20120514 3pm

3PM Intro

Good afternoon. It's time for ICRT news at 3. I'm Mike Woodward.

Chen Ju On China

First, Taiwan news... One of the DPP's most senior officials is welcoming interaction with China. Gaoxiong mayor Chen Ju ... who is also acting DPP chairwoman ... said today that she has no set format for exchanges with China. But she said the general direction for dealing with China is an open and welcoming one ... adding anything can be considered as long as it benefits the city of Gaoxiong and its people. Chen made the comments amid calls by Gaoxiong City Council members for Chen to strengthen cross strait exchanges. Council member Xu Kun-yuan said the Gaoxiong City government should drop its anti-China ideology. He said forging sister relations with some Chinese cities could have a great benefit for Gaoxiong. Chen ... whose DPP is more cautious on relations with China ... didn't rule out such a move. She noted that her tourism, agriculture and economic development chiefs have all made trips to China. Chen added she's fine with anything as long as it benefits the citizens and the city. (jm)

Guoguang Project May Be Revived

Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-xiang today confirmed that a controversial petrochemical investment project that was scrapped in Taiwan may be revived in Malaysia. According to local media reports, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced yesterday that his country will work with a Taiwanese petrochemical company to launch a 120 billion U.S. dollar investment project for oil refining, naphtha cracking and petrochemical production. Fielding questions from lawmakers this morning ... Shi said the company Razak referred to was Guoguang Petrochemical Technology Co., in which Taiwan's state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp. has a large stake. Guoguang had planned to build a naphtha cracking and petrochemical complex in coastal wetlands in central Taiwan's Changhua County. The project was scrapped, however, after some local residents and environmental impact assessment teams raised concerns that it would consume too much water and generate high levels of pollution in the ecologically sensitive area. Shi noted that since then, Guoguang has since been seeking a suitable overseas destination for its investment project, and Malaysia is a possible option. (jm)

facebook

Social network Facebook is set to sell shares to investors this Friday in a highly-anticipated initial public offering that could make it one of the world's most valuable corporations. It is one of the world's most popular online social networks, with some 900 million users. Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg and his team are busy pitching their company to investors ahead of the sale. Silicon Valley correspondent Quinn Bowman says the company could be valued at some $100 billion dollars, but that some investors don't think Facebook is worth that much:

california

The Governor of California, Jerry Brown, has revealed that the state's financial position is even worse than anticipated, with a budget deficit that has now ballooned to 16 billion dollars. In a video posted on the Governor's YouTube site, he warns Californians of deep spending cuts to come. When he took office in January, the state's deficit was estimated at just over 9 billion dollars

weather

Taiwan weather forecast for tonight according to the Central Weather Bureau, fairly clear skies up north and mid-island and very clear skies down south. Lows tonite north, center and south respectively: 24, 25 and 26. At the moment Taipei is rather cloudy and 33, Taichung clear and 32, Gauhsiung 32 degrees.

3PM Outro

That's ICRT News at 3. Thank you for listening. I'm Mike Woodward.