Bamboo Innovator

SEA Games: Myanmar ‘100 per cent’ ready for Games as the clock ticked down to the biggest sports event in the nation’s troubled history

SEA Games: Myanmar ‘100 per cent’ ready for Games

Friday, November 29, 2013 – 21:01

AFP

YANGON – Myanmar is “100 per cent” ready for the Southeast Asian Games, a senior official said Friday, as the clock ticked down to the biggest sports event in the nation’s troubled history. In a major test of Myanmar’s infrastructure and organisation, thousands of athletes, officials, media and visitors will descend for the 22-day multi-sport event starting on Sunday. Read more of this post

Italian Banks’ Woes Hurt Small Firms

Italian Banks’ Woes Hurt Small Firms

Credit Lines, Charitable Spending, Are Cut

GIOVANNI LEGORANO

Updated Dec. 1, 2013 2:53 p.m. ET

SENIGALLIA, Italy— Pietro Fattorini, owner of a marble company in the eastern Italian region of Marche, recently filed for bankruptcy protection. But it isn’t for lack of demand. The 23-year-old company he founded has plenty of orders from overseas clients. Mr. Fattorini’s problem is much closer to home. His longtime bank, Banca Marche, lost more than €750 million ($1.01 billion) in 2012 and the first half of this year. As a result, the bank cut his credit lines last year, choking off the funds he needs to survive. Read more of this post

China regulators focus on shadow banking, which involves mostly wealth-management products (WMPs) sold as a higher-yielding alternative to traditional bank deposits

Updated: Monday December 2, 2013 MYT 6:46:26 AM

Regulators focus on shadow banking

BY YAP LENG KUEN

REGULATORS are placing more emphasis on shadow banking, which involves mostly wealth-management products (WMPs) sold as a higher-yielding alternative to traditional bank deposits. Beginning next year, China’s bank regulator will require banks to report detailed information on their WMP holdings, says Reuters, quoting sources. Read more of this post

Rental yields of private residences could take a further hit in the coming months as more foreigners opt to rent HDB flats and the number of condominium units on the market exceeds demand

Private property rental yields likely to fall: Analysts

SINGAPORE — Rental yields of private residences could take a further hit in the coming months as more foreigners opt to rent Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats and the number of condominium units on the market exceeds demand, property analysts told TODAY.

BY LEE YEN NEE –

5 HOURS 1 MIN AGO

SINGAPORE — Rental yields of private residences could take a further hit in the coming months as more foreigners opt to rent Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats and the number of condominium units on the market exceeds demand, property analysts told TODAY. Read more of this post

Singapore Equity Trading Plummets on Penny-Stock Curbs

SGX Equity Trading Declines to 2011 Low: Southeast Asia

The value of equities traded on Singapore Exchange Ltd. (SGX) sunk to a two-year low last month, threatening to slow the bourse’s earnings growth, as brokerages restricted investments in so-called penny stocks after three commodity companies plunged. The average value of shares transacted daily on Southeast Asia’s biggest exchange fell to S$914 million ($728 million) in November from S$1.3 billion a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the lowest since December 2011. Trading sank 36 percent in the past two months after a slump in Asiasons Capital Ltd., Blumont Group Ltd. and LionGold Corp. erased $6.9 billion in market value over three days in early October, the data show. Read more of this post

Singapore oil traders end year on a whimper; “There’s no retrenchment by the companies. Traders are leaving essentially because they are not getting any bonuses”

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 02, 2013

Oil traders end year on a whimper

More than three-quarters of trading houses here won’t give bonuses this year amid market gloom

RONNIE LIM RONNIE@SPH.COM.SG

There will be no merry round of “musical chairs” this year-end for oil traders here – PHOTO: AP

[SINGAPORE] There will be no merry round of “musical chairs” this year-end for oil traders here. On the contrary, quite a few have bailed out in case their seats get yanked from under them, industry players tell BT. “The trading market has generally been very difficult. Trading costs are high, and there has been insufficient volatility and no clear market trends,” one trading executive lamented. Read more of this post

Instil ‘can do’ spirit in staff, Singapore SMEs urged

Instil ‘can do’ spirit in staff, SMEs urged

Friday, Nov 29, 2013

Rachel Scully

The Straits Times

SMALLER firms need to generate a mindset change among their staff to instil a “can do” mentality, said Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin yesterday. Mr Tan told about 220 representatives from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that bosses should work on motivating their workers to get the best out of them. “You need to imbue that ‘it is okay if we fail, but we get up and try again’ spirit in your employees… (and they will) go the extra mile as they believe they are an essential part of your team,” he said. Read more of this post

Japan’s yakuza mobsters becoming ‘Goldman Sachs with guns’

Japan’s yakuza mobsters becoming ‘Goldman Sachs with guns’

Sunday, December 1, 2013 – 14:30

AFP

TOKYO – Japanese mobsters driving flash cars purchased with bank loans. Executives bowing in apology for loaning millions to those underworld figures. And high-level officials vowing to squash the crime syndicates, known as yakuza. Japan Inc. is engulfed in its worst mob scandal in years and it’s shining a rare light on the links between big business and shadowy organised crime groups usually known for low-brow ventures like extortion and loan sharking. Read more of this post

Hero Fights Honda to Sate Female Scooter Demand: Corporate India

Hero Fights Honda to Sate Female Scooter Demand: Corporate India

Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (HMCL), India’s largest motorcycle maker, plans to unveil additional models in February to woo women customers for its scooters and fight Honda Motor Co.’s surge in the two-wheeler market. Rising demand for personal transport in India’s villages and small towns, especially among women, is spurring the 18 percent growth in the nation’s scooter sales, Anil Dua, New Delhi-based Hero’s senior vice-president for sales and marketing, said in a Nov. 27 interview in the city. Hero also aims to tap the expanding 125cc motorcycle segment, Dua said. Read more of this post

For Rent in Europe: Trendy Jeans, Washing Machines; Rental, Secondhand Deals Shows How Companies Are Trying to Court Strapped Consumers

For Rent in Europe: Trendy Jeans, Washing Machines

Rental, Secondhand Deals Shows How Companies Are Trying to Court Strapped Consumers

RUTH BENDER

Updated Dec. 1, 2013 7:31 p.m. ET

Anouk Gillis often sports a pair of organic-cotton jeans she ordered online. But she doesn’t actually own them. Rather than buying the pants, which retail for around €100 ($135), Ms. Gillis signed a 12-month lease with their designer, the small Dutch fashion label Mud Jeans. The terms: a €20 deposit and monthly installments of €5. After a year, Ms. Gillis, who is also Dutch, can decide to buy the jeans, return them, or exchange them for a new pair. Read more of this post

India’s Mars mission enters second stage; outpaces space rival China

India’s Mars mission enters second stage; outpaces space rival China

2:24pm EST

By Shyamantha Asokan

NEW DELHI, Dec 1 (Reuters) – India’s first mission to Mars left Earth’s orbit early on Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet and overtaking the efforts in space of rival Asian giant China. The success of the spacecraft, scheduled to orbit Mars by next September, would carry India into a small club, which includes the United States, Europe and Russia, whose probes have orbited or landed on Mars. Read more of this post

Cut from the same cloth: Esprit tries on Zara for fashion makeover

Cut from the same cloth: Esprit tries on Zara for fashion makeover

4:10pm EST

By Clare Baldwin and Sarah Morris

HONG KONG/MADRID (Reuters) – Esprit Holdings’ (0330.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) chief is doubling down on a bet to fix the struggling clothing retailer he took charge of a year ago by revamping its existing business model and recreating it in the image of his former employer-now-rival, Zara. Jose Manuel Martinez Gutierrez, 44, has stacked his management suite with veterans of Zara owner Inditex (ITX.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s biggest retailer whose model of rapidly changing fashion analysts say is among the best in the industry. Read more of this post

Australian Banks’ Risky Loans Fueling House Price Gains

Australian Banks’ Risky Loans Fueling House Price Gains

Australia’s biggest banks, whose lending standards helped the nation avoid a property crash during the global credit crisis, are raising concern with home loans helping to fuel record house prices. The proportion of mortgages that represented more than 80 percent of a home’s value — the loan-to-value ratio — rose in the third quarter to the highest since the second quarter of 2009, data from the banking regulator show. Mortgages in which borrowers pay only interest also increased to the highest in at least five years, according to the figures. Read more of this post

Misunderstanding the ‘Asean Way’; The strength of Asean, or the effectiveness of its Secretariat, is only what its least willing member would allow it to be

Updated: Sunday December 1, 2013 MYT 8:55:40 AM

Misunderstanding the ‘Asean Way’

BY BUNN NAGARA

The strength of Asean, or the effectiveness of its Secretariat, is only what its least willing member would allow it to be.

TOO often are standard arguments repeated at international conferences, particularly those of a regional strategic nature, regardless of whether those arguments are true or correct. There is, for example, the one about Asean’s supposedly flaccid process of consensual decision-making. But even if a demonstrably better alternative exists, which critics typically fail to identify, what assurance is there that it will work better for South-East Asia? Read more of this post

Worst Raw-Material Slump Since ’08 Seen Deepening: Commodities

Worst Raw-Material Slump Since ’08 Seen Deepening: Commodities

The commodity slump that spurred bear markets in everything from gold to corn to sugar this year will deepen by the end of December as prices head for their first annual loss since 2008, if history is any guide. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials fell in December 83 percent of the time since 1971 when the benchmark gauge was posting losses for the year through November, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The average December loss was 3.9 percent, which if it happened this time would mean a 7.8 percent drop for the year. Read more of this post

What’s this AEC (Asean Economic Community) all about? If it’s that important, why do we know so little about it? Can you help explain?

Updated: Saturday November 30, 2013 MYT 1:34:36 PM

AEC is on the way

BY TAN SRI LIN SEE-YAN

READERS ask: What’s this AEC (Asean Economic Community) all about? If it’s that important, why do we know so little about it? Can you help explain? Here goes. Asean kicked off as a political entity some 52 years ago. It has since evolved over time, standing today on 3 pillars: (i) political-security (ii) economic and (iii) social-cultural. Experience from the 1997/98 financial crisis highlighted the necessity for closer economic collaboration to protect mutual national interests. Read more of this post

20% holding in Versace fashion group estimated to be worth about €850m

December 1, 2013 5:26 pm

Italian state fund is frontrunner to buy 20% stake in Versace

By Rachel Sanderson in Milan and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in London

Italy’s state private equity fund, which last year struck a deal with Qatar to invest in Italian fashion, has emerged as frontrunner to buy a minority stake in family-owned Versace estimated to be worth as much as €850m. Fondo Strategico Italiano, led by former Merrill Lynch banker Maurizio Tamagnini, forged a deal with Qatar last year on a “IQ Made in Italy Venture” aimed at investing up to €2bn in Italian fashion, food, furniture and tourism. Read more of this post

Nestlé falters on path towards a healthier future

December 1, 2013 12:50 pm

Nestlé falters on path towards a healthier future

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu and James Shotter in Vevey

Like the Swiss mountains overlooking its headquarters in Vevey, a small town on the shores of Lake Geneva, Nestlé’s reputation is for solidity and consistency. It is the archetypal consumer staple, churning out infant cereal for the past 146 years, Nescafé coffee for 75 years and Maggi stock cubes for more than 65 years; even the KitKat chocolate wafer it has owned since 1988 has a heritage of more than 70 years. Read more of this post

Start-up rivals Nestlé with coffee capsules; Ex-City duo make CaféPod a player in the market

Start-up rivals Nestlé with coffee capsules

Ex-City duo make CaféPod a player in the market

When Nestle’s coffee capsule patents expired in 2011, South African-born Peter Grainger and Brent Hadfield were ready to enter the market.

By Anna White

9:00PM GMT 30 Nov 2013

Two hedge fund executives-turned-baristas behind CaféPod have stirred up the UK coffee market and shown how a battle against a larger incumbent – even a corporate giant – can be won if you follow the right strategy. Read more of this post

Food groups look to make products leaner

December 1, 2013 12:58 pm

Food groups look to make products leaner

By James Shotter and Scheherazade Daneshkhu in Vevey

As waistlines in the west expand ever outwards, food companies are under growing pressure to make their products healthier. That might sound like something that could be achieved in a kitchen, rather than a laboratory. But Nestlé needs the lab to devise ways of reducing fat and sugar in the ice cream, chocolate, frozen pizzas and ready meals on which it relies for much of its sales. Read more of this post

Delhi proves a crowded battleground for India’s new politics

December 1, 2013 5:41 am

Delhi proves a crowded battleground for India’s new politics

By Victor Mallet in New Delhi

Shazia Ilmi is no ordinary woman – the glamorous former television anchor is both wealthy and famous in India – but she is at the forefront of a struggle by the upstart Aam Aadmi (Ordinary People) party to challenge the duopoly that has dominated the politics of Delhi and the nation for decades. Read more of this post

A higher minimum wage is the tonic America needs

December 1, 2013 6:02 pm

A higher minimum wage is the tonic America needs

By Edward Luce

The argument for broad-based income growth is as compelling as it is watertight

Imagine receiving the following note from your boss: try to eat two small meals instead of one big one, sell your unopened holiday gifts on eBay for cash and please stop complaining – it is bad for your stress levels. That was what burger chainMcDonald’s suggested in an amazingly thick-skinned memo to employees last week. All that was missing was a side order of fries. Welcome to life for a large chunk of the US workforce where a 40-hour week pays too little to take you above the poverty level. Read more of this post

The Long Short Run

J. BRADFORD DELONG

NOV 30, 2013

The Long Short Run

BERKELEY – Before 2008, I taught my students that the United States was a flexible economy. It had employers who were willing to gamble and hire when they saw unemployed workers who would be productive; and it had workers who were willing to move to opportunity, or to try something new in order to get a job. As bosses and entrepreneurial workers took a chance, supply would create its own demand. Read more of this post

Turning Good Economic Luck into Bad; Argentina and Venezuela are countries that have benefited from high prices for their exports but have managed to miss the highway to prosperity by turning onto a dead-end street

RICARDO HAUSMANN

NOV 30, 2013

Turning Good Economic Luck into Bad

CAMBRIDGE, MA – It is often difficult to understand how countries that are dealt a pretty good economic hand can end up making a major mess of things. It is as if they were trying to commit suicide by jumping from the basement. Read more of this post

Banks cutting off first-time buyers from property loans in China

Banks cutting off first-time buyers from property loans in China

Staff Reporter

2013-12-02 Read more of this post

An opportunity to take the guesswork out of investing in China; Nobody is sure whether they believe numbers supplied by China

December 1, 2013 2:40 pm

An opportunity to take the guesswork out of investing in China

By John Authers

Nobody is sure whether they believe numbers supplied by China

For the legions of China-watchers within the world’s investment community, there have always been two difficult questions. One, which applies everywhere, is to look at the figures and to ask whether growth can continue, or if a bubble is forming. A second question, much more specific to China, is whether the figures themselves are genuine, and whether words can be taken at face value. Read more of this post

China faces worsening overcapacity

China faces worsening overcapacity

Updated: 2013-12-02 11:20 Read more of this post

Testing time for China’s tea growers

Testing time for China’s tea growers

By Todd Balazovic and Li Aaoxue (China Daily)    09:06, December 02, 2013 Read more of this post