In the wake of a recently exposed insider trading scandal, Acer Inc. (宏碁) founder and President Stan Shih (施振榮) issued an apology yesterday to the public via an open letter

Acer president apologizes to investors amid scandal
By John Liu ,The China Post
March 20, 2014, 12:05 am TWN
TAIPEI, Taiwan — In the wake of a recently exposed insider trading scandal, Acer Inc. (宏碁) founder and President Stan Shih (施振榮) issued an apology yesterday to the public via an open letter. Read more of this post

Timing just not right for ‘mini-HK’; It is no secret that Leung Chun-ying wants to expand Hong Kong’s reach in the Pearl River Delta region.

Timing just not right for ‘mini-HK’
Mary Ma
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
It is no secret that Leung Chun-ying wants to expand Hong Kong’s reach in the Pearl River Delta region.
Even before being elected chief executive, he talked about how the SAR could play a bigger role in the mainland.
Thus, when it was reported the government was studying the possibility of leasing land in Nansha or Hengqin to build a “mini-Hong Kong” to allow industries to expand, it didn’t surprise many people in political circles.

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Big but not strong: China still can’t compete with the US

Big but not strong: China still can’t compete with the US
Tseng Fu-sheng
2014-03-20
Since the launch of economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world’s second-largest economy, the largest merchandise trader and the largest manufacturer, with forex reserves topping US$3.8 trillion, including US$1.2 trillion of US government bonds, for a share of 9%, making it the US’ largest creditor. Read more of this post

Defective market structure overshadows China’s trust industry

Defective market structure overshadows China’s trust industry
Staff Reporter
2014-03-20
Due to the reliance of the Chinese economy on the momentum deriving from investments and exports, the country’s trust industry has concentrated the assets under their custody on investing in fields featuring high security and high yields, such as the government sector and infrastructural facilities. The concentrated investments, however, have led to excessive supply and rapidly rising risks, overshadowing the industry’s development prospects, according to the Chinese-language Economic Observer.

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Olam – Is it a bailout using public funds?

Olam – Is it a bailout using public funds?
Chua Chin Leng aka redbean March 20th, 2014

Olam’s stock prices from 21 Sep 2012 to 20 Dec 2012
The acquisition of Olam by Temasek is raising eyebrows and frowns from many quarters.Kenneth Jeyaratnam has commented negatively on it. Below is Christopher Balding’sarticle on the buyout of Olam. Temasek seems to be very bullish in this commodity trading company. It came out in full support when it was shorted down by Muddy Waters a year ago. Now it is making an offer with the possibility to buying over the company at a high price of $2.23 when it could have had the company for a song when it was under attack. Why? Why buy at such a huge premium and not when it was about 90c? Another case of buying high? OPM?

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Himatsingka Seide: Spinning a Success Story; Dinesh Kumar Himatsingka and son Shrikant’s focus on design and technology has ensured their company remains on a fast growth trajectory

Himatsingka Seide: Spinning a Success Story
by Debojyoti Ghosh | Mar 20, 2014
Dinesh Kumar Himatsingka and son Shrikant’s focus on design and technology has ensured their company remains on a fast growth trajectory
There is no monopoly on good taste. It is this epiphany—combined with the business acumen that has driven the Marwari community for generations—that has spawned a home-grown textile success story in the erstwhile pensioner’s paradise of Bangalore. Read more of this post

Giant robots officially fly the flag for cool Japan

Giant robots officially fly the flag for cool Japan
BY TIM HORNYAK
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES
MAR 20, 2014
Silent defender: Giant robots, such as this 18-meter-high Gundam in Tokyo’s Odaiba, are the subject of a government white paper. | AP

With its mountains of public debt, a nuclear meltdown to mop up and the 2020 Olympics bill, you’d think the last thing the Japanese government would be spending taxpayer money on is a study on robots in science fiction.

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South Korean President Park Geun-hye formally declared a ‘war against regulation.’

Park pledges to combat regulation
Kim Seon-gul, Lee Jae-cheol
2014.03.20 17:58:30
South Korean President Park Geun-hye formally declared a ‘war against regulation.’
“Regulation reform is the extraordinary measure needed for the Korean economy,” said the President at the Presidential Office Thursday as she presided the first ministerial and private-public meeting on regulation reform.

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Religious Leaders Accused of Misleading, Abusing Followers

Religious Leaders Accused of Misleading, Abusing Followers
By Jakarta Globe on 10:22 pm Mar 19, 2014
Ellya Rossa’s search for a traditional healer to treat a chronic heart ailment brought her to Guntur Bumi, an ustad, or Islamic cleric, who has often appeared in television commercials plugging his “alternative healing” clinic.

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The New Face of Indonesian Democracy

The New Face of Indonesian Democracy
By Derwin Pereira on 08:33 pm Mar 19, 2014
Indonesia’s democratic consolidation took a step forward with the nomination of Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as the presidential candidate of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). The presidential election, which will be held in July following parliamentary elections next month, could be expected to entrench the political gains made in the vast archipelagic state since the downfall of the autocrat Suharto in 1998.

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Bloomberg Should Have Rethought Articles on China, Chairman Says; Sales of financial-data terminals declined sharply in China after its news service published articles on the family wealth of high-ranking politicians in the country

Bloomberg Should Have Rethought Articles on China, Chairman Says
By NEIL GOUGHMARCH 20, 2014
Peter T. Grauer, chairman of Bloomberg L.P., said being in China “occupies a lot of our thinking.” CreditGonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
HONG KONG — The chairman of Bloomberg L.P. said in a speech here on Thursday that the company should have reconsidered articles that deviated from the core of its coverage, business news, in light of the huge potential for its products in the Chinese market.

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