Asia Africa Intelligence Wire articles from May 2003

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire archives from May 2003

Strong Coffey.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Trevor Hoey Australian-listed provider of water management services, Coffey International, operates in a sector of increasing importance. Water is a precious commodity....

Car sales still strong.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Trevor Hoey Strong car sales in Australia have a positive effect on the earnings of listed truck and car retailer, Adtrans Group. Both truck and car divisions of the...

Building on yield.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Trevor Hoey Property continues to attract investors who lost faith in equities in recent years. Those who like liquidity can opt for investing in listed property...

What to buy with borrowed money.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Simon Hoyle Investors who use margin lending tend to invest in a limited number of companies. They choose companies that are likely to produce solid capital gains within...

A narrow margin.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Simon Hoyle Providers of margin lending in Australia offer similar conditions to clients. Lenders try to attract new borrowers by offering them low interest rates....

Strategy.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: David Rees Investors do not like uncertainty. The current geopolitical situation makes them nervous. A lack of clear directions in Australia's corporate world is also a...

Blue chip bargains.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Graeme Adamson Australian blue chip stocks are being reassessed. It is no longer wise to buy stocks of this kind without careful examination of their prospects. Yield is...

Power to the people.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Australian energy utilities performed strongly in the first three months of 2003. Australian Gas Light (AGL) has been particularly popular as an investment. Investors are attracted...

Call still waiting.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Nicholas Way Shares in Telstra have fallen substantially in recent months. On 28 March 2002, Telstra shares closed at $A5.38. A year later, on 25 March 2003, its shares...

Power packs.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Allan Trench Australian-listed utilities have performed well in recent years. Such companies as AlintaGas, AGL, Australian Pipeline Trust, GasNet and United Energy offer...

A dose of gold realism.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Peter Gibson As an asset, gold is a relic. Its importance will continue to diminish. Andy Smith, a precious metals analyst at Mitsui Global Precious Metals, told the...

Metals and vision.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Paul Saliba There are various ways of determining the financial health of a company. It is vital to assess debt levels, profit retention, cashflow, inventory and the...

Road test: Merrill Lynch protected equity loans.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Tony Rumble One financial product that is now very popular in Australia is the protected equity loan. Its popularity has been enhanced by a ruling of the High Court, now...

Investing in risk management.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: James Walker One investment advisor in Australia likes Insurance Australia Group (IAG), formerly NRMA Insurance. He is Paul Jenkins, the managing director of Jenkins...

Short-selling plans saved by the bell curve.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Guy Bower Use of a bell curve can lessen the odds of making losses on options, particularly short-selling positions. Using analysis of normal distribution or a bell...

New warrants.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Stephen Calder A number of new stock warrants have hit the Australian market. New warrant products have been issued by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), ABN...

Take a Singapore cruise.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Daryl Guppy A key piece of investment advice is to diversify the investment portfolio. The Australian investor should look at investing in overseas markets, such as...

Back on track.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Peter Gibson Gympie Gold recorded a loss of $A11.6 million in the six months to December 2002. Much of the loss can be attributed to problems with its 90-per cent owned...

Show me the money.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Clive Gaunt It is vital for an investor to investigate the financial health of a company to be invested in. The investor must read the company's financial statements and...

Bristile (BRS).
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Brickworks, already a major shareholder of Bristile, has announced a takeover bid for its fellow Australian building materials firm. Brickworks is offering $A3.15 per share, as well...

Country vs city.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Regina Meani Rural Press and Southern Cross Broadcasting are two Australian media stocks. Both are undergoing a period of volatility in terms of their share price. The...

Stop those losses, fast.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Colin Nicholson Knowing how to deal with losses is one of the factors that separates the good investor from the bad one. Successful investors dispatch of their losing...

Deserves attention.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Peter Gibson Lion Selection Group (LSG) is an Australian listed pooled development fund (PDF). Although most PDFs are involved in the high technology or biotechnology...

Boral (BLD).
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Boral's diverse operations should enable it to offset any decline in the housing sector, which would affect its building materials division. Its construction materials division...

Buck stops with you.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Colin Nicholson Novice investors who want to become successful ones have much to learn. First, they need to do away with the belief that the investor with the most...

How to protect your profits.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Stephen Calder Gold and oil prices peaked in late 2002 and early 2003, but have since retreated. This general trend was marked by repeated and volatile shifts in price...

Options for volatile times.
May 1, 2003... (From ABIX - Australasian Business Intelligence - Shares) Byline: Clive Tompkins Most Australian investors have watched their portfolio lose value in the year to April 2003. Bad investments by local blue chips such as Telstra and AMP...

The United States at War.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Iokibe Makoto Why did the United States under President George W. Bush decide to wage war? The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are no doubt the reason. During the 20th century,...

Tokyo Achieving Yet Another Major Metamorphosis.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Imamura Souhei It has been said that once one could see Mt. Fuji from anywhere in Tokyo on a clear day, but now one can only see it in a few places, if one is lucky, a few...

Japan's Potential Strength in Science and Technology.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Yamane Kazuma In December 2002, two Japanese citizens received the Nobel Prize. Theoretical physicist Koshiba Masatoshi (1926-), Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo,...

Japan's Underlying Strength: "The Future as Created by Robots".
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Muroyama Tetsuya The Japanese Love for Robots April 7, 2003, an important date in the minds of the Japanese, has arrived at last. It is the birthday of Tetsuwan Atom (Astro...

Present State of the Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Industry and Its Prospects.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Iihama Mika What are Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems? Interest in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology has been on the rise lately in various fields. MEMS...

The International Community and the Iraqi Crisis.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Wakamatsu Kenji The United States and Britain have begun a war against Iraq in the absence of another United Nations (UN) resolution, and amid unprecedented divisions among the...

Basic Law on Intellectual Property.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Araki Taro I. Introduction The Basic Law on Intellectual Property (Basic Law) was approved in the 2002 extraordinary session of the Diet and promulgated on Dec. 4 the same...

Small Town Theatrics.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Article by Elizabeth Kiritani and illustrations by Kiritani Itsuo The drive over the Shimanami Kaido, a network of 10 bridges linking the island of Shikoku to Japan's main...

East-West Cultural Exchange in Art (Part 2).
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Takashina Erika Paris, 1885 (2) - Yamamoto Hosui's One-man Paris Exhibition On the morning of May 12, 1885, just prior to the announcement of Victor Hugo's deteriorating...

Pride and Independence: Fukuzawa Yukichi and the Spirit of the Meiji Restoration (Part 2).
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Kitaoka Shin-ichi The Standard-Bearer of Civilization and Enlightenment Contrary to the misgivings of Fukuzawa Yukichi that the newly born Meiji government would become...

Special Zones for Structural Reform Getting Under Way.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) The establishment of special zones for structural reform (special zones) is stealing the spotlight as a way to revitalize the ailing Japanese economy. The reform zone scheme, to be...

McDonald's Japan Facing Uphill Battle.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) In July 1971, McDonald's Japan opened its first outlet in Japan on the ground floor of the Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza, Tokyo. At the opening, blue-eyed McDonald's campaign girls...

Japanese Civilization (Part 8).
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Kawakatsu Heita The Elimination of Imported Currency at the End of the 17th Century After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was divided into a dozen or so republics. One of...

New Bank of Japan Governor is a "Realist with Ideals".
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Tani Sadafumi A new regime was introduced at the Bank of Japan (BOJ) on March 20. The newly appointed governor of the BOJ is Fukui Toshihiko, 67, a former deputy governor of...

How to Improve Japan's Economic Policy Formulation.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Inoki Takenori A large number of people, from Diet members elected by the public to bureaucrats of various government ministries, are involved in Japan's economic policy...

China Becomes Japan's Largest Source of Imports.
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) China's exports to Japan and the United Sates have been steadily expanding. Japan's provisional trade statistics for 2002 on a custom-cleared basis showed that Japan's imports from China,...

A Short History of Japan's Movement to FTAs (Part 4).
May 1, 2003... (From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI)) Byline: Hatakeyama Noboru In November 1999, Juan Gabriel Valdes, then Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs and the incumbent ambassador to the United Nations, kindly visited the Japan...

Jihad against poverty, ignorance-Razak.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Belinda Olivares-Cunanan THE PRESIDENT'S appointments to the Sandiganbayan have been awaited since Easter Monday when the 90-day period for filling up vacancies to the graft court expired, but...

Atienza: No SARS in Chinatown.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Jerome Aning MAYOR Lito Atienza yesterday declared Manila's Chinatown free of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and denied reports that a 12-year-old resident of the district had died of...

No mask? 'Bra' will do.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Lullie A.Micabalo PDI Mindanao Bureau and Philip Tubeza WITH Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas II himself admitting that drugstores have run out of N95-masks, Filipino ingenuity has come to the...

COA clears PEA: No overprice in road project.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Christian V. Esguerra THE COMMISSION on Audit has cleared the former management of the Public Estates Authority (PEA) in the alleged P600-million overprice of the President Diosdado Macapagal...

Deregulation is anti OFW.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Ma. Ceres P. Doyo FIERY Labor Day greetings (as in maapoy na pagbati) to all workers, especially my fellow unyonistas at the Inquirer. Mabuhay tayong lahat! First, some heartwarming stuff:...

Comelec execs off to Korea to check on bidding winner.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Blanche Rivera TWO officials of the Commission on Elections will fly to South Korea today to check the background of the winner of the bidding for the P1.7 billion automation program. ...

20-day reprieve for Manila depot.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Jerome Aning THE FACILITIES of Caltex and Petron at the Pandacan oil depot will stay open-at least for 20 more days-after two Manila regional trial court judges yesterday issued a temporary...

Little to cheer about.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) THE CELEBRATION of Labor Day today is cast against the background of more threatening concerns generated by the SARS epidemic, its economic fall-out as well as that of the war in Iraq that is just winding...

The sex lives of mayors and talk show hosts.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Dolly Ann Carvajal KRIS Aquino clarified her earlier comment about having sex three times a day. Said Kris: "Korina (Sanchez) and I were talking about a news item on couple's healthy sex...

Labor Day demand: Oust DOLE chief.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) MILITANT labor groups in Cebu and Bicol called for the ouster of Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas for allegedly failing to protect workers' interests. About 200 members of the Alyansa sa mga Mamumuo...

A festival of health, healing, prosperity.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Romulo Ponte, Pakil, Laguna MELINDA de Luna, a resident of San Pablo City who works as a bank employee in Santa Rosa town, was still childless at 32. Her doctor had expressed pessimism about her...

2 fires claim lives of 5 in Albay, Cebu City villages.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) FIVE persons died when two fires struck a village in an Albay city and another village in Cebu City. In Tabaco City, four children were found dying under a bed of the house where they were trapped by...

Gloria on Cha-cha: Go ahead.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Dona Pazzibugan and Juliet L. Javellana IN THE CLEAREST sign yet on where she stood on the issue of Charter change, President Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday gave the go-ahead to legislators to...

20 Isabela families put in isolation.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) CABAGAN, Isabela-Gov. Faustino Dy Jr. on Tuesday ordered the isolation of 20 families in Barangays Casibarag Norte and Casibarag Sur here for 14 days amid suspicions that a returning overseas Filipino...

Labor, pro-Erap groups to hold Mendiola rallies.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Volt Contreras, Carlito Pablo and Gerald G. Lacuarta DEPOSED President Joseph Estrada yesterday assailed law enforcement officials for continually dragging his name in raising the security alert...

Labor Day started in Chicago.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: PDI Research MODERN day celebrations of May 1 as a working class holiday evolved from the struggle in 1886 of American workers for an eight-hour work day. But Labor Day's origins can be...

Gap between minimum wage, living cost widens.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Agnes Donato THE GAP between what a worker earns and what he and his family need to spend to survive on a daily basis has widened by almost 19 pesos, according to a militant group yesterday....

2 villages tell medical heroes to keep out.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Christian V. Esguerra IT'S tough working at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. RITM medical staff members are now being discriminated against by...

RP mission not invited to Iraq.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Christine Avendano THE Senate foreign relations committee yesterday questioned the decision to send a Filipino humanitarian mission to Iraq after it was told that the Philippines had not...

GMA: S'pore, China laud Filipino health workers.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Jolene R. Bulambot CEBU CITY-There was a most touching moment for President Macapagal-Arroyo during the formal, crisis-charged SARS summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)...

Nationwide network of SARS centers to be set up.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Armand Nocum THE GOVERNMENT plans to build a nationwide network of SARS response centers with the capability of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, so far the only medical facility...

How free is our press?
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Michael L. Tan GIVEN the freewheeling articles in many of our newspapers as well as the hard-hitting commentaries on radio and television, it's tempting to think the Philippine press must be one...

Goodbye, 'Miss Saigon'.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Leah Salterio IT'S curtains down for "Miss Saigon," the Boublil-Schoenberg musical that placed Filipinos, especially Lea Salonga, in the international theater map. After 14 years, "Miss...

Senate probes PBA drug mess.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Marc Anthony Reyes THE PBA said it was just part of a continuing probe of fake Fil-foreign players. But the Senate announced yesterday it will conduct an inquiry to determine the extent of...

Ping off the hook for 'candidacy'.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Blanche S. Rivera OPPOSITION Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the most visible presidential aspirant of the so-called united opposition, is off the hook as far as the Commission on Elections is concerned....

Workers denied justice through delay.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Neal H. Cruz IT'S another Labor Day during which workers will again march in the streets and innumerable speakers will extol the virtues of labor with empty platitudes. Militant labor...

Power giant honors Ramos.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) SUAL, Pangasinan-For his patronage of the 1.2 megawatt power plant in his home province, former President Fidel V. Ramos was honored yesterday by Mirant Philippines, the country's biggest power supplier....

Protection vs SARS part of non-wage package.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Blanche S. Rivera LIKE most Filipinos, workers are scared of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Dropping the usual demand for a wage increase, the Trade Union Congress of the...

Obet's DAR report card: Not zero at all.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Gerald G. Lacuarta AGRARIAN Reform Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan yesterday listed the department's accomplishments in his first 100 days in office after critics blasted him for his allegedly...

The war in our midst.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Conrado de Quiros (This is a much abbreviated version of the talk I gave at the graduation rites of UP Visayas in Iloilo City last Monday. The full text appears on Inq7.net on Saturday.) ...

Shabu rocks PBA anew.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Marc Anthony Reyes A SECOND straight drug scandal rocked the PBA last night after the pro league announced Ginebra's Alex Crisano has been found positive for shabu. The burly, heavily...

Quirimit tops lap; Ramos keeps lead.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: June Navarro TAGAYTAY CITY(via PLDT)-Arnel Quirimit returned to the winner's circle in spectacular fashion yesterday but Merculio Ramos held on to the yellow jersey of leadership after five laps...

Slain rights activist buried.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) GENERAL LUNA, Quezon-Human rights activist Eden Marcellana was buried Tuesday in a secluded corner of the municipal cemetery here after a one-and-half-hour funeral march joined by some 2,500 mourners, mainly...

More to worry about than SARS.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Rina Jimenez-David IF this paper were to run a banner headline tomorrow proclaiming that 75 Filipinos had died of TB in a single day, we would probably be laughed out of the industry. After all,...

Superal superior.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Jong Arcano WOLEN Juan Superal capped one of the best performances ever by a junior player with a two-under-par 70 yesterday that kept his winning rampage in the Samsung Jungolf Tour. The...

One night of indiscretion.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Al S. Mendoza ONE mistake you die. That's the law in the olden times, the creed the legendary gunslinger Django of the silver screen lived by. It still applies today. It will also tomorrow,...

What if Ping Lacson wins?
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Ramon Tulfo SENATOR Panfilo "Ping" Lacson is the 2004 presidential candidate of the "united opposition." Hey, there! Why does united opposition have to be in quotation marks? Is it because...

Trackfest stakes 15 golds.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Marc Anthony Reyes EDUARDO Buenavista, who broke the Philippine record in his first crack at the 10,000 meters during the Busan Asian Games last year, is the runaway favorite to rule the event...

Take care of Metro, BF asks successor.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Blanche S. Rivera TRUE to his loyalty, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Bayani Fernando has asked his successor at the Department of Public Works and Highways to do one thing-take...

Televiewers as victims of networks' 'fight to the finish'.
May 1, 2003... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Nestor U. Torre QUITE a number of televiewers have confirmed our observation that local TV programs have been becoming sleazier by the month. Last year, we objected to the exploitation of sexy...