Lai see
Miffed Sunday boss says 3g service will be MERC - not lada - class
Conspiracy theories were coming out of the woodwork (or should we say concrete?) at Sunday Communications' annual general meeting yesterday. In a thinly veiled reference to 3G rivals Hutchison and Sun Hung Kai Properties' SmarTone, chairman Rick Siemens lashed out at his property-rich competitors.
'The [Hong Kong] government is always thinking of new ways to give these guys money, but now I've found my way so let's play,' Mr Siemens said, alluding to his company's close relationship with its vendor partner Huawei Technologies. 'Once China [Huawei] came aboard, it's our subsidies against their subsidies. You'll see who wins now.'
Asked why Sunday, which will launch its 3G service in the second quarter, had not been as fast out of the gate as Hutchison and SmarTone, Mr Siemens argued that good things took time. 'We didn't want to go out there with a Lada,' he said. 'We wanted to go out with a Mercedes.'
Talkative telecom shows the way
It's fast becoming a hate-hate relationship between China Unicom and local reporters, who are now regularly banned from the shrinking violet's annual general meeting. Apparently Unicom doesn't like all those pesky questions about either its struggling CDMA business or rivals' proposals that it be broken up.
Unicom should learn from China Telecom, which, at the insistence of new chairman Wang Xiaochu (recently transferred over from China Mobile), not only moved its annual meeting from Beijing to Hong Kong for the first time but also opened its doors to the press. For added measure, company secretary Jacky Yung was deputised to answer reporters' questions for as long as they were prepared ask them.
Sun rises for BEA chief
If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, then congratulations to Bank of East Asia chairman David Li Kwok-po for rising above the rabble.
While so many seem bent on whipping up tensions between the two Asian rivals, Japan's Hong Kong consulate has awarded Mr Li the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for his contribution to Japanese commerce. In 2003, BEA was a key member of the consortium that bailed out Japan's fifth-largest bank, Reasona
Crash warning, and a career is born
Yesterday was Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen's first day as Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp's first Chinese taipan.
How did he get there? According to the Hong Kong Economic Times, it was a 1987 report written by the then economic researcher that made his career.
On October 16, 1987, Mr Cheng, as the bank's head of economic research, issued a report entitled Fast Credit Expansion - A Growing Concern, which concluded two earlier stock crashes had been sparked by easy credit and warned investors it was time to exit.
The rest, as they say, is history. Three days later, the Hang Seng Index fell one-third and was suspended for four days. London took notice of Mr Cheng's visionary powers and seconded him to the government's Central Policy Unit, a big promotion that put him on a fast track.
We wonder, though. Now that he sits in the hot seat, will Mr Cheng be so quick to speak up if he sees similar trouble brewing?
