■ENERGY
Temasek selling power firm
A Japanese-led consortium has won the bid for a Singaporean power company being sold by state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings, sources told Dow Jones Newswires yesterday. Japan’s Marubeni Corp heads the consortium and will pay Temasek about US$2.5 billion for Senoko Power, they said. Senoko is the second of three local power generation firms Temasek is unloading as part of efforts to liberalize the domestic energy market. Temasek said in March that it had signed a share purchase agreement with SinoSing Power Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Huaneng Group (華能), to sell Tuas Power Ltd for S$4.235 billion (US$2.96 billion). Temasek’s third power generator is Power Seraya.
■BUSINESS ETHICS
Court rules against Wal-Mart
Mexico’s Supreme Court on Thursday compared the practices of US retail giant Wal-Mart in Mexico to employer-worker relations during the dictatorship of former Mexican president Porfirio Diaz. The country’s top court backed a Wal-Mart employee who had complained that vouchers handed out by the company as part of its salary payments could only be spent in the company’s stores. The practice of vouchers “that come from the worker’s salary only to be exchanged in the management company’s establishment is similar to what happened in old company stores [during Diaz’s dictatorship],” the court said in its decision.
■BANKING
Seoul scraps limit on banks
South Korea will scrap the limit on purchases of non-deliverable forwards on the won, a finance ministry official said. The move will be effective from Sept. 8, Sohn Byung-doo, director in charge of the currency market at the ministry, said yesterday in Seoul. Banks may only buy a certain amount of this type of derivative. Non-deliverable forwards are derivatives that oblige traders to exchange one currency for another at a set price and date in the future. The derivatives are called “non-deliverable” because settlement is made in US dollars.
■MINING
Facility closed after deaths
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s largest mining company, suspended operations at its Western Australia iron ore mines following the second worker fatality in 10 days, the company said yesterday. Both deaths occurred at the company’s Yandi mine, in the Pilbara region, with the latest incident occurring on Thursday night after a collision between two vehicles, spokeswoman Samantha Evans said. Officials immediately halted operations at its Western Australia mines due to safety concerns, she said. The company did not know how long operations would remain suspended, Evans said.
■PHILIPPINES
Inflation hits new high
Inflation rose to its highest rate in nearly 17 years last month, climbing to 12.5 percent from a year ago, the government said yesterday. The National Statistics Office said the figure brings the country’s consumer price index for the first eight months of the year to 8.8 percent, up from 2.6 percent for the same period last year. It said prices for almost all commodities rose except for food, beverages and tobacco. The inflation rate last month was the highest since December 1991, when it was 13.2 percent.
Taiwan moved clear of Mexico to be the only country at No. 2 in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Men’s Baseball World Rankings. Meanwhile, draft bills to set up a ministry of sports were approved at a joint session at the legislature in Taipei yesterday. After previously being tied with Mexico for second on 4,118 points, Taiwan moved clear on 5,498 points after they defeated Japan in the final of the WBSC Premier12 tournament on Sunday. Mexico (4,729) dropped to fourth, behind Venezuela (4,846), who finished fourth at the tournament. Taiwan narrowed the gap to first-placed Japan to 1,368 points from 1,638, WBSC
GLOBAL SUPPORT: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the motion highlighted the improper exclusion of Taiwan from international discussion and cooperative mechanisms Taiwan yesterday thanked the British parliament for passing a motion stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not involve Taiwan, making it the latest body to reject China’s interpretation of the resolution. The House of Commons on Thursday debated the international status of Taiwan and unanimously passed a pro-Taiwan motion stating that the House “notes that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the political status of Taiwan or establish PRC [People’s Republic of China] sovereignty over Taiwan and is silent both on the status of Taiwan in the UN and on Taiwanese participation in UN agencies.” British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Parliamentary
HIGH ALERT: The armed forces are watching for a potential military drill by China in response to the president’s trip, with the air force yesterday conducting an exercise President William Lai (賴清德) is to make stopovers in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam during his seven-day trip to the South Pacific, his first official visit since taking office in May, the Presidential Office said yesterday. Lai, accompanied by a delegation, is scheduled to depart for the South Pacific on a chartered flight at 4:30pm tomorrow, stopping first in Hawaii for a two-night layover before traveling to the Marshall Islands, an office official said. After wrapping up his visits to the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, the president is to transit through Guam, spending a night there before flying to Palau,
‘IMPORTANCE OF PEACE’: President Lai was welcomed by AIT Managing Director Ingrid Larson, Hawaii Governor Josh Green, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and others President William Lai (賴清德) was feted with red carpets, garlands of flowers and “alohas” as he began his two-day stopover in Hawaii on Saturday, part of a Pacific tour. Looking relaxed in a Hawaiian shirt, Lai flitted around the US island state, visiting the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Hawaii’s leading museum of natural history and native Hawaiian culture, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Lai was given the “red carpet treatment” on the tarmac of Honolulu’s international airport, his office said, adding that it was the first time a Taiwanese president had been given such
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