“San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) will feature Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, John Micklethwait, at a dinner program tomorrow honoring the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Kyocera Corporation, Dr. Kazuo Inamori. As the recipient of EDC’s 2007 Herb Klein Civic Leadership Award, Dr. Kazuo Inamori is recognized as an executive who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in both business and philanthropy. In 1959, and at the age of 27, Dr. Inamori founded Kyoto Ceramic Co., Ltd. (now Kyocera) in Japan with 28 employees and three million yen from friends. In 1971, Kyocera became the first Japanese-parented corporation with manufacturing operations in the State of California.”

A San Francisco Chronicle editorial entitled, “The Chinese Garlic Wars” describes how the Chinese have come to dominate the U.S. garlic market in spite of a severe anti-dumping tariff of 376 percent. Many Chinese shippers are able to get around the tariff, they explained, by shipping their garlic through third countries such as Vietnam and Japan, then coming up with shipping papers that falsify the true country of origin. As a result, the California garlic market is shrinking. Through November of last year, Chinese garlic imports into the United States totaled 128 million pounds — up from 8 million in 2001, while California produced 88 million pounds in 2005 — down from 122 million pounds in 2001. “The importation of Chinese garlic has been so destructive that the number of garlic growers in California has dropped from 12 in 1999 to a mere four today” the Chronicle reported.

“A San Gabriel Valley bank has found itself the focus of unwanted attention after an international manhunt was launched for one of its Taiwanese owners following the collapse of several of his family’s Asian holdings… For more than a month Taiwan authorities have been attempting to arrest Wang, founder of the Rebar Group, and his wife, Chin Shih-ying. They fled Taiwan in late December as news broke of the failure of several companies, including the Chinese Bank in Taipei. Prosecutors in Taipei issued warrants on Jan, 15 for the pair on charges of embezzlement, insider trading and fraud.”

“Students at Fremont’s Irvington and Mission San Jose high schools seeking college credits have been studying hard in preparation for the spring Chinese Advanced Placement exam. Now, it turns out that about 150 students at the two schools may not be able to take it at all. The College Board, which administers the SAT and AP exams, has decided it will offer the Chinese and Japanese AP tests only online. To administer the test, a school must have computers equipped with sound cards and software to convert English letters into Chinese characters — and meet a slew of other requirements. Finding money to purchase the equipment itself would be a challenge. But more troublesome is that neither Irvington nor Mission San Jose has the Internet capabilities to permit all the students to take the test at once, administrators said.”

“Palo Alto school trustees rejected a pilot Mandarin immersion program that had been a 4-year effort by Grace Mah, the leader of Palo Alto for Chinese Education (PACE), reports the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily…opponents of the immersion program said that the program is unfair because it offered language classes only to a few students. They also said that the proposal lacked long-term plans for the Mandarin immersion classes.”

“The University of California Board of Regents named Steve (Sung Mo) Kang as the new U.C. Merced chancellor, making him the first Korean chancellor of a major American university, reports the Korean language Korea Times.”

“Easton Sports is transferring all 250 of its manufacturing jobs to China but will keep its headquarters in Van Nuys.
Easton has been located in the San Fernando Valley for more than 17 years and makes baseball bats, helmets for the National Football League, hockey products and bicycle helmets. ‘Over the years we have seen many of our longtime competitors move to Asia, and many other new competitors surface,’ said Ken Waltrip, the company’s vice president of manufacturing. ‘We are sad to see this day come, and would like to express deep gratitude to our many dedicated employees.’”

“Mayfield Fund said Friday it closed a $200 million fund dedicated to investing in China. Menlo Park-based Mayfield said the new fund, GSR Ventures II, was formed in partnership with GSR Ventures, a Menlo Park-based China focused fund. The dedicated fund follows a two year affiliation between Mayfield and GSR, during which the firms made 11 direct investments in China.”

A growing number of Koreans are scooping up real estate in the United States and elsewhere after the overseas investment cap in their country was lifted. Koreans are expected to invest nearly $2 billion in U.S. residential property in 2007, up from $1.27 billion in 2005 when such investments were mostly limited to large Korean corporations, said Brian Shaffer of the International Real Estate Trade Organization. Worldwide, Koreans could spend at least $4 billion on overseas homes in 2007 as a result of the changes made in May that allow an individual to make as much as $1 million in foreign investments, analysts said. Many of the purchases are being prompted by the strength of South Korean currency – the won, pronounced like “one” in English – against other currencies, analysts said.

South Korea Investigates Qualcomm
South Korea’s antitrust regulator said Thursday it has launched a full-scale investigation into alleged unfair market practices by wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc. The Fair Trade Commission early last month formed a task force to push forward a probe into allegations that the company used its dominant position in wireless technology to seek excessive royalties, said Shin Yeong-ho, an FTC official.

Vietnam business association starts in California
The Vietnam Business Association yesterday made debut in the U.S. to promote trade and business links between the two countries on the occasion of Vietnam becoming a full member of the World Trade Organization. The association, which is located in Irvine, California, will serve as a bridge in facilitating trade, investment and business opportunities.
Saigon Times Daily – No. 2860 Friday, January 12, 2007