| Chang urges gov't to prepare for new challenges
Chairman Morris Chang of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) yesterday urged the government to prepare for major new challenges facing the nation, including an aging society, limited resources, and slow progress in upholding the rule of law. Chang, one of the most revered industry leaders in Taiwan, made the remarks in a lecture titled "Emerging Challenges to Economic Growth" to trainees at the Ketagalan Institute established to groom leaders from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. President Chen Shui-bian, founder of the organization, was among the audience. Chang pointed out that Taiwan's economic development is faced with nine new daunting challenges in the new century and the government is bound to play a pivotal role in coping with the challenges. According to Chang, the challenges to sustained economic growth on the domestic front include an accelerated graying population, people's rising expectations induced by the explosive expansion of higher learning institutions, increasing added value in a society with greater mobility, pluralization in occupations, and the weak rule of law and slow pace of updating business rules.
Spending on infrastructure set to rise by 34 percent next year
The government will allocate more money for infrastructure development in next year's budget in an effort to ease the distribution bottlenecks that have seriously hampered the country's economic growth. "The bottleneck problem will become worse in 2008 if nothing is done to deal with the infrastructure issue," Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono said Wednesday in Jakarta. Boediono said that the government planned to increase spending on infrastructure by 34 percent to Rp 56 trillion (about US$6.2 billion) next year from Rp 41 trillion this year. The Public Works Ministry and Transportation Ministry would receive Rp 34.3 trillion and Rp 24.2 trillion, respectively. The Rp 56 trillion would include Rp 7.03 trillion for the regions paid out of the Special Transfer Fund (DAK).
After so much insistence on a supposed monetary reform, the government
1. And starting Jan. 1, 2008, it will issue a new currency called the Bolivar Fuerte (Bs. F). But of measures needed to lower inflation and protect the value of this new currency, nothing is said. So what is the peremptory nature of this measure due to?
Since 2001 the Hugo Chávez government had been insisting on the need for a monetary reform, which is much more complex, of greater range and more useful than any rudimentary currency reconversion.
To the contrary, a reconversion simply means modifying the monetary denomination.
That is, dividing the current value of all bills and coins, as well as prices and wages, by 1,000. In other words, three zeros will be eliminated from all the bills and coins in circulation, to be substituted by others with three fewer zeros.
Regional News: Florida’s 'Real Estate Effect’
And it's not just the obvious businesses within the housing industry, like real estate or construction companies, which have already seen clear hits. Miami-based home builder Lennar, for example, reported last week that its first-quarter profit tumbled 73% on continued softness in the housing market made worse by problems with subprime lenders. Lennar also warned it doesn't expect to meet its 2007 earnings guidance. But South Florida companies you wouldn't automatically associate with housing are also pointing to the real estate slowdown as a big culprit for less robust earnings, in industries as varied as car dealerships, cruise lines and shipping companies. "We've been expecting effects like this for some time," said Per Berglund, an economist who tracks Florida for Moody's Economy.com.
US-EU Summit Will Map Out Closer Economic Ties (Update2)
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and European Union will next month announce steps aimed at improving economic ties, with an agreement to liberalize air travel between the two continents at its core, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, holder of the EU's rotating six-month presidency, has made a policy priority of achieving a transatlantic economic partnership by 2015 that would harmonize regulation, technical standards, intellectual property rights, environmental protection and trade security. Merkel and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso meet with President George W. Bush in Washington on April 30. ``Successful conclusion of this EU-U.S. air transport agreement would be one such result, but there may be others,'' Kimmitt said in Berlin today when asked what concrete results the meeting may yield.
Alcatel-Lucent Launches IP Transformation Centre in Singapore
Alcatel-Lucent is planning on setting up a new Internet Protocol Transformation Centre (IPTC) in Singapore, to bolster its network of IPTCs worldwide. The first centre of its scale in Asia-Pacific, the Alcatel-Lucent IPTC will develop, integrate and test IP networking solutions.Supported by the Economic Development Board of Singapore, the Asia IPTC is expected to host about 50 technologies and employ approximately 80 professionals, representing an investment of up to 20 million Euros over three years. The new centre will be co-located with the regions first IPTV Competency Centre, launched by Alcatel-Lucent in February 2006.The Asia-Pacific IPTC complements the existing IPTCs and Network Integration Centres located in Antwerp, Belgium; Lisle, Illinois and Plano, Texas. These centres, which share knowledge, resources and best practices, help service providers execute their IP Transformation projects.Shortening the IP transformation period and ensuring seamless customer network migration are the prime objectives of our global IP Transformation Centres and Network Integration Centres, said John Meyer, President of Alcatel-Lucents Services activities."Last year, Alcatel opened its first IPTV and Triple-Play Centre of Competence for the region.
Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s Survey of Economic ...
BUSINESS WIRE)--The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association's (1) (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25), reporting equipment leasing and finance activity for February releases today showing overall new business volume for the period declining by 16 percent since January. However, when compared to the same month in 2006, new business volume for February 2007 has actually grown by 17 percent. February originations reported by the MLFI-25 totaled $4.6 billion for new commercial equipment leases and loans, compared to $5.5 billion in January. The February 2006 volume totaled $3.9 billion. The durable goods orders for new shipments (not seasonally adjusted) released by the government March 28 showed an increase of 4.5 percent. Other leading economic indicators, including one for equipment spending orders for nondefense capital goods, suggest a slowdown.
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