■ 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.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’