Singapore Wants to Double Manufacturing
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Singapore says it hopes to double manufacturing output in 15 years even as regional competition heats up from lower-cost rivals such as fast-growing China and India.
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SINGAPORE Southeast Asian trade ministers moved ahead over the weekend with plans to fuse their region into a European-style community hefty enough to compete with China and India, setting timetables for free-trade talks with Japan, South Korea, Australia
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Lakshmi Mittal, who is based in the UK, yesterday set his seal on the consolidation of the global steel industry with a $17.8bn (Â£10bn) double merger to create the world&#39;s largest producer.
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(InfoWorld) - In the most significant easing of investment regulations for Taiwan's technology industry to date, the island's government will allow two chip makers to build factories in China and one more to invest in a Chinese rival, a high level official said Tuesday. Memory chip makers Powerchip Semiconductor and ProMOS Technologies will both be allowed to build chip factories in China, while Advanced Semiconductor EngineeringÂ (ASE) will receive approvalÂ for a plan toÂ buy a low-end chip assembly companyÂ based in Shanghai. ASE is the world's largest chip assembly company. "An official announcement will be made on Wednesday," said Joseph Wu, chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's official governing body for China relations. A group of government agencies agreed to the easing Monday during a committee meeting. The final step in making the decision formal is for the Taiwan Investment Commission, which is in charge of vetting China-bound investment applications, to give its stamp of approval and publicly announce the new measures. The easing is seen as a major breakthrough for Taiwan and China. For China, it could reinvigorate a chip industry that has slowed over the past few years as major chip makers such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) posted a string of money-losing quarters. It also represents a token of goodwill by Taiwan to political enemy China. Taiwan and China remain enemies after splitting in 1949 amid civil war. The island fears China could use chip technology to bolster its military capabilities against Taiwan. Despite the strained relationship and tough investment rules, China remains by far the favored destination for Taiwanese investment due to their shared language and culture, and China's lower costs and huge potential market. The formal announcement expected Wednesday will likely fall short of hopes held by Taiwanese chip makers. Companies have been lobbying the government for years to allow them to transfer 0.18 micron chip production technology to China, but such an opening will have to wait, Wu said. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has made a strong push on the 0.18 micron issue, in part because Chinese rivals such as SMIC are already using the technology, and are able to win over customers because of it. Taiwanese regulations currently only allow its chip makers to use 0.25 micron technology in China. ASE's board of directors approved a plan to last month to invest $60 million in Global Advanced Packaging Technology, a Shanghai company.
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PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia - After a lapse of two years, Malaysia and Singapore relaunched a round of talks Monday to resolve long-standing disputes ranging from water supply to a new bridge linking the two historically linked, but quarrelsome, neighbors.
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Chipmaker ST Microelectronics is doubling its Indian workforce to 3,000 and making the country a centre for R&D.
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BHP Billiton plans an aggressive $US1.5-2 billion ($2.1-2.8 billion) near-doubling of its coking coal production over the next five years to meet the China-inspired surge in demand for carbon steel-making materials through mine expansions and developments
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Honda Motor Co. (7267.T) will build a  second car plant in Thailand and a new motorcycle factory in  Vietnam as well as boosting capacity in other regions to meet  growing demand abroad even as the Japanese market shrinks.
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Thailand intends to regain control of satellites from Singapore BANGKOK, Feb.
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NEW DELHI: Indiaâs new government on Tuesday announced a slew of measures it said were aimed at doubling the countryâs annual exports to 150 billion dollars by 2009.
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Honda Motor Co.  will build a second car plant in Thailand and a new motorcycle factory in Vietnam as well as boosting capacity in other regions to meet growing demand abroad even as the Japanese market shrinks.
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The government offered tax concessions to exporters and proposed the creation of free trade zones in a plan unveiled Tuesday aimed at doubling India&#39;s share of global trade in five years.
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Sharp is planning to double production of solar electricity modules at a factory in Wales, it said Friday.
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General Electric Co. , the  world&#039;s second largest company by market capitalization, could  double its business in China in four or five years, chairman  and chief executive Jeff Immelt said on Monday.
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The company plans to more than double its output by 2006.
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SINGAPORE Placed in charge of securing his city-state&#39;s economic future in the face of growing competition from China and India, Singapore&#39;s new prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, is calling for his citizens to be more productive - literally.
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Seagate will build a third hard-disk media plant in Singapore to meet growing demand for hard drives.