. Chinese textile/garment factories
have the best skilled workers & productivity, quality,
speed, production capacity, technology, storage facilities &
transportation in Asia.
. Bangladeshi factories produce at the lowest price, while Thai factories
have the best health & safety practices, followed by
Cambodia.
.
Thailand is rated higher than others for its anti-corruption
efforts.
. Two China banks announced
plans to sell out American credit cards, including the
country’s first dual-currency American
Express card.
.
Foreign investment banks
are attempting to enlist the US Govt. in a top-level lobbying
campaign to persuade China to grant them greater access to its
promising but underdeveloped securities sector.
. Shanghai media
have been ordered to play down reports that promote Christmas,
which propaganda chiefs fear may rival Chinese festivals.
.
German companies are
hoping to sign contracts worth over $1 billion this week when
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visits China on his 6th
official trip to Asia’s fastest growing economy.
. China called on US to scrap anti-dumping penalties or imports of Chinese
shrimps, denying its producers were selling at unfairly low
prices.
.
China said it is testing the safety of genetically-modified rice
but denied claims by environmentalists that that it is preparing
to allow commercial sales.
.
China Aviation Oil,
which accounts for almost all of China’s jet fuel imports,
said it had lost nearly $550 million or derivative trades and
was seeking protection from creditors.
.
The scandal for the Singapore-based group could be the biggest
case of losses from speculative trading in Singapore since
trader Nick Leesor totaled more than $1 billion in losses that
eventually led to the collapse of the UK’s Barings Bank in
1995.
.
China’s consumer price rises slowed abruptly in November,
offering further evidence that the Govt. is successfully slowing
the economy and easing pressure for a fresh rise in interest
rates.
. Taiwan’s
president has pledged to rename the island’s state-owned
enterprise by replacing “China” with “Taiwan” and to
include “Taiwan” in the name of all embassies and
representative offices abroad within 2 years.
.
Tens of thousands of TSU supporters marched in Taipei demanding
that the island discard the ROC moniker for the Republic of
Taiwan” and replace the ROC constitution with a new one.
.
China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, would be likely to
interpret a change in the country’s official name as a
declaration of independence, a move Beijing has threatened to
respond to with military force.
. Japan
has launched a $142 million “carbon fund,” billed as
Asia’s first vehicle for acquiring greenhouse gas emission
rights, as part of the country’s struggle to meet Kyoto
protocol commitments to reduce pollution.
. Tokyo named China and North Korea
are cause for security concern as it instigated overhaul of
defense priorities to meet what it regards as the changing
nature of global threats.
. Recent spats, e.g., Chinese intrusion into Japanese waters, appear to
have stiffened Tokyo’s resolve. As a senior official said,
“We are keenly aware of the growth of China’s military
capabilities.” Beijing’s defense spending was much higher
than it admitted.
.
Part of Japan’s response to China and North Korea is to
develop a joint missile defense system with the US.
.
Japan has taken a stronger line on North Korea, suspending
planned food and oil after receiving false evidence from
Pyongyang about a Japanese abductee.
.
Yen appreciation is
eating into Japanese exporters’ earnings and would force
companies to reform their operations to cope if it continues
next year, according to a report by
the Ministry of
Economy, Trade & Industry.
. PM Koizumi’s cabinet agreed to extend the deployment of Japan’s 600
non-combat troops in Iraq for up to one year, despite opposition
by more than half of Japan’s public and the Democratic
Party of Japan.
. The economy of the Philippines
grew 6.3% in the quarter, compared with 4.8% a year earlier.
Officials said a robust performance in agriculture &
services which grew 7.9% and 7.1% respectively, helped lift the
overall number. The economy grew by 4.5% last year.
. Manufacturing grew by 4.5%, while
exports increased 4.9%. RP has been struggling with huge public
debt and aping budget deficit. Efforts to increase revenue are
focused on raising taxes and creating new ones as well as
diverting itself of debt-laden corporations.
. Domestic political uncertainty
drove down foreign direct investment in 2003 to $319 million,
compared with $1.8 billion in 2002, although the government said
investment had begun to revive. Total investments in first 9
months, including foreign & domestic, rose 322% to $2.64
billion, said the trade department.
. The death of Indonesian human rights activist Munir by arsenic poisoning aboard a
flight to Amsterdam points to the “security” forces. It
points to an employee of Garuda
Airlines with apparent links to the former commander of a
pro-Jakarta, military-supported militia involved in 1999
violence in East Timor.
. Thais now appear to be pinning
their hopes for an end to the bloodshed on the fragile wings of
paper birds. The gimmicky gesture, which has enthralled the Thai
public, risks obscuring the urgent need for serious political
recognition and redress of the Muslim community’s
long-standing grievances.
. Cambodia’s
companies are hoping garment buyers have indicated they intend
to maintain or increase their purchases from the country next
year, vindicating its strategy of positioning its textile
industry as a “safe resource” of supply for image sensitive
multinationals.
.
A World Bank survey of
15 US & European buyers, which all source from across Asia,
rated the labor standards and practices of Cambodia’s garment
industry higher than those in Vietnam, China, Thailand or
Bangladesh.
.
The survey results suggest Cambodian garment manufacturers’
willingness to open their factories to independent, outside
inspectors may pay off in the scramble to compete for orders
against China, the world’s lowest cost producer.
.
Phnom Penh improved working conditions by its 1999 bilateral
trades deal with the US, which linked Cambodia’s textile
export quota to its respect for labor laws. Cambodian factories
were regularly inspected by teams from ILO; owners who refused
were denied access to the necessary quota to export to the US.
.
Russia said that India
should become a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN
Security Council if the UN’s top decision-making body was
enlarged to reflect post-Cold War realities.
.
The BBC last week said it would launch an internal investigation
into a false report it broadcast last week in which a man
purporting to work for Dow
Chemical claimed the company was setting up a $12 billion
compensation fund for victims of the Bhopal
tragedy.
. Pakistan
and India agreed last week in principle to reopen a railroad
link between the rival countries in the latest sign of warming
relations. The service between Munabao in India’s Rajasthan
state and Khokaspar in Pakistan’s Sindh province was severed
in 1965 by war between the 2 countries.
. Sri Lanka’s seaside capital of Colombo bustles with life as if
the country’s 2 decades f civil war were distant memory.
. Foreign terrorists are returning to its tropical shores in record
numbers. Hotels say business is so good they are struggling to
find rooms.
. If the mood in Colombo seems cheerful, the same cannot be said of
other parts of the island. Last week, renewed ethnic violence
broke between Tamil and Sinhalese civilians in the island’s
east, exposing the deep tensions dividing the communities.
