R&D in China: Research and embezzlement

R&D in China: Research and embezzlement
Mar 20th 2014, 7:58 by Y.O. | BEIJING
Among China’s high-profile corruption cases, an investigation of provincial science administrators would not seem the most consequential. But one case in Guangdong province hints at the scale of corruption and waste that plague China’s state-led science and technology system. Compared to China’s rigid education system corruption is an under-appreciated—but perhaps as important—obstacle to innovation. Read more of this post

Investing in infrastructure: The trillion-dollar gap; How to get more of the world’s savings to pay for new roads, airports and electricity

Investing in infrastructure: The trillion-dollar gap; How to get more of the world’s savings to pay for new roads, airports and electricity
Mar 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

IF YOU have been to New York’s La Guardia airport recently, taken a train during London’s rush hour, tried to drive in Lagos or endured one of India’s ubiquitous power cuts, you will have first-hand knowledge of the world’s infrastructure deficit. According to the World Economic Forum, global spending on basic infrastructure—transport, power, water and communications—currently amounts to $2.7 trillion a year when it ought to be $3.7 trillion. The gap is almost as big as South Korea’s GDP. And it is likely to grow fast. Read more of this post

The great transition: The government is right to reform the “hukou” system, but it needs to be braver

The great transition: The government is right to reform the “hukou” system, but it needs to be braver
Mar 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

CHINA’S future is now firmly urban. Already around 54% of its people live in cities—and the proportion is rising fast as ever more jobs are created in offices, factories and construction sites, luring ever more people from the countryside. There are now around 250m rural migrants living in cities. Despite many wobbles, in the property market (see article) and elsewhere, this extraordinary revolution has been surprisingly smooth: there are, for instance, very few shanty towns of the sort you see in Brazil or India. Yet at the heart of prosperous, urban China sits an enormous inequality, based upon the hukou system of household registration. Read more of this post

The Secret Trading Strategy From The 1930s That Hedge Funders Don’t Want You To Know About

PRESENTING: The Secret Trading Strategy From The 1930s That Hedge Funders Don’t Want You To Know About
MATTHEW BOESLER MARKETS MAR. 20, 2014, 3:24 AM
“The large operator does not, as a rule, go into a campaign unless he sees in prospect a movement of from 10 to 50 points. Livermore once told me he never touched anything unless there were at least 10 points in it according to his calculations.” Read more of this post

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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