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US China Set Pact On Auditor Access
The US and China have struck an agreement giving US accounting regulators access to documents from Chinese accounting firms. The deal, expected to be announced Friday, could help US regulators investigate the auditors of US-listed Chinese companies that might have been involved in accounting fraud. The agreement will allow the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to see audit records ...
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New concerns for China’s rising middle class
With two cars, foreign holidays and a cook for their apartment, one Beijing family epitomises the new middle class created by China’s decades of rapid economic growth – and its resulting worries. Li Na, 42, a caterer at the capital’s zoo, and her husband Chi Shubo, 48, who works for a state-owned investment company, have seen their fortunes transformed since she arrived in ...
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China Pakistan vow to deepen co-op in joint statement
China and Pakistan have agreed to cement their strategic partnership and deepen comprehensive strategic cooperation in various areas, according to a joint statement issued Thursday during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to the South Asian nation. The statement said both sides are satisfied with their relationship, which contributed to peace and stability in the region and acquired ...
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China US to try new tone in desert outing
China and the United States are hoping for a new chance to set the course for smoother relations through a secluded desert summit as the Asian power’s leader Xi Jinping projects a more confident style. Xi and Barack Obama will meet June 7-8 at the tony Sunnylands resort in Rancho Mirage, California, their first encounter since the Chinese president took power and three months ahead of ...
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China’s Steel Overcapacity Seen Continuing
Serious overcapacity in China’s steel industry is unlikely to ease in 2013, which could hamper steel prices and jeopardise Chinese steelmakers’ performance, a China-based analyst said Thursday. China is set to produce about 750 million metric tonnes of crude steel in 2013, while capacity will rise to 950 million tonnes a year as some 50 million tonnes new capacity is being built, ...
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The Powerful People Arguing for US-China Free Trade
Recommending that the US and China work toward a free-trade deal is a bit like stepping into a prize fight and asking the boxers to settle their differences peacefully. But some powerful people on both sides of the Pacific Ocean are doing exactly that. A report by a blue-ribbon, binational panel assembled by the China-United States Exchange Foundation said this week that the countries ...
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Huawei’s Middle East revenue rose 18pct in 2012 executive
China’s Huawei Technologies Co’s Middle East revenue rose 18 percent to $2.08 billion in 2012 and the roll-out of 4G mobile networks and IT outsourcing will be among its main regional growth drivers, the firm said. The world’s second-largest telecom equipment maker also expects Middle East telecom operators to prioritise improving network efficiency, Shi Yaohong, president of ...
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Japan’s Meiji Yasuda can start buying 10-yr JGBs at 1 pct
Japan’s Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co said on Friday it will shift some of the money earmarked for foreign bonds to Japanese government bonds given their rise in yields. Japan’s third-largest private life insurer said it can start buying 10-year Japanese government bonds at 1 percent and 20-year debt at 1.7 percent. The 10-year yield was traded at 0.825 percent on Friday ...
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Indian companies line up to raise funds in Singapore
Easy access and a diversified investor base in the Singapore bond market is increasingly attracting Indian firms looking to raise money at cheaper rates. They have raised S$1 billion this year, already 30 percent higher than the whole of 2012, according to Dealogic, the global deal tracker. Recently, four Tata companies, including the marquee Tata Motors Ltd, raised $624 million in Singapore ...
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Scientist’s family seeks US Congress Thai expert’s help
The parents of a US scientist found hanged in Singapore last year said Thursday they will seek a US congressional inquiry and tap a celebrity Thai pathologist to prove their son was murdered. Mary Todd, mother of the late researcher Shane Todd whose death in June 2012 was ruled a suicide by the Singapore police, indicated the family did not expect the US government to intervene because of its ...
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HSBC Plans to Sell First Yuan Bond to Be Cleared in Singapore – Sources
HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) plans to sell the first yuan-denominated bond to be cleared out of Singapore, in a step forward for the city-state which is trying to build itself into an offshore trading hub for the Chinese currency. The UK banking giant’s plan comes as Singapore is set to kick off its long-anticipated yuan-clearing service Monday, after Beijing in February approved Industrial ...
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Philippines exports 15 metric tonnes of rice to HK
A shipment of 15 metric tonnes (MT) of black, brown and red rice from the Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative (DBMPC) in Cotabato was exported last May 15 to Hong Kong, the department said in a statement. This is the country’s second rice shipment this month. The first shipment was on May 6 where 35 MT of organic black rice and aromatic Jasponica rice was sent to Dubai. Agriculture ...
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Philippines business sentiment at all-time high in Q2 Central bank survey
Business sentiment in the Philippines soared to an all-time high during the second quarter after the country was awarded investment grade credit ratings by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, the central bank said on Thursday. The result of the central bank’s quarterly Business Expectations Survey showed the overall confidence index rising to 54.9 per cent from first ...
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Philippines cemetery provides Manila’s poor a place to live among the dead
Every morning, Alberto Lagarda Evangelista, 71, leaves the two-storey, lemon-yellow home he has lived in for the past decade and walks to work at the cemetery next door. As a caretaker of about 20 graves, Evangelista earns just 20,000 pesos (GBP 315) a year, a sum so small that he must share his house with seven other people – all of whom are dead. Evangelista lives and works in the ...
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Grounded ship is Philippines’ last line of defence
A handful of marines living on a World War II-era ship that is grounded on a remote, tiny reef is the Philippines’ last line of defence against China’s efforts to control most of the South China Sea. The soldiers are stationed on Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands aboard a former US tank-landing vessel that was deliberately abandoned there to serve as a base, according to ...
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Forum on Pan-Asian traveler trends
/enpproperty--> Set for June 3 at the Shanghai Theater, Portman Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai, the International Luxury Travel Market Asia 2013 opening forum will hear leading industry experts discussing the ongoing rise of the region's luxury travel industry and explore opportunities to build business across the region. Continuing until June 6, the expo will host nearly 500 elite ...
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Thailand-Japan plan two-way tourism traffic flows.
In an effort to address a gap in travel between Thailand and the island of Kyushu in Japan, a tourism exchange was recently organized in the city of Fukuoka between the Thai Government and the private sector of ...
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‘Joke’ prompts British jets to divert airliner carrying 300 from Pakistan
A Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft is seen parked on the tarmac at Stansted Airport, southern England, May 24, 2013. British fighter jets escorted a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane to Stansted Airport near London on Friday, where police went on board and arrested two men on suspicion of endangering an aircraft. REUTERS/ Paul Hackett (BRITAIN - Tags: CRIME LAW ...
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Indonesias central bank chief urges countrys banks to compete overseas
Map: Indonesia Indonesia's new central bank governor has urged the country's banks to be ready to compete internationally as authorities seek access to foreign markets.The new governor of Indonesia's central bank, Agus Martowardojo, says Indonesian banks will have tomeet international standards asthey move into other markets inthe region.Mr Martowardojo says also wants to ...
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Blunder in Burma Scrapping of EU Sanctions Sends Wrong Message
Over the past two years, Burma has been emerging from 50 years of brutal military rule at a breathtaking pace. The country has made some impressive and unprecedented changes, including the release of many political prisoners, the rolling back of censorship and the lifting of restrictions to allow opposition political parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, to ...
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Expert US Foreign Policy in Retreat
A former senior advisor to the late Richard Holbrooke, who served as U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, says when it comes to foreign policy, the U.S. is in "retreat." Vali Nasr, who is now dean of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), said the Obama administration has concluded that the best way forward for the United States ...
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British Security Services Scrutinized After Soldiers Murder
A police officer guards a block of flats in Greenwich following a raid in connection with the killing of a British soldier in nearby Woolwich, southeast London, May 23, ...
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Unclaimed Vietnam veterans laid to rest with honors
Three Vietnam-era veterans were laid to rest Friday with full military honors, years after their deaths. Sergeant Roger Thompson and Private First Class Fred Hall died in January 2010. Private Gary Sharp died in April 2011, but their cremated remains went unclaimed at the East Tennessee Regional Forensic Center. The Missing in America project contacted the medical examiner's office ...
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Myanmar’s Young Expats Consider Returning Home
This week, Myanmar President Thein Sein made his first state visit to Washington. It was the first time in nearly 50 years that one of that country's leaders had been welcomed to the US with full diplomatic fanfare. As Mynanmar takes on more democratic reforms, ex-pats from the country are closely watching too. I met up with two young ex-pats--graduate students at Columbia University in ...
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Print Media Thrives In Myanmar Where Internet Is Limited
Although print media is often seen as past its prime in the U.S. and Europe, in many Asian countries such as China and India newspapers are thriving and expanding. One example is Myanmar, also known as Burma, where only 1 percent of the people have access to the Internet, and private daily newspapers are rushing into print after decades of being ...
Sri Lankan Focus
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Sri Lanka sees major tourism industry investment
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, especially the cruising scene, is getting back on its feet following the war, with significant interest being shown by major cruise lines wanting to schedule Sri Lankan ports on Indian Ocean Cruises, while the local yachting scene is seeing exciting growth and a local cruise industry may be emerging from infancy.
Sri Lanka, following the long and devastating civil war, which lasted around two and a half decades, is now making renewed attempts to redevelop its tourist industry. The industry is extremely import to the economy of Sri Lanka and is a vital part of the country’s access to foreign currency reserves, but saw marked declines in tourist arrivals during periods in which the ongoing civil war was perceived to be increasing in intensity and violence. Read more
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