Asia News Survey | AsiaLynx

AsiaLynx Top Stories – 1/1/2010

Asia News Survey, AsiaLynx Top Stories 01.01.2010 Comments Off

New Year's Eve fireworks in Kuala Lumpur

Shanghai hot spot for foreign investment: FOREIGN direct investment in Shanghai reached a record level last year despite negative influences of the global financial crisis, the city’s Commission of Commerce said yesterday. (Via Shanghai Daily: Business.)

Farmers hope ‘grown in Wisconsin’ sells in China – WTOP Radio: BEIJING (AP) – Wisconsin farmer Butch Weege has never met Sun Dan, a 34-year-old makeup artist who lives in Beijing, but his business depends largely on affluent Chinese like her who take ginseng grown in his state to cope with their hectic urban …(Via SinoLinx.com Aggregated China News.)

U.S. anti-dumping duties on pipes criticized by China: “(ChinaPost.com.tw) – China on Thursday criticized a U.S. decision to slap antidumping duties on Chinese-made steel pipes, demanding that Washington reverse the move and saying its goods are no threat to U.S. producers. (Via China Post Online – Taiwan Business,World Business.)

Thousands in New Year Hong Kong march for democracy: HONG KONG (Reuters) – Thousands of Hong Kong residents appealed to China on New Year’s Day to allow full democracy to be introduced soon in the city, as opposition lawmakers pressed forward with a mas… (Via Hong Kong News latest RSS headlines – Hong Kong Herald.com.)

Googlephone is coming next week for US$530: (ChinaPost.com.tw) – A day after Google announced a media event for its Android mobile phone system next week, new details leaked out Wednesday about the first ever phone to be sold directly by the Web search giant. (Via China Post Online – Taiwan Business,World Business.)

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AsiaLynx Top Stories – 12/29/2009

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Japan mulls turning JAL into domestic carrier: TOKYO: The Japanese government is discussing an option to strip debt-ridden Japan Airlines (JAL) of its international operations to enable it to survive as a domestic carrier, a newspaper reported on Thursday.” (Via Channel NewsAsia Business News.)

McDonald’s Aids Re-construction Of Four Schools In Sichuan: The re-construction of four primary schools that were destroyed during the 5.12 Sichuan earthquake in 2008 will be completed by the end of 2008 and one of the major contributors for the re-construction is McDonald’s. Located in Pingwu county in Sichuan province, the new school building of Yetang Primary School has recently been completed and put [...] (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

Business › Toyota’s 2009 auto sales in Asia to top those in Japan for 1st time: Auto sales by Toyota Motor Corp in Asia other than Japan will outnumber those in the domestic market in 2009 for the first time due…” (Via Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion – Business.)

Japan mulls plan to withdraw JAL international services: The government is considering transferring all international flights operated by the financially troubled Japan (Via Mainichi Daily News – All Stories.)

PetroChina buys into Canadian oil sands: “PETROCHINA has won approval to buy a stake in two Canadian oil-sands projects in its biggest North American acquisition. China’s largest oil producer will pay US$1.8 billion to buy a 60 percent stake in the MacKay… (Via Shanghai Daily: Business.)

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Asia News Survey – 11/14/2009

Asia News Survey 14.11.2009 Comments Off

China was blanketed by heavy snow and pummeled by severe weather yesterday during the third consecutive day of harsh weather. The whiteout left several people dead and caused hundreds of injuries. It also froze traffic in many cities and grounded hundreds of flights.

German luxury carmaker BMW Group announced yesterday in Beijing that it planned to increase production capacity in China to further tap the growing luxury vehicle market in the country. Friedrich Eichiner, a BMW board member, said the group would have a total production capacity of 300,000 cars a year in the long term, without revealing a specific timetable.

Home prices in the central parts of China’s capital have kept climbing to approach the psychologically-important mark of 20,000 yuan per square meter (US $272/sq ft), official figures showed.

Hainan Airlines, a major Chinese carrier, is to open the first direct flight between Beijing and the Sudanese capital Khartoum next Tuesday amid booming trade between the two nations in recent years. The Beijing-Khartoum flight with Airbus 340-600 takes off at 1:30 a.m. from Beijing every Tuesday and Friday and arrives in Khartoum at 9:20 a.m. local time.

American Airlines, the second-largest U.S. carrier, is considering investing in Japan Airlines jointly with leading U.S. investment fund TPG, it was learned Wednesday. According to a report by Bloomberg, American Airlines and TPG plan to invest more than 300 million dollars (27 billion yen) in the financially ailing JAL. By making a cash infusion into JAL, American Airlines apparently aims to gain the edge over Delta Air Lines in the competition to cement business links with JAL.

Skynet Asia Airways Co. said Thursday it will start offering a discount one-way fare for foreign tourists from Dec. 1, enabling them to fly on all its eight domestic routes each at a flat rate of ¥10,000. The Visit Japan fare is up to 65 percent lower than regular fares. It is the first time a Japanese airline has offered a discount fare aimed only at tourists from abroad, according to the Miyazaki-based budget airline.

Thousands of protesters marched through the Taiwanese capital Taipei on Saturday to protest against resuming imports of certain US beef products, over fears of the spread of mad cow disease. Taiwan last month decided to lift a ban on US beef-on-the-bone and cow organs, sparking accusations that the government had ignored concerns over mad cow disease, the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Saturday that his country, which is battling low birth rates and an ageing population, should make itself more attractive to migrants. Japan has some of the world’s strictest controls on immigration, and Hatoyama admitted that he was broaching a “sensitive issue”. But he said that as well as introducing pro-family policies, Japan should attempt to encourage migrants to live and work there.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Saturday his country can achieve 5 percent economic growth next year, higher than forecast by major international financial institutions, if everything goes as planned. “Foreign institutions say it will grow between 3.6-3.9 percent, but I believe it will grow 4 to 5 percent if things go as expected,” Lee said in a meeting with South Korean residents and business representatives in Singapore.

Taipei’s residential prices may rise 15 percent in 2010, more than in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, because there is more competition among homebuyers in Taiwan’s capital, according to CLSA Ltd. analyst Tayher Lim.

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Asia News Survey – 11/10/2009

Asia News Survey 10.11.2009 Comments Off

Chinese President Hu Jintao flies to Malaysia to discuss economic and trade ties – the first visit to Malaysia by a Chinese head of state in 15 years.

Home prices in 70 large and medium-sized Chinese cities nationwide rose 3.9 percent in October from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Tuesday.

South and North Korean ships exchanged brief but heavy fire which the South later described as "accidental" and the North called an "armed provocation."

The Apple iPhone went on sale in China on October 30 from China’s second-largest carrier, Unicom, under a three-year, non-exclusive contract. In the first four days, the company managed to sell only about 5,000 units. This paltry figure didn’t even come close to expectations and is almost lost in the shadow of the 146,000 units sold by AT&T in the United States during the weekend launch of the original iPhone inJune 2007.

The U.S. remains committed to expanding trade in Asia but will insist that China and other countries "play by the rules" as it contemplates future trade agreements, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Tuesday.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it had narrowed its full-year net loss outlook by 400 billion yen, a sign of recovery boosted by robust sales of eco-friendly cars. For fiscal 2009 ending in March, the company now expects a group net loss of 350 billion yen, as opposed to the 750 billion yen projected in August.

The finance ministers of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, anxious about the potential for a "double-dip recession", will keep lavish stimulus spending in place for now, according to a draft communique obtained by AFP on Tuesday.

Chinese companies have expressed interest in dualizing the trunk road linking Zimbabwe and its northern neighbor Zambia, as well in rehabilitating a stretch of the railway line along the same route, a senior government official said.

Japan’s finance minister told visiting US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday that Tokyo supported Washington’s strong dollar policy, during talks on the global economy.

Internet search giant Yahoo said its next big wave of growth will come from Asia but not necessarily just from China and it said there are also ample opportunities for growth in emerging countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and India.

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