. Imports
from members of ASEAN increased 51.7% in 2003, reaching $47.3
billion, said the Commerce Ministry of China. The result was a
trade deficit of $16.4 billion with ASEAN’s 10 member nations.
. Fast
growing Asian telecom groups often found themselves short of
skilled staff and had outsourced network management to the
companies supplying them with hardware, e.g., IBM.
. The resilience displayed by general
insurance markets in the Asia-Pacific region is
weakening, with a fall in underwriting profitability across the
region expected this year, said S&P rating services.
. Govt. officials and private economists have warned
that unless China’s economy cools down a little from
its growth rate of more than 9% a year, it risks inflation,
overcapacity and maybe a crash.
. Although China’s imports from US rose
24.3% last year, they still accounted for only $33.8 billion,
compared with an increase of 32.2% in exports to US market,
worth $92.5 billion.
.
Investment in steel, cement and aluminum had risen 96%, 122% and
93% respectively last year, as factories struggled to keep up
with construction demands. Investment in steel rose by more than
100%, and in aluminum by 39% in Q1 of 2004.
.
As incomes rise and a middle class emerges, the private
automobile has become a must. The number of cars made and sold
in China increased by 75% to just under 2 million.
.
As Shanghai’s population heads towards 20 million by 2010,
land values are likely to continue to rise, and a workday is
likely to spill into the late evening.
. For
many jobs in China, looks matter. Many Chinese are denied Govt.
jobs because they do not meet an often unwritten code of
fitness, e.g., height, looks, robust good health, that have
nothing to do with their ability to perform the task in
question.
.
Officials are no longer selected on the basis ideological fervor
or working-class background but rather in ways that seem more
reminiscent of China’s imperial history.
. Beijing has been trying to close investment
in apartments, buildings, factories and other fixed assets,
which rose 43% in Q1.
. Industrial production, bank lending, foreign
investment, imports and the increase in money supply all roughly
maintained the brisk pace they had set in March. The only
appreciable slowing came in the growth rate for exports, causing
China’s trade deficit to widen.
. Scientists say pollution is reducing the amount of
sunlight reaching the Earth, with Hong Kong suffering a
37%decline since the 1950s.
. US officials have warned Taiwan that any
unilateral move toward formal independence would recklessly risk
a war that could destroy the freedom, prosperity and autonomy it
currently enjoys.
.
“If Taiwan leaders stress more recklessly to provoke major
incidents of Taiwan independence, the Chinese people will crush
their schemes firmly and thoroughly at any cost.” (PRC)
. Pres. Chen intends to rewrite 80% to 90% of
the constitution to streamline the govt. and make it more
democratic. But the reforms would not touch on sensitive issues
of sovereignty, including Taiwan’s name, flag and definition
of its territory.
. Japan’s recovery is spreading to include both exports and
domestic spending, said the IMF, projecting growth as high as 4%
this year.
. Nokia
plans to significantly expand its R&D operations in China.
It said 40% of its phones would e designed at a research center
in Beijing, and that it would cooperate with 10 Chinese
universities to develop new ideas.
. Japan’s
economy grew at a better-than-expected annual pace of 5.6%
during the first 3 months of this year, making 8 straight months
of expansion, the best showing in 10 years.
. A
rare meeting between leaders of Japan and North Korea focused on
abductees and nuclear
issues.
.
Three senior UFJ bank executives are expected to resign soon
over loans believed to be up Y400 billion ($3.5 billion) against
a forecast Y78 billion profit.
. Sony is seriously considering the
acquisition of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, said its CEO but
declined to say when a decision was expected.
.
AOL is withdrawing from Japan and selling its Internet service
to Tokyo-based E-Access, which supplies Internet service
providers with high-speed access to the Web.
.
Mitsubishi Motors will get a $4 billion infusion from its parent
and other investors, and will close an engine plant in Australia
and a car plant in Okazaki, Japan.
. A Japanese-led consortium is set to bid or a
near $1 billion for a Chinese rail project designed to double
the speed of conventional locomotives on China’s main railways
to more than 250 kms. per hour.
. South Korea’s economy grew more slowly than expected in Q1,
official data showed last week. Central Bank warned a pickup was
unlikely this quarter because of record oil prices and an
investment clampdown in China.
. Washington’s planned relocation of 4k
troops from S. Korea to Iraq has raised concerns in Seoul that
the move could weaken national security.
. S. Korea contributed $113 million to the
latest replenishment of ADB’s anti-poverty fund, which totaled
$7 billion to be disbursed between 2005 and 2008. “The Korean
Govt. has been contemplating ways to return the valued favor we
received through the ADB to fellow countries in need of
assistance.” (Prime Minister Goh Kun).
. Singapore Telecom (SingTel) offered to buy UeComm of Australia
for $153 million to speed growth at Optus, the Australian unit
that provides two-thirds of its revenue.
. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was reelected President of
the Philippines with 39.5% of the votes versus Fernando
Poe Jr.’s 36.6%. The margin of Arroyo’s lead was more than
900k votes, officials said.
. A
perennial problem of RP elections is the unwillingness of losers
to concede. FPJ, GMA’s movie star rival in the May 10 vote,
claims massive fraud and warned of “people power” revolt. We’ve
heard that song before!
. Hundreds of Malaysian troops were deployed to
nearby built outposts along the nation’s borders with
Thailand’s Muslim-dominated south, the site of dozens of
clashes between suspected Islamist separatists and Thai military
in recent months.
. Indonesia became a net importer of crude oil for the first
time in February, raising questions about its status as a member
of OPEC.
. Unions
have helped push the average wage in Jakarta to about $75 a
month, by companies have responded by hiring more temporary
workers.
. Sonia Gandhi stunned the nation by telling a chaotic
meeting of her supporters that she would not accept the job of
prime minister. She will keep her seat in Parliament and the
leadership role in the party.
. A
former finance minister (Manmohan Singh), who opened up the
Indian economy in the 1990s, was elected prime minister, a post
turned down by Sonia Gandhi.
.
Singh is a Sikh who would be the first minister of a religious
minority t hold the top job in this nation of more than 1
billion people.
.
“It allows her [Sonia Gandhi] to assume the high moral ground
and signal that she was by no means enamored of power for its
own sake, but power for the principles she believes in. She has
thus neatly disarmed her political opponents of the one weapon
they had hoped to use against her.” (Indian Express
newspaper)
. India’s stock market took the
biggest one-day plunge in its 129-year history as investors
panicked over how Communist arties would influence the new govt.
More than $45 billion in market capital has been wiped out.
. [The defeat of] BPJ (Bharatiya Janata Party)
is expected to move sharply to the right following the failure
of a campaign that stressed development & moderation over
its core agenda of Hindu nationalism.
. A Pentecostal preacher was kidnapped in SW Pakistan
by an unknown Islamic militant group after he disappeared in the
southwestern city of Quetta.
. A bomb exploded in a Muslim shrine in NE Bangladesh,
killing two people. The British ambassador was among the 40
people wounded, police said.
. Three suspected militants who killed 23 people
detained after 4 US soldiers were shot and wounded during raids
against militia forces in Tami district, Khost province, Afghanistan
said the US military.
. Eduard Nektalov of Uzbekistan was killed in
cold blood in New York by hoods trying to keep him from spilling
the beans about the underbelly of the world’s leading jewelry
market. He was under federal indictment for allegedly using his
business to help Colombian drug dealers launder money.
