Tapping Chinese investors
BEIJING, 1 September 2011 – Philippine President Benigno Aquino said Wednesday his country was “open for business” during a visit to Beijing as he set about wooing Chinese investors in tourism, agriculture and infrastructure.
Aquino, on a mission to secure billions of dollars in business deals, vowed to rid the Philippines of corruption and ensure foreign companies “are met with a level playing field” during a five-day visit.
“Investors will not any more have to rely on connections in order to set up shop; the rules will not be circumvented and the law will be followed, creating an environment that is stable and predictable,” Aquino told a trade forum in the Chinese capital. Read more
Asia resilient to global slowdown
SINGAPORE, 23 August 2011 – Asia’s economic growth will likely be hurt by the slowdown in the United States and Europe, but the impact should be minimal, the Asian Development Bank said Tuesday.
ADB chief economist Changyong Rhee said the development institution is expected to slash its economic growth forecast for Asia’s developing economies this year and next.
“Definitely, it’s going to slow down and we have already started to see some slowdown in exports from Asia,” he told journalists in Singapore. Read more
Singapore costly place to live?
June 9, 2011 by AFP
Filed under News, Southeast Asia
SINGAPORE, 9 June 2011 – Singapore has overtaken Hong Kong to become the third costliest economy in Asia for expatriates’ daily needs because of its strengthening currency, human resource firm ECA International said Wednesday.
It said the Singapore dollar, which has surged by more than 10%t against the greenback, pushed the city-state to third place above Hong Kong, with Japan and South Korea remaining the two most expensive countries.
ECA International carries out a survey twice a year by measuring a basket of common items purchased by expatriates in more than 400 locations globally, such as dairy produce, vegetables, clothing and meals out.
India strengthens links with ASEAN
March 3, 2011 by AFP
Filed under News, South Asia
NEW DELHI, 3 March 2011 – India and the 10-nation ASEAN bloc aim to increase trade 40% by 2012 on the back of a free trade pact and push for deeper economic integration, an New Delhi said on Wednesday.
Asia’s third-largest economy has long courted its eastern neighbours under its “Look East” policy, hoping for increased commerce and investment with the ASEAN zone of nearly 600 million people.
India is already a strong business partner with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand but is keen to expand its presence in Indonesia and Vietnam. Tourism is a strong component in trade talks due to India transformation into a major supply market for ASEAN destinations.
Recover beset by tension and strains
SINGAPORE, 1 February 2011 – Widening imbalances across and within countries are sparking tensions which threaten to derail the fragile global economic recovery, the IMF chief said Tuesday.
International Monetary Fund managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, warned that these tensions could lead to rising protectionism, social and political instability and even spark war.
“While the recovery is underway, it is not the recovery we wanted,” he said at a public lecture in Singapore.
Tourism drives Sri Lanka’s recovery
COLOMBO, 5 January 2011 – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank on Tuesday forecast the island’s post-war recovery would accelerate this year with 8.5 % economic growth on the back of a blistering expansion in tourism.
The country’s economy grew 8.0% in 2010, up from 3.5% a year earlier when security forces were in the final stages of crushing Tamil Tiger rebels and ending decades of ethnic bloodshed.
“We expect growth to accelerate to 9% in 2012 and 9.5% in 2013,” Central Bank governor Nivard Cabraal said in a statement outlining the bank’s monetary policy for 2011.
Nepal’s tourism up 15%
KATHMANDU, 4 January 2011 – A record number of tourists flew to Nepal last year, with most of the growth coming from neighbouring India and China, according to official figures released Monday.
The Nepal Tourism Board said the arrival of 448,769 foreign visitors at the country’s only international airport in 2010, 15% more than in 2009, showed tourism had recovered from the impact of a 10-year civil war.
Australian floods hurt economy
SYDNEY, 4 January 2011 – Massive floods washing through northeast Australia, wiping out crops and swamping coal mines, are pushing up commodity prices and could shave national growth figures, economists said Tuesday.
The flood disaster in Queensland state, which supplies half the world’s coking coal used for steel manufacture, has brought major mining operations to a standstill amid warnings it could be months before full production resumes.
Dubai might privatise public firms
DUBAI, 29 November 2010 – Debt-laden Dubai is looking into a possible privatisation of public sector firms and offloading international assets, but is waiting for the right time for a good return, officials said Sunday.
“We continue to work to diversify our financing sources and broaden the space for participation in the wealth of our economy,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, the head of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee.
“We continue to work on opening the door for public subscription in some of our large companies,” he added in a meeting with the media titled “Dubai economic update forum.”
Tourism to help Dubai’s recovery
DUBAI, 26 November 2010 – A year after scaring global markets over its debt crisis, Dubai still has a huge legacy of debt to deal with over the medium term, and is leaning on its core economic sectors for recovery.
The focus in the city-state has shifted to the traditionally strong sectors of trade, logistics and tourism in order to recover slowly from a crisis caused primarily by a boom-to-bust real estate frenzy.
Financial markets woke up in the red last year, 26 November, after Dubai signalled its need for a standstill on debt payments by its largest conglomerate, Dubai World.
