- IV.
International
0
American companies
have invested $52 billion in the region compared with $22 billion
by Chinese companies and $54 billion by Japanese
companies, said Ernest Bower, President of US-ASEAN Business
Council.
0
Despite the arrest of more than 200 members of
terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah, there were no
indications the arrests had seriously damaged the group’s
command and control, Canberra said.
0
Cumbersome regulations for businesses make it harder
for countries to lift themselves out of poverty, while increasing
the potential for corruption, according to the World Bank.
0
SCO’s
lawsuit against IBM claiming that the latter copied SCO’s UNIX
code into its LINUX operating system software, may have had a
positive effect on Red Hat’s business. Red Hat is
increasing its business operations in Asia and has not seen
any slowdown in plans from the lawsuit, which demands licensing
fees from users of the code at issue.
0
President
Ju Hintao has made his most significant call yet for the reform of
China’s political system and the expansion of people’s
participation in politics, the official New China News Agency
reported.
0
China’s year-to-date auto imports through August rose
43.7% from a year ago to 117,074, Chinese Customs said. China
cut tariffs last year to as low as 43.8% and will eventually lower
them to 25%.
0
China is
awash in easy credit these days, spurring a national spending and
investment spree in everything from residential property to wine,
cars, steel and shopping malls.
0
China’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at a US
Government report that criticized Beijing’s human rights record
and urged the UN to send an investigator to look into torture,
calling it based on “arrogance and prejudices.”
0
Hong Kong has unveiled a new money-for-residency program to attract foreign
wealthy investors, to bring in badly needed cash to help the
territory to revitalize its struggling economy.
0
Under
the program, foreigners must invest at least 6.5 million HK
dollars, or $830,000 in real estate and securities, like stocks,
bonds and subordinated debt.
0
Investors can apply for permanent residency if they
keep their money in Hong Kong for 7 years. The program is
closed to residents of mainland China, which imposes limits
on currency leaving the country.
0
American International Group plans to buy China’s
PICC Property & Casualty for undisclosed terms. AIG was
funded in 1919 in China, where the government is starting to
dismantle a state-run welfare system.
0
China is opening its huge insurance market to
foreign firms as part of its WTO entry.
0
Cash cards—revolving lines of credit that can be used for cash at any
automatic teller machine carry 18% interest charges. They are the
hottest thing in Taiwan banking as the island’s 52 banks
strive to fatten profits eroded by record low interest rates and
intensifying competition.
0
Total
cash cards in the island of 23 million people stand at 100 billion
Taiwan dollars, or $2.95 billion—almost double from a
year earlier.
0
Taiwan’s
Semi’s September sales jumped 48% vs. last year at $560.29
million. United Micro’s rose 25% to $222.81 million. Both
chip foundries hit 90% of capacity use.
0
Taiwan Semi
is spending $59 million to build a plant in mainland China, the
first time a Taiwan chip maker has legally invested there.
0
Japan
plans to adopt regulations that will require tobacco manufacturers
to include more explicit health warnings on cigarette packaging by
July 2015, an official said.
0
“Japan…
will provide money and personnel [to Iraq]. Japan is aware of its
obligation to the international community and we will be sharing
that.” (Prime Minister Junichiro Koizmi).
0
Data from US Agency of International Development show that between 1946
and 2001, the US provided nearly $15 billion worth of economic and
military aid to South Korea.
0
According
to US military officials in the South, in 2001 the presence
of 37,000 American troops cost $2.77 billion which includes
military personnel, operations and maintenance, family housing
operations, military construction and procurement.
0
“The
South Korean people are well aware of getting consistent help in
the past 50 years. South Korea will be able to repay for
the big help by contributing to world peace.” (Pres. Roy Moo-hyun)
0
International fund aid sent to ease the suffering of North Korea
is being sold on the black market for high prices, according to
video footage released by Japanese and South Korean
human rights activists.
0
North Korea
said it is using plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel rods
to make atomic weapons that could escalate tensions on the Korean
Peninsula and raise stakes in Pyongyang’s standoff with US.
0
“The bilateral route urged by North Korea is
a trap and the demand for a nonaggression pact a canard… The
negotiations must not permit Pyongyang to turn it into a delaying
action to enable North Korea to complete this process.”
(Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger)
0
“This past Sunday marked the 50th
anniversary… of the armistice agreement… It marked a sharp
contrast between the two Koreas: North Korea, a Stalinist country,
impoverished, a third of the people being fed by international
food donations. South Korea, an open society, an open economy, 12th
largest economy in the world…” (Sam Brownback, R-KS)
0
Pres.
Arroyo will ask Pres. Bush when he visits the Philippines
on the 18th to help clean up toxic wastes in the former
US bases, e.g., Subic Naval Base in Zambales and Clark Air Force
Base in Pampanga which pose health hazards.
0
“Task Force Dubya” will deploy at least 10,000
policemen for Pres. Bush’s visit to ensure that security
measures are in place.
0
Whistleblowers who cry felony and corruption and then
reverse themselves could end up in jail ahead of the officials
they are accusing.
0
RP is probably the most target-rich
environment in Southeast Asia in terms of western style clubs,
discos, hotels and symbols of western culture such as
multinational businesses and fast-food outlets.
0
Four
babies are born every minute in RP, up sharply from a rate
of three every minute in 2000, making it the 12th most
populous country in the world, the government’s Commission on
Population reported.
0
RP this year was not as globally competitive
as it was last year due to falling productivity and lack of basic
infrastructure.
0
GMA
will run in 2004 elections promising Filipinos “a strong
republic, unity, justice and peace,” through economic and
political reforms.
0
“Any
steps that bring nearer the prospect of nuclear proliferation on
the Korean Peninsula would be a source of great concern to Indonesia,”
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalyawa said.
0
A
landslide at its Papua New Guinea gold mine killed at least
2 people. Freeport will stop work there until sometime in ’04,
hitting ’04 production and possibly ’04 profits.
0
India signed
an agreement to buy Israeli-made airborne early-warning radars in
a deal valued by analysts at $1 billion.
0
Pakistani soldiers raided an al Quaeda hideout in the country’s forbidden tribal
region, killing 12 suspected terrorists and capturing 18 others in
the military’s largest offensive against OBL.
0
The
purchase of a radar system by India from Israel alarmed Pakistan,
calling it a threat to the strategic balance in the region.
0
Vietnam
and US reached a tentative agreement to begin the first commercial
flights between the 2 countries since the end of the Vietnam War,
a Vietnamese official said.
