■FINANCE
Merrill Lynch sees last day
New York City investment bank Merrill Lynch has seen its last day. As of yesterday, the company became part of the North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp. At the closing bell on New Year’s Eve on the fifth floor of the World Financial Center in Manhattan, Merrill Lynch & Co’s employees held what’s known as a clapoff: Hundreds of them stood and applauded solemnly to pay tribute to their company. Merrill Lynch lost billions of dollars in the subprime mortgage crisis.
■COMPUTERS
Ricoh, IBM team up
Ricoh Co and IBM Corp will tie up to sell products such as copiers and computer servers in the US, sharing their marketing networks, the Nikkei Shimbun reported. Marketing staff from both companies will conduct joint visits to clients in the US starting early this year, the newspaper report said, without citing a source. With the tie-up with IBM, Ricoh is aiming at boosting its sales by ¥100 billion during the next two to three years, the Nikkei report said. The two companies will also jointly develop software to be used for Ricoh’s copiers and printers, the report said.
■FINANCE
Kookmin to offer new loans
Kookmin Bank, South Korea’s biggest, will provide 1.5 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) in new loans to small and medium-sized companies to ease cash shortages as the economy slows. The bank will lend 500 billion won to manufacturing clients with stable credit, Kookmin said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. A further 1 trillion won will go to small and medium-sized enterprises whose credit is more than 95 percent guaranteed by state-run loan guarantors. Starting tomorrow, Kookmin will also enable companies to get larger discounts on interest rates and will defer the repayment of principal on foreign-currency loans made to invest in facilities.
■FINANCE
China may issue bonds
The Chinese government may issue bonds on behalf of local authorities next month to raise funds for projects to spur growth and increase employment, the China Business Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. The Ministry of Finance will make an official announcement at the central fiscal work conference on Jan. 5, the newspaper said. The State Council will determine each local government’s quota on Jan. 20 and the bonds are scheduled to be sold on Feb. 1, the report said. The bonds will be traded on China’s interbank and securities markets, the report said. The National People’s Congress will monitor how local governments spend the money raised in the debt offerings.
■SINGAPORE
PM pessimistic on 2009
The economy cannot avoid being hit by the global economic recession and will face difficult prospects this year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said in his New Year’s message on Wednesday night. The global economic recession, the most serious in 60 years, would be followed not by a quick rebound, but by several more years of slow growth, Lee said. He said he expected the first half of this year to be difficult for the country, with more companies downsizing, resulting in job losses. The country registered 1.5 percent economic growth, which was below the widely projected 2.5 percent growth, Channel News Asia reported yesterday.
The navy has installed 13 Phalanx Block 1B close-in weapons systems on its warships, increasing their defensive firepower, a defense official said on Saturday. The systems cost the navy NT$10.16 billion (US$314.67 million), while eight additional Block 1A systems are being upgraded in the US and are expected to be delivered next year, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Phalanx system used by Taiwan to defend its warships and key radar installations is a radar-cued gun system capable of firing 4,500 rounds a minute at targets as far away as 1.5km, the official said. With their superior range of
RACE FOR CHIPS: The Dresden site would help Europe reduce its reliance on Asia for semiconductors, while Germany aims to produce one-fifth of the world’s chips by 2030 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday broke ground in Dresden, Germany, on its first European plant as the continent seeks to safeguard its chip supplies amid growing US-China tensions. TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) attended the event, together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the heads of Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and Robert Bosch GmbH, which each hold a 10 percent stake in the venture. TSMC owns a 70 percent stake in the plant. “Together with our partners, Bosch, Infineon and NXP, we are building our Dresden facility to meet the
RECOVERY: Overall, average income across all age groups increased, climbing to a record NT$709,000 last year, on the back of an improved economy, the DGBAS said Taiwanese workers under the age of 30 last year, on average, earned an annual income of NT$545,931 (US$17,044), a new high, as the economy continued to improve, data released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. That equated to monthly earnings of NT$45,494 per person, and marked an increase from NT$535,667 in 2022, the data showed. In addition to an improved economy, average incomes rose as the unemployment rate declined and the minimum wage rose, the statistics agency said. Overall, average income in Taiwan also hit a new record of NT$709,000 last year, up from NT$704,000 in 2022, the data
CARROT AND STICK: Palauan president said in 2020 the Chinese ambassador to a neighboring country pledged to flood his country with tourists if it switches alliance Beijing weaponized tourism to the Pacific archipelago of Palau over its allegiance to Taiwan and its accusations that China was behind a major cyberattack there, Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr told The Associated Press (AP). Palau, along with Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, is one of the three Pacific nations to recognize Taiwan as an independent democracy. Taipei’s allies in the Pacific have dwindled from six countries in 2019. Nauru abandoned its ties in January. Whipps told the AP in an interview late on Thursday that, in 2020, while he was running for his current post, the Chinese ambassador to a neighboring country