.
China
has opened its state-owned
and once-strategic sectors of its economy to private
investment, which will extend the sale of entrepreneur
industries that have been monopolized by the government.
.
Senior officials from US, EU and IEA (Intl. Energy Agency)
expressed surprise at Saudi forecast and warned that
sustained high oil prices would eventually hurt global
growth.
.
It would make oil 15% more expensive than last year and
leave it more than $25 above the average price in the 1990s.
.
“It is time to be serious about energy efficiency.” (Charles
Mandid, head of IEA, the industrial countries’ energy
monitor, said high prices were a worry for the world
economy).
.
China’s current account
surplus in 2004
rose to about $70 billion, some $25 billion higher than the
previous year, according to data from the People’s Bank of
China, the central bank.
.
China must restrict its
textile exports to avoid destabilizing world trade with a
flood of cheap goods, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson
warned.
.
China’s National People Congress (NPC) will approve
an increase of 12.6% to $30 billion in the country’s defense
budget, highlighting its rapidly growing military strength.
.
China’s vast low-cost
manufacturing machine, along with the reveling appetites of
its billion-plus consumers, have turned China’s people into
what is arguably the greatest natural resource on the
planet.
.
How the Chinese and the rest of the world use that resource
will shape our economy and every other economy in the world
as powerfully as American industrialization & expansion have
in the last 100 years.
.
Hong Kong’s
embattled CEO (Tung Chee-hwa) is preparing to resign at the
end of a meeting of the Chinese legislature this month.
.
Politicians and analysts described his possible departure as
a deft political maneuver by the Chinese leadership that
could ultimately weaken HK’s democratic opposition by
depriving it of a favorite target.
.
Reaction to reports of his resignation was mixed. Democracy
activists expressed satisfaction at seeing an old nemesis go
down but regretted that he had not been ousted in an
election.
.
Taiwan’s
president & main opposition leaders agreed to relax
restrictions on business ties with China and to cooperate to
improve relations with the mainland.
.
They (Pres. Chen & James Soong, Chair of People First Party)
are a step towards ending a political impasse that has
marred Mr. Chen’s minority government.
.
They are pledged to seek talks with China for full transport
and commercial links across the Taiwan Strait.
.
The national child shortage
in raising fears about Japan’s long-term ability to
maintain its status as the world’s second-largest economy
after the US.
.
Its disappearing schools is
emblematic of the problem. More than 2k elementary, junior
high and high schools nationwide have been forced to close
over the past decade.
.
The number of hospitals with pediatric wards shrank to 3,473
in 2000 from 4,119 in 1990, according to government
statistics.
.
Opening Japan to immigration is enormously controversial in
a society that is 98.8% ethnically homogeneous and in many
respects, still workably xenophobic.
.
In a recent poll (by Yomiuri newspaper), 7 out of 10 single
women have no desire to become wives, a role that means
staying home and raise children.
.
Tokyo prosecutors arrested Japanese railway tycoon Yoshiaki
Tsutsumi and its major shareholder (Kokudo) over allegations
that he ordered financial statements to be falsified.
.
The number of men in Japan
has begun to shrink for the first time since records began.
Japan’s population could fall for the rest of the century
with some estimates suggesting it could decline by nearly
2/3 to 45 million by 2100.
.
SMFG announced that it has withdrawn its $36 billion bid to
merge with rival bank UFJ, bringing and end to an
unprecedented 8th month battle with MTFG.
.
Korea
is undergoing a social revolution through the abolition of
the family register (hoju-je) that places the man at
the head of the family and defines everyone else in relation
to him.
.
The inequities between rich and poor in South Korea remain.
Statistics show that the number of people earning less than
the minimum wage of $3 an hour is troublingly on the rise,
climbing to 1.25 million in 2004, from 850k in 2002.
.
The Arroyo Administration in
the Philippines has earmarked close to P80 million in
4 years to complete the implementation of the land
distribution component of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CAPP) over the same period.
.
Pres. GMA distributed checks worth P450k to augment
capitalization of 3 organizations under Self Employment
Assistance-Kaunlaran Integrated Program (SEA-K) of the
Dept. of Social Welfare & Development.
.
Malacanang defended the seismic research agreement between
China and RP as consistent with the cornerstone of foreign
policy of Pres. GMA.
.
Thailand
slams Australia for warning travelers to stay away from
Phuket and Krabi where thousands of people died in the
tsunami. Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has lost
more than 30 billion baths ($1 billion) to date.
.
One thing that characterizes
Thailand’s foreign policy is the ability to take advantage
of the rivalries of larger powers. Its close relationship
with China sits alongside an alliance relationship with the
US.
.
Mindful that non-Communist states in SE Asia were in real
trouble and the limitations of what Washington could do for
them, Thailand forged a relationship with China in 1975.
.
China and Thailand essentially found a different alliance
that ultimately extended to the armed forces of the two
countries.
.
Recently, Thailand feels that China has failed to aid them
in stemming the flood of drugs and people of Burma. A
burgeoning 2-way trade of $12 billion in 2003 is weighted
heavily in China’s favor.
.
A recent report by the UN Food & Agriculture Org and
the Thai government found a correlation between roaming
ducks and the epidemic in the country’s lucrative chicken
industry.
.
Indonesia
is considering asking UNHCR to leave Aceh by the end of the
month, saying the UN refugee agency may have outlived its
usefulness and may be straying outside its mandate in the
tsunami-stricken province.
.
Congress made resumption of US military training (International
Military Education & Training Program) for
Indonesian officers dependent on certification by Secretary
of State that Jakarta was helping the FBI investigate the
killings of 2 US schoolteachers in Papua in 2002.
.
The Chinese community in
Malaysia hold on to their Chinese roots, but consider
themselves fully as Malaysian, said BBC.
.
Vietnam
suspended the breeding of
all ducks in an effort to control the bird flu epidemic
which has killed 12 people in Jan, and spread to half its
cities & provinces.
.
The population of India
will overtake that of China before 2030, 5 years earlier
than expected, a UN population report predicts.
.
India’s state-owned energy giants, led by Oil & National
Gas Corporation, are trying to catch up with China
(acquiring vast assets of oil & gas around the world) now
that they have the green light from the government to expand
internationally.
.
The goal is to triple the annual flow of oil from India’s
overseas energy assets to 20 million barrels by 2010. Over
the same period, domestic output from its natural field is
expected to rise, from 30 million to 50 million barrels.
.
Economic growth of 6% a year will push share of imported
oil, from 70% of the total energy consumed in India, to 86%
by 2025.
.
While it is in the interest of Indian companies to seek
cooperation with Chinese companies, the cash-rich Chinese
can afford not to.
.
King Gyanendra of Nepal
shocked the nation and surprised the US and other allies for
firing the Govt, detaining more than 100 political opponents
and suspending basic liberties, e.g. press & assembly.
.
The king’s action was
condemned in Washington and other foreign capitals as a
miscalculation that will frustrate the search for a peaceful
end to the 9-year insurgency that claimed more than 10 lives
and paralyzed the economy.
.
There is ambivalence among Nepalese disillusioned by their
short experience with democracy and the chilling efficiency
of the government’s measures to suppress dissent.
