Bamboo Innovator

Sobering Up: China Cracks Down on Binge Drinking

November 11, 2013, 5:20 PM

Sobering Up: China Cracks Down on Binge Drinking

China’s culture of binge drinking at official functions has long been accepted as a ritualized part of doing business in the Middle Kingdom, but a backlash may now be brewing. The government over the weekend demoted a provincial official in northeastern Heilongjiang province and suspended his Communist Party membership for a year after state agents in charge of internal discipline accused him of causing the death of a person who died due to excessive drinking after accompanying him to a banquet,state media reported. Neither the official nor the deceased was named in the reports and the Heilongjiang provincial government didn’t respond to a call for comment. Read more of this post

Gold Vault Opens in China as Bullion Goes From West to East

Gold Vault Opens in China as Bullion Goes From West to East

A gold vault that can store 2,000 metric tons, double China’s projected consumption this year, opened in Shanghai this month as owner Malca-Amit Global Ltd. seeks to benefit from rising demand in Asia’s largest economy. The facility is the biggest for the Hong Kong-based company, and it can also store diamonds, jewelry and art, Joshua Rotbart, precious metals general manager, said in an interview. The site could hold bullion worth about $82.7 billion at today’s price, Bloomberg calculations show. China’s total demand may reach 1,000 tons in 2013, the World Gold Council forecasts. Read more of this post

China reform puts executives on defensive as plenum begins

November 10, 2013 7:06 am

China reform puts executives on defensive as plenum begins

By Tom Mitchell and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

The men and women who command the heights of China’s economy are on the defensive at a meeting that will set the direction and tone of the country’s new leadership for the next decade. Senior executives from large state-owned enterprises joined governors, generals and ministers as the 376 full and alternate members of the Chinese Communist party’s 18th Central Committee gathered in Beijing at the weekend. Of these four constituencies, it is China’s SOE managers who have attracted the most scrutiny in the run-up to the committee’s “third plenum”, which opened on Saturday. Read more of this post

Carlsberg Seen Thirsting for Tsingtao in Asia : Real M&A

Carlsberg Seen Thirsting for Tsingtao in Asia : Real M&A

Carlsberg A/S (CARLB)’s pursuit of faster growth in Asia may make takeover targets out of Tsingtao Brewery Co. (168) and Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co. (000729) The Danish brewer’s controlling shareholder signaled last month that it will give Carlsberg more leeway to pursue deals. The $15 billion company is eyeing about a half-dozen potential candidates, especially in Asia, including Tsingtao and Yanjing, for a possible purchase, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be identified as the discussions are private. The Chinese companies each produce some of the most popular beer brands in China, the world’s biggest beer market. Read more of this post

Why Australia’s bank profits defy hard times; ”It is no wonder so many Australians see the big four as vampires”

Why Australia’s bank profits defy hard times

November 11, 2013

Clancy Yeates

Ever wondered how the banks manage to churn out ever-higher profits when the economy’s weak and credit growth is near record lows? To the casual observer it may seem puzzling, to say the least. Despite constant talk of a soft economy, the big four racked up $27.4 billion in cash earnings between them this year, an average yearly increase of 9.5 per cent. Bank chiefs repeatedly trotted out phrases such as ”subdued”. And yet their earnings seemed to defy gravity. So what’s going on? If the economy is weakening and banks are highly exposed to the country’s ups and downs, how do earnings keep growing so strongly? Greens MP Adam Bandt summed up the suspicions many of us have that we are being gouged. ”It is no wonder so many Australians see the big four as vampires,” he said after ANZ’s $6.5 billion full-year profit. Read more of this post

Singapore, Malaysia tough rivals to Thailand’s quest to be medical hub

Singapore, Malaysia tough rivals to Thailand’s quest to be medical hub

Monday, Nov 11, 2013
The Nation/Asia News Network
By Bamrung Amnatcharoenrit

THAILAND – Thailand should prove itself more if it wants to become a regional hub for medical tourism in the long term, competing with arch-rivals Singapore and Malaysia. One major barrier to this quest is politics. If political demonstrations become chaotic to the point of closing airports, this will undermine patients’ confidence, and they might decide to go elsewhere, said Pongsakorn Chindawatana, a professional doctor and also senior director of communication at Bangkok Dusit Medical Services. Read more of this post

Korea’s state firms: Poorly managed, heavily indebted

2013-11-10 11:11

State firms: Poorly managed, heavily indebted

Parliamentary audit finds countless irregularities at land ministry-affiliated companies
By Kim Bo-eun

Koreans often refer to state-run corporations as the ultimate workplace because these jobs not only pay well, but also guarantee work until retirement age. Plus, many of these companies offer additional perks like high performance-based bonuses, severance pay and expensive retirement gifts. Based on these extravagant benefits, you might expect these firms to post excellent profits, but annual parliamentary audits show that they are plagued with debt and corruption. This year’s audit was no exception. The recent National Assembly audit exposed poor management, especially at state-run firms under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport headed by Suh Seoung-hwan. While the audit showed mounting debts at public corporations as a whole, firms under the land ministry accounted for 42 percent of the debt accumulated by all state-owned enterprises. Meanwhile, the audit showed these corporations have low levels of integrity, undue benefits for employees, and little willingness to change. Read more of this post

Dongbu and Hanjin groups will be under tighter scrutiny from financial authorities as the two conglomerates show possibilities of financial troubles

2013-11-11 16:10

Dongbu, Hanjin on watch list

Regulator detects signs of financial distress at firms
By Kim Rahn
Dongbu and Hanjin groups will be under tighter scrutiny from financial authorities as the two conglomerates show possibilities of financial troubles, officials said Monday. Although the groups have struggled to solve liquidity shortages, the authorities plan to spur them on in joint efforts with creditor banks. According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Monday, Dongbu and Hanjin agreed with their creditor banks this year to improve their financial structure. Read more of this post

Cash-strapped Korean local gov’ts seek to offload property

Cash-strapped local gov’ts seek to offload property

Cho Han-phil, Ji Hong-gu, Woo Sung-duk

2013.11.11 18:07:18

South Korea’s local authorities in financial woes have decided to put their property holdings up for sale. The move seems inevitable for local governments grappling with tax revenue shortfall and difficulties in raising capital for next year’s budget. Local governments plan to sell their property worth a total of around 1.3 trillion won ($1.2 billion, an estimate), according to the Maeil Business Newspaper’s analysis on the 2014 budget plans of city and province municipalities Monday.  Read more of this post

Cookers, chips and consoles: high-tech Japan’s odd parts

Last updated: November 10, 2013 1:30 pm

Cookers, chips and consoles: high-tech Japan’s odd parts

By Jennifer Thompson in Tokyo

Nostalgic portfolios highlight reluctance to restructure

Decades before the PlayStation and the Walkman saw the light of day, engineers at Sony flirted with the mundane rather than the high-tech. A primitive wooden rice cooker and electrically heated cushions were among the roll of household products manufactured by the Japanese electronics maker. Rivals such as Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi and Sharpfollowed suit, regarding their ability to offer a broad range of products and components as a source of strength. Read more of this post

U.S. popcorn makers could face long, expensive road to lose trans fats

U.S. popcorn makers could face long, expensive road to lose trans fats

Fri, Nov 8 2013

By Curtis Skinner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Microwave popcorn makers could face a long and difficult task ridding their snacks of trans fats, if a U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposal to ban the additives goes into effect. Just ask Orville Redenbacher. Redenbacher’s, a division of ConAgra Foods Inc, spent six years changing its leading line of popcorn, company scientists said on Friday, a day after the FDA made its proposal, which the government said would save 7,000 lives a year. Read more of this post

Japanese companies see Taiwan as bridge to China

November 10, 2013 6:30 pm

Japanese companies see Taiwan as bridge to China

By Sarah Mishkin in Taipei

When Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten decided to expand overseas, it looked first to Taiwan, whose close ties with Tokyo have long made it attractive to Japanese companies eager to escape slow growth at home. “You know how bad the economy has been in Japan – it has only recovered recently,” said Ejiri Yuichi, Rakuten Taiwan’s chief executive, of an economy that has been struggling to restart inflation after years of overall meagre growth. With real wages largely flat, “especially in the service industry, it has indeed been a difficult time”, he said. Read more of this post