Titanic builder Harland &Wolff to be bought by Spain’s Navantia
London, Dec 19: The future of the Northern Ireland-based Harland and Wolff shipbuilder, which famously built the Titanic, appears to have been safeguarded on Thursday after the Spanish state-owned business Navantia stepped in to buy it.
The purchase of the company, which was placed into a type of bankruptcy in September for the second time in five years. is subject to regulatory approval.
If approved, the deal will secure 1,000 jobs at Harland and Wolff’s four shipyards, including at the iconic one in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Two of the others are in Scotland, while the fourth is in England.
The deal is important for the Royal Navy as Harland and Wolff is a subcontractor in part of a consortium that landed a major contract to build new ships. Navantia’s UK, division is the main contractor on that contract.
“This deal is a major vote of confidence in the UK from Navantia, which will not only secure the future of UK shipbuilding, but protect 1,000 jobs across the country and bring future investment into shipbuilding right across the UK,” Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said. He wouldn’t be drawn on how much extra taxpayers’ cash would be spent on the contract for Royal Navy support vessels to get a deal to help Harland and Wolff over the line.
However, Reynolds said that the change to the deal was “relatively minor given the size of that contract, which is obviously a very important one for national security”. (AP)
Govt policy making Australia unwelcoming for intl students
Canberra, Dec 19: Australia’s elite universities have accused the government of making the country unwelcoming for international students following a new move to limit enrolments.
Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare on Thursday announced that the government will replace its failed proposal for an international student cap by slowing visa processing once applications reach a threshold for each university.
The cap would have set new international student enrolments at universities and vocational education providers at a maximum of 270,000 in 2025 as part of the government’s broader strategy to cut Australia’s migrant intake. However, legislation for the cap was blocked by parliament.
Instead, Clare on Thursday instituted a new ministerial direction that will treat student visa applications as high priority up until a threshold of 80 percent of the caps has been met. After that threshold, applications will receive standard priority processing, slowing them down.
The Group of Eight (Go8), a coalition of elite, research-intensive universities, said the new system would lead to greater confusion for international students.
“We run the risk of confusing the international student market with these constant changes to policy settings,” Go8 Chief Executive Vicki Thomson said in a statement. (IANS)
Indonesia gears up for vacation travel season
Jakarta, Dec 19: Indonesia is preparing to face an influx of travellers during the Christmas and New Year holidays as millions of people are expected to jam the roads and cities across the Southeast Asian archipelago.
According to a recent survey by the country’s transportation ministry, around 110 million people, or about 43 per cent of the country’s population, plan to travel during the Christmas and New Year holidays. The figure is higher than the number of travellers during the same period last year. (IANS)
Number of unmarried people over age 40 increases in S Korea
Seoul, Dec 19: The proportion of unmarried individuals in their 40s in South Korea increased 6.7 times for men and 5.7 times for women in 2020 compared with 20 years earlier, a government report showed on Thursday. The report underscores the trend of delayed marriages that is partly blamed for South Korea’s ultra-low birth rate, Yonhap news agency reported.
The growing trend is attributed to delayed marriages and a rise in lifelong singlehood, according to the annual social report by Statistics Korea.
The report offers insights into the status of Korean society and key trends based on statistical analysis.
In 2020, 23.6 per cent of men and 11.9 per cent of women in their 40s were unmarried, compared with just 3.5 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively, in 2000, the report showed.
The report also found that only a small portion of unmarried individuals aged 19-34 consider marriage to be essential. A growing majority of this age group expressed positive attitudes toward unconventional marital arrangements, such as cohabitation or having children out of wedlock. “Unmarried individuals across all age groups tend to exhibit more gender-equal attitudes toward household responsibilities,” an agency official said. (IANS)