Bamboo Innovator

Air Pollution Drives 50% Drop in Visitors to Beijing

October 31, 2013, 6:29 PM

Air Pollution Drives 50% Drop in Visitors to Beijing

Beijing residents aren’t the only ones turned off by how smoggy their skies get. According to a state media report, the city’s notorious pollution is also deterring tourists. Visitors to China’s capital declined by roughly 50% in the first three quarters of the year compared to a year earlier, according to a report in Beijing Youth Daily based on a survey of domestic travel agents (in Chinese). Read more of this post

Regulatory curbs ‘squeezing Asian property developers’: S&P

Regulatory curbs ‘squeezing Asian developers’: S&P

THE NATION October 31, 2013 1:00 am

STRINGENT regulations will continue to restrain Asian real-estate developers including those in mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said in a new report titled “Asia-Pacific Credit Trends 2014: Real Estate Developers Wrestle with Regulatory Curbs; REITs Hunt for M&As”. S&P expects the credit outlooks for the real estate investment trust (REIT) and property development sectors in the Asia-Pacific region to be largely stable in 2014. Some markets in the real-estate development sector are likely to perform worse than this year, though. Read more of this post

Australia’s Biggest Banks May Face Tougher Capital Requirement

Australia’s Biggest Banks May Face Tougher Capital Requirement

Part of Global Efforts to Avert Another Banking Crisis

ROBB M. STEWART

Oct. 31, 2013 3:42 a.m. ET

MELBOURNE, Australia—Australia’s biggest banks may be required to deepen their capital reserves against future stresses, potentially raising costs for their customers and reducing the scope for dividend increases that have historically lured investors. The nation’s banking regulator said it was considering requiring the country’s largest lenders to create a bigger capital cushion as part of global efforts to avert another banking crisis. A bigger cushion would leave less room for Australia’s banks—which remained healthy throughout the global financial crisis—to return money to shareholders. Read more of this post

Thais’ household debt jolts S&P

Thais’ household debt jolts S&P

THE NATION October 31, 2013 1:00 am

AS THE LEVEL of household debt increased to 77 per cent of gross domestic product in 2012 from 55 per cent in 2008, Thais are now more vulnerable to rising interest rates, unemployment, and economic slowdowns, said a rating agency. In Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services’ analysis “Rising Household Debt Could Weigh Down Asia’s Banks”, Thailand’s household-debt-to-GDP ratio is second only to Malaysia’s, which in 2012 was 80.5 per cent against 60.4 per cent in 2008.

Read more of this post

Singapore Challenged as LNG Hub by Trading Delay; Singapore to lift moratorium on gas imports via pipeline

Singapore Challenged as LNG Hub by Trading Delay: Southeast Asia

Singapore’s drive to become an Asian hub for buying and selling liquefied natural gas will be constrained by stagnant volumes in the spot market, which traders say may not expand anytime soon. The city-state, which opened its first LNG terminal in May, plans to award import licenses to as many as two suppliers and almost triple the amount of gas it can receive over the next three years, the government said yesterday. While it has the infrastructure and supply options needed for a market to develop, a lack of liquidity may prevent that from happening for at least four years, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. Read more of this post

In Singapore, Building Businesses for the Next Billion

OCTOBER 30, 2013, 8:30 AM

In Singapore, Building Businesses for the Next Billion

By QUENTIN HARDY

SINGAPORE — Years back, my first serious job began in a warehouse in a jungly part of this island nation. I returned there last week. The same building, somewhat refurbished, is now five stories of start-ups, accelerators and venture capital offices, surrounded by modern high rises. That is not shocking. Living in modern Asia is about embracing contradiction and change. A deeper look at what’s now happening inside this old factory building, though, showed how much today’s cheap, portable technology is affecting virtually all societies around the world. Read more of this post

Msia’s GST collectors seek to dethrone cash

Updated: Thursday October 31, 2013 MYT 2:31:07 PM

Msia’s GST collectors seek to dethrone cash

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s new consumption tax is a boon to IT companies that stand to win infrastructure contracts and fees – provided they can convince people to switch to electronic payments in a country where 91% of transactions are in cash. The 6% goods and services tax (GST) that Prime Minister Najib Razak announced in his annual budget speech on Friday is aimed at narrowing a budget gap that is expected to hit 4% of gross domestic product this year. Read more of this post

Stop Subsidizing Colleges’ 100-Year Debt Binge

Stop Subsidizing Colleges’ 100-Year Debt Binge

The Barack Obama administration and Congress purport to care about the rising costs of college. Yet the government’s policies are only fueling the higher-education arms race. I have written before on how the expansion of federal student-loan programs has encouraged colleges to simply raise their costs. Students are left to pile up more debt while colleges indulge in their Edifice Complex — building luxury dorms and gyms and stadiums (all “sustainable,” of course) at the expense of poorer students. There is another, related government subsidy that also has perverse effects and needs reform: the tax-exempt debt binge by universities. Read more of this post

IMF warns of financial shock risk to Africa

Last updated: October 31, 2013 11:20 am

IMF warns of financial shock risk to Africa

By Javier Blas, Africa Editor

The International Monetary Fund has for the first time warned that sub-Saharan African countries are becoming “increasingly vulnerable to global financial shocks” as they intensify their reliance on foreign investors. The warning in its twice yearly review of the region comes as African frontier markets such as Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya fret about the side-effects of tighter monetary policy in the US. Read more of this post

Funds of hedge funds recast dismal model

October 30, 2013 12:34 pm

Funds of hedge funds recast dismal model

By Sam Jones

How many investments have yet to recover from 2008? Many major equity markets are approaching or have moved beyond their pre-crash peaks, at least in absolute terms. Most investment strategies too, have bounced back. Five years on, the idea that anyone should have failed to recover from the collapse of Lehman, and its attendant crises, is almost absurd, even given the volatile and difficult conditions in the years since. Read more of this post

EM investors shun state-controlled stocks

October 31, 2013 9:39 am

EM investors shun state-controlled stocks

By Robin Wigglesworth

Asset managers always fear the heavy hand of the state tampering with their investments. But rarely have they shunned government-controlled companies in thedeveloping world quite so fervently. In contrast, money has largely continued to gush into companies that are geared towards consumer spending in emerging markets – whether staples like rice crackers and beer, or more discretionary areas such as television sets and cars. Read more of this post

Banks and insurers are urging the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to give them a break when it comes to dealing with write downs of bad debt, particularly mortgage-backed securities that have little or no value

Bankers Join Insurers Asking IRS for Bad-Debt Flexibility: Taxes

Banks and insurers are urging the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to give them a break when it comes to dealing with write downs of bad debt, particularly mortgage-backed securities that have little or no value. At issue is when a financial institution can count a written-off debt as a tax loss. Currently, accounting rules stipulate the point at which a debt must be discounted for bookkeeping purposes, while IRS rules on timing aren’t as clear. Read more of this post

Ongoing legal disputes with the Korean government will put more pressure on the performance of local builders possibly for years to come

2013-10-30 16:46

Major builders in deeper trouble

By Choi Kyong-ae
Ongoing legal disputes with the government will put more pressure on the performance of local builders possibly for years to come, experts and companies said Wednesday.
Adding further woes to a construction sector still struggling with sluggish sales, two government agencies recently banned dozens of firms from bidding for construction projects placed by public firms for up to 15 months. Read more of this post

KDB to aid Hyosung Group in financial woes

KDB to aid Hyosung Group in financial woes

Ahn Jung-hoon

The Korea Development Bank (KDB) decided to provide a massive financial aid for Hyonsung Group in trouble due to the latest tax inspection. The move came from the bank’s judgment that the Group’s operations are normal apart from the tax issue. The KDB finalized its plan to provide 220 billion won ($207 million) for the project of expanding Hyosung Ulsan plant’s propylene production capacity to 500,000 tons which costs a total of 280 billion won, according to sources in the financial industry Thursday. Hyosung has been in financial woes after being slapped with a penalty of 365.2 billion won from the National Tax Service’s tax probe. This makes the group hard to secure funds from other financial institutions. However, the KDB decided to support Hyosung assuming that its operations are normal. The KDB, as a state policy financing agency, came forward to support the embattled Hyosung Group. The group leads the world’s spandex and tire cord market with the highest market share and produces continuous outcomes in the textile, chemical and industrial materials areas. Of its total sales, over 70 percent comes from the overseas market. An official at the KDB said, “Hyosung is financially sound and is steadily generating profits from the related industry,” adding “aside from the tax issue, we will provide assistance for normal business activities.”

Hyundai Design Guru Invokes Spirit of Jimi Hendrix

October 31, 2013, 6:15 PM

Hyundai Design Guru Invokes Spirit of Jimi Hendrix

By In-Soo Nam

Hyundai Motor Group Chief Design Officer Peter Shreyer at a lecture on auto design in Seoul on Wednesday.

Quick, what’s Kia’s brand image? Hyundai’s? If you didn’t get past “Korean” or “relatively inexpensive,” you’ll probably see why Hyundai Motor Group’s Chairman Chung Mong-koo says the company needs to urgently build up car buyers’ awarenessof its two brands. Read more of this post