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Asean Ministers Endorse Brunei Proposal
Bandar Seri Begawan - Asean Ministers have endorsed a Brunei proposal to engage young professionals through a youth volunteer corps that will complement the Asean Youth Volunteer Programme (AYVP) through implementation of three initial short-term projects scheduled to be carried out in Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines this year. The youth volunteer corps will be implemented before the ...
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GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks steadier Nikkei bounces back
Thu May 23, 2013 8:29pm EDT * Nikkei up 3 pct in early trade, following 7.3 pct fall * Asian stocks outside Japan steadier after drop * Yen softer, reversing Thursday's gains * MSCI ex-Japan edges up By Ian Chua SYDNEY, May 24 (Reuters) - Asian shares opened cautiously higher on Friday with Tokyo's Nikkei steadying from its biggest one-day drop in two years as investors breathed a sigh ...
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World Briefing | Asia India Power Failures Set Off Protests
A blistering heat wave has swept across most parts of north and western India, causing widespread electricity cuts and leading residents to protest and even attack power company officials and property. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, enraged citizens in Bahraich set fire to a power station, and in Gorakhpur residents held power employees captive for more than 18 hours. The police said ...
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China Power Producers Fall on Import Concern HK Mover
Huaneng Power International Inc. (902) led declines at China’s electricity producers amid speculation the price for coal-fired power may be cut and concern a reported coal import ban may raise costs. Huaneng Power, the nation’s biggest producer, dropped 8.3 percent, the most since November 6, 2008, to close at HK$7.94 today in Hong Kong. The stock has shed 18 percent in the past ...
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HK Police Make Fourth Arrest in Exchange Probe
Hong Kong police arrested a fourth man in its probe of Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange Ltd, widening a case begun by the Securities and Futures Commission for suspected irregularities in financial affairs. Police arrested a 60-year-old man yesterday, identified only by his surname Zhu, on suspicion of possession of false instruments, according to the Police Public Relations Branch. Three others ...
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NBI off to Taiwan for shooting probe
It’s now the turn of Philippine investigators to go to Taiwan to gather evidence for their probe on the fatal shooting of a suspected Taiwanese poacher last May 9, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday. De Lima said Taipei has allowed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to get statements from the companions of slain fisherman Hung Shih-cheng as well as to examine their ...
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Taiwan’s UMC sets up RD centre in Singapore
Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), a leading microchip maker, Wednesday said it has spent $110 million setting up a research and development unit in Singapore. The unit will undertake R&D collaborations with local research institutes, such as Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics, the company said in a statement. UMC is the world’s third biggest ...
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Korea’s First Cargo Airline Plans China Route Chasing Samsung
Air Incheon Co., South Korea’s first cargo-only airline, plans to start services this year to smaller cities in China, where Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) assemblers are increasingly locating their factories. Air Incheon expects to receive its second leased aircraft in August and that will facilitate the China service, vice President Kim Gyu Hyeong said in an ...
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N. Korea ‘special envoy’ in China meeting
A top North Korean general and confidant of leader Kim Jong-Un met a senior Chinese official in Beijing Wednesday, with relations between the allies strained ahead of a China-US summit. Choe Ryong-Hae, director of the Korean People’s Army politburo, is a ';special envoy'; of the North’s young leader, Pyongyang’s official news agency said. He met Wang Jiarui, head ...
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China Pakistan plan ‘economic corridor’ Li
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday linked growth in his country’s restive west with that in sluggish Pakistan, saying the two sides wanted to create an ';economic corridor'; to boost development. Li, on his first overseas trip since taking over in a once-in-a-decade power transfer in Beijing, congratulated Pakistan on its recent general election and hailed the ...
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US ‘should act’ on China intellectual property theft
The United States should consider curbs on Chinese investment or even offensive operations against hackers to address the growing toll from intellectual property theft, a report said. The 11-month study led by high-ranking former US officials said that theft of software and other US-developed products was costing the American economy more than $300 billion each year – as much as the ...
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Philippines and China Conflict and cooperation
Public attention has understandably been focused on the 2013 midterm elections. However recent events serve to remind us that Philippine-China relations will continue to be a major issue for policy makers and the consequences of these policy decisions will have an impact on the daily lives of Filipinos. First, there was the completion of the composition of the UN Arbitration panel which will ...
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With eye on China Japan to provide patrol boats to Philippines
Japan will provide patrol boats to the Philippines to help the country bolster its capabilities in the face of China’s growing presence in regional waters. In a meeting in Tokyo on May 22, Foreign minister Fumio Kishida and his counterpart Albert del Rosario agreed to work together to improve the capabilities of the Philippine Coast Guard. Kishida said Japan will make arrangements for ...
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China’s Lenovo buys and diversifies to outshine PC rivals
Lenovo Group Ltd’s bold acquisitions in its flagship PC business, a foray into mobile gadgets, and a relatively light debt load are setting it apart from PC rivals as industry shipments take their steepest fall in decades. Lenovo, a sliver away from unseating Hewlett-Packard Co as the world’s top PC maker by shipments, is expected on Thursday to post a two-thirds rise in quarterly ...
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Farmers plant rice near crippled Fukushima site
Farmers have resumed planting rice for market only 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, a local official said Wednesday. It was the first time since the March 2011 earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster that farmers have gone inside the former 20-kilometre ';no-go'; zone around the doomed plant to sow rice intended for sale. ...
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Cheaper yen attracts record visitors to Japan
A record 923,000 foreigners travelled to Japan in April, up 18.1 percent from a year earlier, taking advantage of a weaker yen and an increase in chartered flights, a government agency said Wednesday. The previous monthly high was 879,000 in July 2010, the Japan National Tourism Organisation said. Tourism has rebounded since 2011, when visitor numbers plunged following the massive earthquake ...
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Japan Cites Active Fault at a Reactor
Japan’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday endorsed a conclusion by a panel of seismologists that a fault under a reactor at an atomic plant in western Japan is active, potentially blocking a restart of the reactor. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it agreed with the panel that the fault underneath the Tsuruga No. 2 reactor could set off an earthquake and cause an accident. Japanese ...
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Singapore Economy Unexpectedly Expanded on Services Growth
Singapore’s economy unexpectedly expanded last quarter as services and construction strengthened, reducing pressure on the central bank to ease monetary policy to boost growth. Gross domestic product rose an annualised 1.8 percent in the three months through March from the previous quarter, when it grew 3.3 percent, the trade ministry said in a statement today. That compares with an ...
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Japan’s wartime brothels were wrong says 91-year-old veteran
When Masayoshi Matsumoto joined the Japanese army in 1943 and was sent to occupied China as a medic, he thought he was taking part in a righteous war to free Asia from the yoke of Western imperialism. Seven decades later, the 91-year-old retired Christian pastor says it’s his mission to speak out about the injustice of the war and the sufferings of women, mostly Asian and many Korean, ...
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Singapore Says It’s Regretful Todd Family Quit Coroner’s Inquest
Singapore Foreign Affairs and Law minister K. Shanmugam said it was regretful that the family of US research engineer Shane Todd pulled out from a coroner’s inquest yesterday. The Todd family quit the inquest, opened by Singapore to determine how the 31-year-old died in June, after walking out of the courtroom on May 21. Edward Adelstein, a medical examiner engaged by the family, ...
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Improving Chinese brand awareness in ASEAN markets
Experts say negative opinions of quality pose 'big obstacle' for exports to major trading partner China is to strengthen its efforts at improving brand awareness in Association of Southeast Asian Nations markets, a region now considered the country's third-largest trading partner. "Despite strong bilateral trade ties, some Chinese goods are still regarded as fake or of poor ...
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US markets fail to follow Asian share slide
United States Global markets fell sharply on concerns about Chinese and European growth, but Wall Street failed to follow.The Dow Jones ended down just 13 points to 15,295 and the S&P 500 lost 0.3 per cent to 1,650.The falls were relatively small compared to Asian markets yesterday.Japan's Nikkei led the way down, dropping 7 per cent after a leading report by HSBC showed Chinese ...
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Fernandes does his first firing in Apprentice Asia
after a premiere that saw two teams competing to sell fish in their first challenge. The show, which made its debut Wednesday on AXN, saw the 12 contestants being split into two groups of men and women in the first challenge to sell fish at a local market here. Both teams made losses in their sales but the men's group, Team Mavericks incurred a bigger loss. Hence, one of its members had to ...
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Burma Japanese Leader’s Visit Should Highlight Rights
As Burma’s biggest aid donor and a major investor, Japan can play a critical role by pressing harder for human rights reforms and protections. Aid and investment in Burma should not ignore needed reforms in the rule of law, transparency, and ...
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US stocks end slightly lower after Asia Europe rout
Trader Vincent Quinones, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the close of trading, Thursday, May 23, 2013. US stocks finished slightly lower Thursday, little-affected by a sharp selloff in Asian and European markets led by the 7.3 percent plunge of Japan’s Nikkei 225 index. AP PHOTO/RICHARD DREW NEW YORK--US stocks finished slightly lower Thursday, little-affected ...
Asia Feature
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Asia's largest ever infastructure project
The Trans-Asian Railway has been faltering since it was first proposed in the 1960s by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP). Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s the project was hindered by political instability, the wars in Indochina, the reticence of China and a subsequent lack of finance in Asia for mega-projects of this kind.
Now, however, with China emerging as the number two most dominant economy in the world, the project to link two major continents (Asia and Europe) is finding its feet once more and the Chinese are looking into investment opportunities, with some aspects of the project, such as the several thousand kilometers that pass through Thailand, being slated for possible construction in 2013. Read more
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