Thursday, December 30, 2010

Boost of R&D centers in Taiwan

From http://www.cepd.gov.tw/encontent/m1.aspx?sNo=0014642 (in English)

In 2010 15 foreign enterprises have applied to establish R&D centers in Taiwan, which represents an investment of around US$500 million. This boost in R&D applications is a consequence of the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and mainland China and is attracting companies such as ASML of the Netherlands; Microsoft, HP, and IBM of the United States, and IMEC of Belgium.

40% increase in Singapore's manufacturing production

From http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359620,singapores-manufacturing-output-jumps-40-per-cent.html (in English)

Pharmaceutical sector was the main responsable for the overall 39.8% increase year-on-year in November 2010 of the manufacuting output in Singapore, 10% more than the previous month. November's growth of output in the pharmaceutical sector accounted for a spectacular 189% year-on-year. Government's estimations about the growth of Singapore's overall economy in 2010 are at 15%.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Chinese economy in 2010

From http://www.expansion.com/2010/12/29/opinion/tribunas/1293654334.html (in Spanish)

2010 has been a landmark year for China's international raising as a superpower. Its economy (5.7 billion US dollars) has overtaken Japan's and has become the second largest in the world, right after US'. Average growth of Chinese economy between 2000 and 2010 has been more than 10%. According to the purchase-power parities (PPPs) calculations, which take into account the differences of the cost of living in each country, China has also been in the second place since 2001, but experts forecast that by 2015 or 2016 it can also overtake US. Estimations also indicate that in 2007 89% of the Chinese population could be classified as "middle class", which gives an idea of the size of the transformation of this society in the few last decades.

Mas appoints the new ministers of Catalan government

From http://www.catalannewsagency.com/news/politics/new-catalan-ministers (in English)

President Artur Mas has appointed the ministers of the new Catalan government, which have been reduced from 15 to 12, as the first measure to tackle the deficit of the administration. For anyone interested in the biographical details, the above link contains a brief summary of the CV of each of the ministers.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Interview to young Chinese-Catalan entepreneur Jiajia Wang Liu

From http://www.lavanguardia.es/lacontra/20101220/54089895005/mis-padres-dormian-en-la-banera-para-que-yo-estudiara.html (in Spanish), http://cac.drac.com/?p=579 (in Catalan) and http://www.elpunt.cat/noticia/article/7-vista/8-articles/332806-conte-de-la-xina.html (in Catalan)

Jiajia Wang Liu was born near Wenzhou, in south-east China and her family moved to Catalonia in 1997, when she was only 8 years old. Her parents had to move out of China since they were outlawed for having more than one child. She had tough childhood years, but she struggled to finish high school and to enter the Pompeu Fabra University, where she got a degree in business administration. She received a grant to upgrade her studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She has recently received the UPF Emprèn 2010-Fundació Banc Sabadell award of 20,000 euros for the idea that she plans to turn into her own business: a publishing company aimed at producing educational materials for the Chinese children adopted by Catalan families, so they can learn their mother language. Jiajia masters Chinese, Catalan, Spanish and English.

Two interviews and an article descriving how she got the award can be downloaded from the links at the top.

Slight growth of Catalan economy

From http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/AppJava/notapremsavw/detall.do?id=60288 (in Catalan)

Catalan gross domestic product has shown a slight increase of 0.2% year on year in the third trimester of 2010. According to the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat), a positive growth was not seen since the second trimester of 2008, helped by the recovery of exports.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Artur Mas, new President of the Catalan government

From http://www.catalannewsagency.com/news/politics/artur-mas-voted-129th-president-catalan-government (in English)

As expected according to the results of the elections to the Catalan Parliament of November 28, 2010, the leader of the Catalan moderate coalition CiU, Artur Mas, has been invested President of the Catalan Government. Artur Mas is the 129th President and succeeds José Montilla, from the Socialist's Party of Catalonia (PSC). A detailed political biography of Artur Mas can be read here.