No place for Samsung logo

TAIPEI - The Associated Press

South Korea’s high-tech sector won’t be taking the spotlight at Taiwan’s biggest annual extravaganza. The New Year’s fireworks display at Taipei 101 has long been among the world’s most spectacular.

This year, South Korean electronics giant Samsung reportedly had offered $1.4 million to light the building’s top stories with the Samsung name and logo after the fireworks. With a fierce high-tech rivalry and many local people and politicians objecting, Taiwanese tourism authorities bought the right to show the tourism logo “Time for Taiwan” in both English and Chinese characters. Taiwan’s Vice Transport Minister Yeh Kuang-shih said a Samsung commercial on New Year’s eve “would be inappropriate.”