Bamboo Innovator

Taipei should be wary of China’s economic twists and turns

Taipei should be wary of China’s economic twists and turns

Editorial

2014-02-10

As the Chinese Year of Horse begins, many anticipate a brighter economic outlook for Taiwan and China for the rest of the year, but official figures on China’s manufacturing and non-manufacturing indexes have shown declines, indicating the country’s economic transformation may have entered a difficult patch. Read more of this post

What’s that sucking sound? It’s all the public money and private wealth being swallowed up by London

What’s that sucking sound? It’s all the public money and private wealth being swallowed up by London

This is no longer north v south: it’s the rest of the country versus a small elite in London

Aditya Chakrabortty

The Guardian, Monday 10 February 2014 20.00 GMT

Last Friday, Westminster showed its love for Scotland by putting up an Old Etonian MP for a safe Tory Oxfordshire seat to speak at the Olympics velodrome, paid for by the British public but gifted to east London. Truly, the Scottish Nationalists could ask for no better recruiting sergeant than David Cameron. Read more of this post

Myanmar’s mobile sector is regarded as one of the world’s last remaining frontiers for companies; mobile penetration in Myanmar estimated at around 11% is the fourth-lowest rate in the world

February 11th 2014

Telecoms take-off

The development of Myanmar’s nascent mobile telecommunications sector is poised to take off. Operating licences have been granted to two international telecoms operators, Norway’s Telenor and Qatar’s Ooredoo, which have committed to invest billions of dollars to provide almost total mobile coverage within five years. But with mobile penetration in Myanmar estimated at around 11%—the fourth-lowest rate in the world—and a lack of requisite infrastructure in large areas of the country, Telenor and Ooredoo have a daunting task ahead of them. Read more of this post

Nestle hints at more deals after deeper healthcare dive

Nestle hints at more deals after deeper healthcare dive

8:19am EST

By Martinne Geller and Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) – Swiss food giant Nestle’s deeper dive into healthcare by taking over the dermatology joint venture it had with L’Oreal suggests further deals in the space are likely.

The move underscores Nestle’s determination to move beyond relatively stagnant traditional food markets into “wellness”, where growth prospects and profit margins are more enticing. Read more of this post

Entrepreneurs Push Back Against Rising LLC Fees

Entrepreneurs Push Back Against Rising LLC Fees

ANGUS LOTEN and RHONDA COLVIN

Updated Feb. 12, 2014 7:48 p.m. ET

Patrick Lewis filed paperwork to incorporate his mobile-app design firm in New York state late last month, paying the state-required $200 fee up front. No problem.

But the 24-year-old software designer faces another hurdle to incorporation. Under state law, he must arrange to print a notice in a local newspaper within four months that announces his firm, Butterscotch Labs LLC, is officially open for business. That will cost an additional $2,000, or about as much as four months’ rent for a typical New York City work space, he says. Read more of this post

China Central Bank Moves to Limit Risk in Interbank Market

China Central Bank Moves to Limit Risk in Interbank Market

LINGLING WEI

Feb. 13, 2014 4:14 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s central bank is taking steps to rein in certain bond-trading activities that could amplify risks in one of the world’s fastest-growing debt markets.

A division of the People’s Bank of China on Thursday published new rules effectively banning banks from using the funds raised from the sale of high-yield investment products for proprietary trading, or trading for its own profit, according to a statement posted on the website of the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, the interbank-trading and foreign-exchange division of the central bank. Read more of this post

Delhi chief minister takes on Indian tycoon over gas pricing

Delhi chief minister takes on Indian tycoon over gas pricing

Tue, Feb 11 2014

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Delhi’s new chief minister took his anti-graft campaign to new heights on Tuesday, ordering an investigation into India’s richest man, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, and policymakers over gas pricing.

Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi, or Common Man, Party (AAP) won the Delhi state election in December with promises to fight corruption and to tackle high utility prices. Read more of this post

China shadow-bank product defaults as coal company can’t repay; It Begins… Another High-Yield Chinese Shadow Banking Trust Defaults

China shadow-bank product defaults as coal company can’t repay – paper

Wed, Feb 12 2014

(Corrects spelling of coal firm to Liansheng, not Lianmeng)

* Jilin Trust products worth $126 million have defaulted – paper

* Trust products based on loan to deeply indebted coal company

* Products sold through China Construction Bank

* Jilin Trust working to recover investor funds

SHANGHAI, Feb 12 (Reuters) – A high-yield investment product backed by a loan to a debt-ridden coal company failed to repay investors when it matured last Friday, state media reported on Wednesday, in the latest sign of financial stress in China’s shadow bank sector. Read more of this post

Why China Can’t Innovate

Why China Can’t Innovate

by Regina M. Abrami, William C. Kirby, and F. Warren McFarlan

The Chinese invented gunpowder, the compass, the waterwheel, paper money, long-distance banking, the civil service, and merit promotion. Until the early 19th century, China’s economy was more open and market driven than the economies of Europe. Today, though, many believe that the West is home to creative business thinkers and innovators, and that China is largely a land of rule-bound rote learners—a place where R&D is diligently pursued but breakthroughs are rare. Read more of this post

The benefits of shale oil are bigger than many Americans realise. Policy has yet to catch up

Saudi America: The benefits of shale oil are bigger than many Americans realise. Policy has yet to catch up

Feb 15th 2014 | MIDLAND, TEXAS | From the print edition

DENNIS LITHGOW is an oil man, but sees himself as a manufacturer. His factory is a vast expanse of brushland in west Texas. His assembly line is hundreds of brightly painted oil pumps spaced out like a city grid, interspersed with identical clusters of tanks for storage and separation. Through the windscreen of his truck he points out two massive drilling rigs on the horizon and a third about to be erected. Less than 90 days after they punch through the earth, oil will start to flow. Read more of this post

The English empire: A growing number of firms worldwide are adopting English as their official language

The English empire: A growing number of firms worldwide are adopting English as their official language

Feb 15th 2014 | From the print edition

YANG YUANQING, Lenovo’s boss, hardly spoke a word of English until he was about 40: he grew up in rural poverty and read engineering at university. But when Lenovo bought IBM’s personal-computer division in 2005 he decided to immerse himself in English: he moved his family to North Carolina, hired a language tutor and—the ultimate sacrifice—spent hours watching cable-TV news. This week he was in São Paulo, Brazil, for a board meeting and an earnings call: he conducted all his business in English except for a briefing for the Chinese press. Read more of this post

Carmaking in Australia: Toyota’s move to the off-ramp signals the demise of a prized industry

Carmaking in Australia: Toyota’s move to the off-ramp signals the demise of a prized industry

Feb 15th 2014 | SYDNEY | From the print edition

WHEN Australia’s first locally made car, a Holden FX, rolled off the production line in 1948 it was greeted with an excitement that befitted a symbol of a youthful nation taking its place among advanced economies. Such was the enthusiasm for an indigenous car that around 18,000 punters paid deposits to buy one without even seeing it. Read more of this post

Manufacturing in Indonesia: On a wing and a prayer; A state aerospace firm risks forgetting the lessons of the Asian crisis

Manufacturing in Indonesia: On a wing and a prayer; A state aerospace firm risks forgetting the lessons of the Asian crisis

Feb 15th 2014 | BANDUNG | From the print edition

THEY do not look much, but they are largely responsible for saving Indonesia’s aviation industry. The ribs that fit into a section of the wings on the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, are made in a corner of the sprawling factory of PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI), in the Javanese city of Bandung. Along with another part, they are flown to a second factory, in Britain, where they are incorporated into the A380’s wings, which are then sent to France to be attached to the planes. Read more of this post

Corporate governance: Anything you can do, Icahn do better; The pressure on companies from activist shareholders continues to grow

Corporate governance: Anything you can do, Icahn do better; The pressure on companies from activist shareholders continues to grow

Feb 15th 2014 | NEW YORK | From the print edition

TIM COOK’S nightmare is over, but John Donahoe’s has just begun. On February 10th Carl Icahn, the godfather of activist shareholders, ended his campaign to get Mr Cook, the boss of Apple, to return some of its $160 billion cash mountain to shareholders through share buy-backs. Mr Icahn declared victory, although Apple is not handing back as much of its cash as he had wanted. His next target is eBay, which he is pressuring to spin off PayPal, its online-payments business. Mr Donahoe, eBay’s boss, has told Mr Icahn to get lost, but surely knows he cannot brush off the pugilistic investor so easily. Read more of this post

Malaysia’s Sarawak: Last of the rajahs; A powerful chief minister bows out—or does he?

Malaysia’s Sarawak: Last of the rajahs; A powerful chief minister bows out—or does he?

Feb 15th 2014 | KUALA LUMPUR | From the print edition

FEW of Asia’s elected leaders have enjoyed the power of Abdul Taib Mahmud, the chief minister of Sarawak. For 33 years he lorded it over this Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, once densely forested and still rich in oil. Mr Taib was an appropriate successor to generations of the British Brooke family, who ran the territory as their own monarchy for a century from 1841. They were known as the White Rajahs. Their 77-year-old, white-haired modern equivalent, Mr Taib, will officially retire on February 28th, passing the job to a hand-picked successor, Adenan Saten. Mr Taib, though, will probably get another comfortable job himself, retaining much influence. Read more of this post