■ LOGISTICS
UPS urged to retain jobs
The Philippine government will ask United Parcel Service (UPS) to retain some operations in the country after the US logistics giant announced it was relocating to southern China, President Gloria Arroyo’s spokeswoman said yesterday. UPS on Wednesday announced the planned transfer of its hub to a more centrally located US$180 million facility to be built at Shenzhen airport. The announcement represents an investment blow to the Philippines, which also faces a possible exit by Intel Corp from its second offshore assembly operations center in Asia. Arroyo spokesman Lorelei Fajardo told reporters the airport authorities at Clark airport north of Manila, where UPS had built its US$300 million intra-Asia hub in 2002, were in talks with the US firm’s representatives to explore alternatives to its planned downsizing.
■INVESTOR SERVICES
Agency to review ratings
Moody’s Investors Service shares fell sharply on Wednesday as the credit ratings agency said it was reviewing whether computer errors wrongly assigned top-quality ratings to debt in Europe that did not warrant high marks. Moody’s said in a statement after the market closed on Wednesday that it had hired a law firm to conduct an outside review of how it rates the debt in question, which was aimed at institutional investors. Moody’s said it rated about US$4 billion of the debt in Europe known as constant-proportion debt obligations, or CPDOs. The disclosure follows a Financial Times report that Moody’s incorrectly gave triple-A ratings to the CPDOs. The report also cited internal documents that it said indicated some senior officials at Moody’s were aware early last year of the error.
■JAPAN
Economy holding up: IMF
The Japanese economy is holding up well in the face of the US economic slowdown, but interest rates still need to be kept low until uncertainty over the outlook clears, the IMF said yesterday. The IMF urged Asia’s largest economy to make efforts to reduce its huge public debts and take measures to address the demands from its aging population. “We see the economy as showing a welcome resilience to the slowdown in the US and global markets so far,” said Daniel Citrin, deputy director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department.
■TRADE
Chinese toy exports slowing
The rapid growth in China’s toy exports slowed dramatically in the first quarter of this year, hurt by higher production costs, a stronger currency and safety concerns, a state news agency said yesterday. Toy exports from January through March grew by 3 percent, down from a 23.6 percent growth rate in the same period last year, Xinhua news agency said. Toy exports for the quarter totaled US$1.5 billion, the agency said, citing China’s customs agency.
■BANKING
UBS sells subprime assets
Swiss bank UBS AG said on Wednesday it sold subprime and other mortgage-based securities with a nominal value of US$22 billion for US$15 billion to a newly created investment fund run by US asset manager BlackRock Inc. The sale is part of an attempt by Switzerland’s largest bank to offload risky positions that contributed to its massive writedown of US$37.4 billion over the past nine months. The securities had a nominal value of about US$22 billion, but have been listed with a book value of US$15 billion since March, UBS said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
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