03/11/2025

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | NOV 3, 2025

FOLLOW

ON YOUTUBE

16

Malaysian Paper

/theSunMedia /

Death becomes growing business in South Korea

BEIJING: China said on Saturday it will exempt some Nexperia chips from an export ban that was imposed over a row with Dutch officials and has alarmed European businesses. Anxiety over chip shortages began when the Netherlands invoked a Cold War-era law in late September to effectively take control of Nexperia, whose parent company Wingtech is backed by the Chinese government. China, in response, banned any re-exports of Nexperia chips to Europe and accused the United States of meddling in Dutch legal procedures to remove Nexperia’s Chinese CEO. Beijing blamed what it said on Saturday was “the Dutch government’s improper intervention in the internal affairs of enterprises” for leading to “the current chaos in the global supply chain”. “We will comprehensively consider the actual situation of enterprises and grant exemptions to exports that meet the criteria,” a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said in a statement, without offering specifics. The resumption of some Nexperia shipments was part of a trade deal agreed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump after talks in South Korea on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified sources. Chinese and European Union officials were also to discuss Nexperia while meeting in Brussels, EU spokesman Olof Gill had said. Those talks were “a welcome opportunity for both sides to update on ... the introduction and implementation of export controls”, Gill said in a statement on Saturday. The discussions covered “controls on rare earth elements introduced or proposed by China, as well as an update on controls and developments on the EU side”, he said.The statement did not mention Nexperia specifically. BUSAN: Rows of coffins line a university classroom in the South Korean port city of Busan, ready for use in training the funeral directors of the future in a rapidly ageing country. Growing numbers are finding work in the business of death as South Korea undergoes massive demographic change, with birth rates among the lowest in the world and almost half the population aged 50 or older. Students at the Busan Institute of Science and Technology carefully draped a mannequin in traditional Korean funeral cloth, smoothing the fabric as if over real skin, before gently lowering it into a coffin. “With our society ageing, I thought the demand for this kind of work would only grow,” said Jang Jin-yeong, 27, a funeral administration student. Another student, 23-year-old Im Sae-jin, decided to enter the field after his grandmother died. “At her funeral, I saw how beautifully the directors had prepared her for the final farewell,” he said. “I felt deeply grateful.” More and more South Koreans are also living – and dying – alone. Single-person households now account for around 42% of all homes in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. A new profession has emerged reflecting that statistic: cleaners who are called in to tidy up homes after their occupants, most of whom lived alone, have died. Former classical musician Cho Eun-seok has cleaned many homes where people were

the bed and the air was thick with flies. But she carefully looked after a small box, insisting Cho never throw it away. She took her own life in that small room a year later. When Cho returned to clean, he found that a hamster had been living in the box all along. Beside it sat her guitar – she had dreamed of becoming a musician. “The moment I saw the hamster, all I could think was that I had to save it and keep it alive,” Cho said. Kim Doo-nyeon, a veteran in the funeral business, said he has a growing number of recruits in their twenties. “When people live together, they share things ... even if one person dies, those items remain,” he said. “But when someone dies alone, everything must be cleared away.” Back at class in Busan, Im admitted to some trepidation about his chosen career path. “I am scared,” he said. “No matter how much you prepare, facing a deceased person is frightening.”– AFP

environment, causing pest infestations and forcing the disposal of belongings from entire households. In summer, the smell spreads fast, he said, “and nothing can be saved”. The home of a woman who had died recently in her late eighties was still filled with traces of her life when AFP visited – an old air conditioner, bottles of cosmetics and a portable toilet, while several walking sticks stood by the door. The work sometimes requires more than just cleaning. Kim Seok-jung once cleared the home of a late lyricist and found a set of songs she had not shared with her relatives. He turned them into a song for the bereaved family. And Cho remembered a high school girl who lived alone in a gosiwon – a cramped room typically less than five square metres – after she escaped domestic violence. He visited once a month to clean. The teenager, suffering from depression, had been unable to tidy up herself. Piles of belongings and rotting food covered

found dead, sometimes months after their passing. Their homes are “like their portraits”, Cho, 47, told AFP. He described heartbreaking traces: hundreds of neatly capped soju bottles and dusty boxes of gifts that were never opened. South Korea has the highest suicide rate among developed nations, and these “lonely deaths” include those who died alone by their own hand. Cho recently began receiving calls from used-car leasing companies to clean vehicles later found to be where clients ended their lives. He is also developing a device to detect signs of unattended deaths that he said can harm the o Low birth and high suicide rates among ageing, lonely population

China to exempt some Nexperia chips from export ban

Separately, the German government welcomed Beijing’s move as a “positive sign” on Saturday. “The latest reports from China are positive initial signs of an easing of tensions,”an Economy Ministry spokesman told AFP. He stressed that “a final assessment” of the implications of Beijing’s announcement was not yet possible. Nexperia produces relatively simple technologies such as diodes, voltage regulators and transistors that are nonetheless crucial as vehicles increasingly rely on electronics. Its chips are mainly found in cars but also in a wide range of industrial components, as well as consumer and mobile electronics such as refrigerators. The company makes them in Europe before sending them to China for finishing and then re-exporting them back to European clients. European carmakers and parts suppliers had warned of shortages of chips supplied by Nexperia that would force stoppages at production lines in Europe. The chipmaker supplies 49% of the electronic components used in the European automotive industry, according to German financial daily Handelsblatt . The European auto lobby ACEA warned last month that production would be seriously hit. Nexperia’s chips, while widely used, are not “unique” in terms of technology and therefore “easily substitutable”, French parts maker OPmobility said. However, suppliers must get the new products approved by automakers, which takes time. Beijing suggested on Saturday that some shipments would resume. Companies experiencing difficulties could contact the Commerce Ministry or local authorities, the Chinese spokesperson said. – AFP

Port workers take part in a hunger strike in front of the Chittagong Press Club in Chattogram. – AFPPIC

Bangladesh dockers strike over foreign takeover of port DHAKA: Bangladesh’s dock workers escalated a strike on Saturday at the country’s biggest port, Chattogram, protesting plans by the interim government to lease operating licences to a foreign company. The walkout, which began in According to state-run news agency BSS, UAE-based DP World has expressed interest in operating the port’s New Mooring Container Terminal, and Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk in the Laldia Container Terminal on the city’s outskirts. In October, Mohammed told AFP on Saturday. “Do they even have the mandate? They are an interim government,” said Iliyas Bhuiyan, 56, another dockworker. But supporters say foreign expertise could modernise operations. “We need a globally reputed

small numbers in October, has now grown to around 200 workers at the port – Bangladesh’s main trade gateway and a vital hub in the global garment supply chain. “Foreign expert operators would increase the foreign investment and enhance the efficiency,” Chattogram Port Authority chairman S. M. Moniruzzaman told AFP. Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest garment exporter, relies heavily on Chattogram port – formerly known as Chittagong and strategically located on the Bay of Bengal – for most of its imports and exports.

operator to increase the port’s capacity,” said Kabir Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA). “It will enhance cargo handling, boost revenue, and strengthen the country’s reputation.” But critics argue that leasing the facilities undermines control. “It makes no sense to lease the terminals that we developed and have been operating for the past 40 years,” said Azam J. Chowdhury, chairman of the Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship Owners’ Association (BOGSOA). – AFP

Yousuf, senior secretary at the Ministry of Shipping, said that “agreements are expected to be signed by December” with Bangladesh’s interim administration. The interim administration, which took over after the government of Sheikh Hasina was toppled in a mass uprising in August 2024, will be replaced after elections in February. The port move has sparked anger among some. “We don’t know if the new authority will hire us or restructure the entire system,” striking docker Nur Uddin, 55,