■ ENERGY
Brazil, Peru sign accords
Brazil and Peru have agreed to work together to boost production of biofuels, hydroelectric power and petrochemicals as two of the region’s biggest countries seek to ensure future energy supply. A statement from Peru’s presidency says the neighbors will support biofuels and hydropower. Brazil is the world’s largest ethanol exporter. Companies including US-owned Maple Energy already plan to produce ethanol from sugarcane grown and distilled on Peru’s Pacific coast.
■ ENERGY
Sharp joins solar deal
Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp has agreed with Enel SpA to jointly set up solar power plants in Italy, a newspaper said yesterday. Sharp, one of the world’s largest makers of solar power panels, and the second largest power company in Europe plan to begin operation by 2011, the Nikkei Shimbun business daily said. The solar power plants will have a combined output capacity of more than 160 megawatts, which will be one of the world’s largest solar power operations, the newspaper said. The two firms are also considering building a plant in Italy to produce thin-film solar cell panels. The tie-up with Enel is Sharp’s first step to a further expansion in its solar power operation overseas. By building overseas plants, Sharp aims to raise its annual production capacity for solar cell panels to 6,000 megawatts from the current 710 megawatts. Sharp is stepping up efforts to boost its clean energy business by gaining a foothold in Europe, where the governments provide subsidies to buy solar power at high prices, Nikkei reported.
■ ENERGY
Ecuador hopes for buy out
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa says Quito wants to buy out private oil companies unwilling to negotiate new deals with his government. Correa has asked companies now suing over an October decree that slashed their share of windfall oil profits to 1 percent to drop their lawsuits. The government on Friday offered to boost those companies’ share of soaring windfall profits to 30 percent. If companies aren’t happy with that offer, Correa says his government will buy their assets at “a fair price.”
■ MALAYSIA
Mahathir warns Johor
Wealthy Singaporean investors may force ethnic Malays from a Malaysian state that is being touted as a key economic zone, former premier Mahathir Mohamad has said. The government launched an ambitious project in 2006 to transform the idyllic southern Johor State into a metropolis to woo foreign investment and compete with Singapore for manufacturing and logistics businesses. Mahathir said the 17.7 billion ringgit (US$4.8 billion) Iskandar Malaysia project was aimed at luring Singaporean investors and could see Malays forced out. “After the land is sold, the Malays will be driven to live at the edge of the forest and even in the forest itself,” Mahathir said in a weekend speech in Johor, the Star newspaper reported.
■ BANKING
Doha Bank receives bids
Doha Bank Ltd, Qatar’s fifth-biggest lender by market value, said it received bids for five times the stock it offered investors in a share sale to raise money for expansion. Shareholders placed bids worth 5.55 billion riyals (US$1.53 billion) for the 22.5 million shares offered to raise 1.12 billion riyals, Doha Bank said in a filing to Qatar’s stock market yesterday.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
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