm, called IS Rating, will be launched on May 1 and start issuing ratings in July, both to Japanese and foreign companies and organizations. It will give out ratings based on how they manage data, including files containing personal information, which circulates within the firm or is shared with third parties. IS Rating will also offer training and edit documents to encourage security. Companies which are shareholders in the new agency include Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Fujitsu Ltd, Fuji Xerox Co Ltd, Canon Inc and the Nikkei business media group.
■INVESTMENT
Intel sets up China fund
The global investment arm of US chipmaker Intel Corp said yesterday it had established a new China fund aiming to inject US$500 million into ventures in the booming Asian market. Intel Capital told a briefing in Beijing its Capital China Technology Fund II will be focusing on investments in wireless broadband, technology, media, telecommunications and “clean tech.” Intel Capital’s first US$200 million China fund has been fully invested in local Chinese companies, the company said. “Since 1998 Intel Capital has invested in more than 70 companies across China and Hong Kong,” Intel Capital president Arvind Sodhani said in a statement.
Agencies
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm named Trami at 2am yesterday, and is projected to move west-northwest toward waters east of Luzon Island, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Trami’s center was 700km east of Manila, or 1,180km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving in a northwesterly direction. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 65kph, with gusts of up to 90kph, CWA data showed. The weather agency forecast the center of the storm would be over waters 470km east-northeast of Manila or 820km southeast of Oluanpi at 8am today, and urged ships
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday temporarily shut down the nation’s nuclear energy generation as the state-run utility started regular maintenance on the remaining reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant for 41 days. The No. 2 reactor of the nation’s only active nuclear plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) is set to be decommissioned next year. The No. 1 reactor has been offline since July. The shutdown is to perform equipment maintenance and fuel replacement in preparation for the power plant’s next operating cycle, Taipower said in a statement. With support from other energy sources, Taipower would ensure sufficient power supply
BIGGEST TROUBLEMAKER: China should not be carrying out any such exercises given the threat to regional peace and stability, Premier Cho Jung-tai said yesterday The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that live-fire Chinese drills in a province facing Taiwan are part of routine annual drills, but also possibly part of China’s “deterrence effect” in the waters of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration, in a notice late on Monday, said an area around Niushan Island in China’s Fujian Province would be closed off for four hours from 9am yesterday for live-fire drills. Niushan sits just south of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands. The ministry in a statement said that the exercises are part of routine Chinese training and it was keeping a close watch, but
‘NO POSITION ON TAIWAN’: ‘I welcome the European Parliament’s focus on this issue and this important debate,’ European Commissioner Nicolas Schmit said on Tuesday The European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not have any bearing on Taiwan’s participation in the UN or other international organizations, and rejected as unacceptable any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait. The motion passed by 432 votes in favor and 60 against with 71 abstentions during a plenary vote. The resolution condemned China’s continued military provocations against Taiwan, including drills around the nation on Monday last week. “Any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, particularly by means of force or coercion, will not be accepted and will