UN forecasts higher decline in global tourism in 2009
AFP, Madrid

The UN World Tourism Organization revised its 2009 global tourism forecast down sharply on Thursday due to worsening economic growth prospects and uncertainty over the impact of the swine flu.
In the June edition of its "World Tourism Barometer", the Madrid-based body forecast international tourism would decrease between four and six percent this year. In January it had predicted a decline of between zero and two percent.
"The negative trend in international tourism that emerged during the second half of 2008 intensified in 2009," it said in a state-ment, adding economic growth prospects have been adjusted downwards repeatedly over the past six months. "There is additional uncertainty regarding the future of the influenza A(H1N1) virus and its effect on demand in the short to medium term," the statement added.
The International Monetary Fund was forecasting growth of over 2.0 percent for the world economy when the UN body issued its tourism forecast in January. The IMF is now forecasting a global economic contraction of 1.3 percent.
During the first four months of 2009, global tourism declined by 8.0 percent from the same period last year to 247 million international tourism arrivals, the UN body said in the statement.
Europe posted a decline of 10 percent between January and April while Asia and the Pacific region saw a decline of 6.0 percent during the period.
Africa and South America were the only regions to buck the downward trend, posting increases of 3.0 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.
"The positive results in Africa reflect the strength of North African destinations around the Mediterranean and the recovery of Kenya as one of leading Sub-Saharan destinations," the statement said.
International tourism arrivals rose 1.9 percent in 2008 over the previous year to 922 million.
France remained the world's top tourism destination that year with 79 million arrivals while the United States regained the second-place position which it lost to Spain after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

 Obama ‘disappointed’ by jobless figures
AFP, Washington

US President Barack Obama was "deeply disappointed" by the country's jobless figures which pushed the unemployment rate to a 26-year high, his spokesman said Thursday.
"Obviously he is deeply disappointed by the continued job loss in our economy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "The president remains deeply concerned that we are losing jobs month to month," he added.
Data released Thursday showed that US job losses surged to 467,000 in June, pushing the unemployment rate to a new 26-year high of 9.5 percent.
The Labor Department report, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, reversed the improvement seen last month when job losses fell to a revised 322,000.
But Gibbs denied that the figures showed that the Obama administration's huge stimulus plan launched in January was not working.
"There is a sense that the beginnings of stabilization are taking hold," he said, adding "there's obviously evidence that the recovery plan is working." Analysts had expected a smaller June number of 365,000 job losses, but a higher unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. The jobless rate in May was 9.4 percent.

  Oil price falls in Asian trade on US economic concerns
AFP, Singapore

Oil fell further during Asian trade Friday as investors continued to fret about the state of the US economy where the jobless rate has surged to a 26-year high, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, eased 38 cents to 66.35 dollars a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for August delivery sank 57 cents to 66.08 dollars
"The US employment report was a negative for the oil price," said David Moore, a Sydney-based commodity analyst with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Data released Thursday showed US job losses surged to 467,000 in June, pushing the unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent.
The latest report, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, reversed the improvement seen last month when job losses fell to a revised 322,000. Since the recession began in the United States in December 2007, the world's biggest economy and also the biggest energy user has lost 6.5 million jobs and the jobless rate has risen 4.6 percentage points.
"Risk aversion returned with a vengeance yesterday after a disappointing US labour market report for June," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist with SJS Markets trading firm.
Oil prices are likely to remain under pressure until economic data point to a firm turnaround in US economic fortunes, which will in turn lead to stronger energy demand, analysts said.
"Beyond any help arising from equities... crude oil market fundamentals look fragile. No doubt, a rally in equities or a weaker US dollar could support higher oil prices," Merrill Lynch analysts said in a report.

    Real estate sales up, prices soar in China
Asia News Network

The real estate market is quickly turning hot. On Monday, for instance, a land parcel along Beijing's Guangqu Road was auctioned off for more than 4 billion yuan ($585 million) after fierce bidding among major developers from the mainland and Hong Kong.
The price set a record for a single land parcel in Beijing.
More dramatically, just 15 months ago, this land parcel was withdrawn from a public tender due to a lack of bidders.
"The bidders have gone irrational. A bubble in Beijing's property market is definitely there," said Pan Shiyi, chairman of property giant SOHO China, who was also a bidder that day, after the latest auction.
This "bubble" is being felt in the real estate market in major cities across the country.
In Beijing's Central Business District, residential property appreciated 6.5 percent in the past week alone, according to leading property broker Homelink.
In some established neighborhoods, such as the R&F City, SOHO New Town and the Pingod, demand for second-hand apartments is four times the units available.
"We used to talk about monthly price growth, but recently, it's more about daily change," a broker with Homelink said.
In Shanghai, developers of the luxury Tomson Rivers apartments, known for their price of more than 100,000 yuan per sq m ($14,000), sold 10 units in the first 25 days of June.
Before that, only four had been sold since the project was marketed in 2005.
In Guangzhou, the downtown housing price reached 11,200 yuan per sq m ($1,600) in May, close to the historical high of 11,574 yuan per sq m ($1,700) in October 2007, official statistics indicate.
And the average price of second-hand apartments reached an all-time high of 9,648 yuan per sq m ($1,400) in the same month.
"One thing we are concerned about is whether there is a new bubble being shaped. While people have a strong perception of excessive liquidity and further price growth, the possibility of a bubble is pretty big," said Gu Yunchang, secretary-general of the China Real Estate Association. The current momentum is in stark contrast to the stagnation the industry suffered a year ago, when government policies to curb overinvestment and market fear of overpricing led to sliding prices and shrinking transactions.
But the global financial woes prompted Chinese policymakers to ease the reins on the real estate industry, a key engine of the country's GDP growth.
Last October, the central bank authorized banks to offer up to a 30 percent discount in mortgage rates to first-time homebuyers.

  US economy still struggling in recession, hope for recovery by year-end

AFP, Washington

Halfway through 2009, the US economy is still struggling in recession amid fragile hopes for recovery by the end of the year.
Those recovery hopes were dampened by Thursday's worse-than-expected report on US payrolls, which showed a rise in job losses in June of 467,000, as unemployment rose to a new 26-year-high of 9.5 percent.
This curbed some of the optimism generated by moderating job losses in May and other reports suggesting improving trends in key areas such as manufacturing and consumer spending.
With the economy still bleeding jobs, some analysts fear a new downward spiral fed by falling incomes that cut into consumer spending, the lifeblood of economic activity.
Meny Grauman, economist at CIBC World Markets, said some analysts have gotten ahead of themselves in anticipating an economic recovery.
The June payrolls report "shows the recession lives on in the United States," he said. "It's a question of the pace of decline and not recovery. The economy continues to contract at a slower pace than at the beginning of this year, but it's still a steep ride."
The US economy shrank at a 5.5 percent pace in the first quarter, based on the latest official estimate, following a 6.3 percent slide in gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter -- representing the worst slump in decades, resulting from the collapse of a housing bubble and global credit squeeze.
Many analysts expect the third quarter that began July 1 to show flat or improving economic activity as a recovery takes hold, but the latest labor report is raising doubts.
"This is just one month's report but if it is followed by another disappointing report in July we might have to revise our figures downward for the third quarter" for the US economy, said Sal Guatieri at BMO Capital Markets.
"Right now we are pencilling in a flat GDP in the third quarter," he said, adding however that "job losses remain massive and are a continuing source of downside risk to the economic outlook."
Until now, many economists had been revising their forecast upward.
Deutsche Bank economists have upped their US and global forecasts while warning of soft conditions.
"We now expect the economy to bottom out (in the third) quarter and for real GDP to register a positive increase by the fourth quarter," said a report by Deutsche Bank's Peter Hooper and Thomas Mayer.

 Siemens to pay $100m to fight graft: WB
AFP, Washington

German industrial giant Siemens will pay 100 million dollars over 15 years into a fund to fight corruption after probes revealed fraud at its subsidiaries, the World Bank said Thursday.
Siemens has also agreed not to bid for business from the Washington-based World Bank for two years as part of its punishment following the anti-corruption investigations.
"The World Bank Group today announced a comprehensive settlement with Siemens.. in the wake of the company's acknowledged past misconduct in its global business and a World Bank investigation into corruption in a project in Russia involving a Siemens subsidiary," the bank said.
The World Bank added: "As part of the settlement, Siemens has also agreed to co-operate to change industry practices, clean up procurement practices and engage in collective action with the World Bank Group to fight fraud and corruption."
The 161-year-old conglomerate with activities from nuclear power stations to trains and light bulbs has acknowledged that up to 1.3 billion euros may have been used illegally to win foreign contracts. Siemens, which employs some 400,000 people worldwide, found in an internal investigation that the practice was widespread across its numerous divisions.

 Air India employees strike over unpaid wages
AFP, New Delhi

Employees of India's national carrier Air India staged a nationwide two-hour strike on Friday to protest what they said was management's failure to pay salaries on time.
The walkout was called by the airline's two largest unions, despite a warning from company executives that they would deduct wages from employees who participated in any stoppage.
Last month the management of the struggling state-run airline -- which merged with government-run domestic carrier Indian Airlines last year -- sent a notice to its employees saying it would defer 73 million dollars in June wages until July 15.
But the carrier later said it would pay salaries to lower-ranked employees by Friday.
"We are staging a walkout and demonstration for two hours as the management has failed to honour its commitment given to the unions to pay our June salaries by today," George Abraham, general secretary of the Aviation Industry Employees' Guild told the Press Trust of India Air India spokesman Jitendra Bhargava would not comment on whether or not the employees had been paid, but told AFP: "Once employees go on agitation, we can't be seen paying them."
"They should have logically waited until the 3rd, which was the committed date, rather than having announced agitation on the 2nd."
Employees staged demonstrations and shouted slogans outside company offices in the capital New Delhi and Mumbai, but all flights were reported to be operating normally.
Last month the airline also asked its top managers to forgo one month's salary as part of efforts to survive the crisis.
A combination of high fuel prices, fewer passengers and the global financial meltdown have left Air India with an estimated 800 million dollars in losses for the past year and debt of four billion dollars, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

 Viet Nam’s retail petrol prices rise for fifth time this year
Asia News Network

Retail prices of petrol and oil has increased by VND700 and VND500-650 per litre respectively following approval from ministries.
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade had received proposals earlier from traders recommending and requesting the price hikes.
Prices for A95 and A92 petrol increased to VND14,700 (US$0.82) and VND14,200 per litre on Wednesday. Prices for kerosene, fuel oil and diesel also increased to VND13,650, VND10,500 and VND12,100, respectively. The crude oil price recently was hovering around $70 per barrel, nearly double the price of $40 per barrel earlier this year.
With the skyrocketing price, many petrol and oil traders complained about the losses they were incurring with low domestic retail prices. Traders had estimated their losses at the lower prices to be VND900 per litre of petrol and VND1,500-2,000 per litre of oil.
This was the fifth time that petrol and oil prices increased this year, and total price increases have amounted to VND3,200 per litre, up about 32 per cent as compared with prices at the end of last year.
The State also cut import tax rates for petrol and oil from 40 to 20 per cent, and the Ministry of Finance temporarily stopped collecting fees for the petrol price stabilisation fund to ease traders' losses.
When traders urged the two ministries to raise retail prices, the ministries considered carefully their proposals and decided to increase the prices, rather than reduce the petrol import taxes, said Nguyen Tien Thoa, director of the Ministry of Finance's Price Control Department.
"The petrol retail prices in Viet Nam were about VND2,000 lower than that in China, Cambodia, Singapore and Laos", he said.
The country's biggest gas supplier, Sai Gon Petro, Wednesday also decided to raise the gas retail price by VND24,000 to VND210,000 per 12kg canister.
Other firms such as VT Gas, Elf Gas and Gia Dinh Gas were expected to follow Sai Gon Petro's lead.
Le Phuc Dai, director general of the Vinagas Dai Viet Energy JSC, attributed to the need for an increase to the global gas price hike, which reached $95 per tonne. "If the suppliers calculated the entire costs, prices should rise by VND30,000-40,000, rather than VND24,000," said Dai.

 Indian FM urges ‘ambitious but fair’ climate targets
AFP, Tokyo

India's foreign minister on Friday called for an ambitious but fair greenhouse gas reduction target under a new climate treaty, saying any pact should not hinder the economic growth of developing countries.
"We agreed that climate change is an important global challenge," Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said in Tokyo after meeting his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone during a four-day visit. "We hope that all countries will participate constructively," he told a joint news conference.
However, Krishna stressed the need for "an ambitious and at the same time equitable and fair outcome at Copenhagen in 2009 which ensures that developing countries are able to continue their economic growth at an accelerated pace." A December summit in the Danish capital is intended to secure a new international agreement on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
India -- like fellow developing heavyweight China -- has refused to commit to emission cuts in the new treaty until developed nations, particularly the United States, present sufficient targets of their own. Nakasone called on India to take the lead in persuading developing countries to join the new treaty.
"I expressed my hope and expectations for India to exercise its leadership even more positively and comprehensively," he said. "The minister and I shared the view that we should step up our bilateral dialogue on this issue."
Japan last month said it plans to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of eight percent from 1990 levels by the end of the next decade, a goal attacked as too little by environmentalists.
The two foreign ministers also agreed that the world should step up pressure on North Korea by implementing UN sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile tests.
"We shared the view that North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development is a threat to the international community," Nakasone said.

 Australia pledges millions of dollars to Aborigines
AFP, Sydney

Australia announced a 155 million US dollar package for isolated Aboriginal communities Friday, after a new report revealed shocking levels of child abuse among the downtrodden minority.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who made a landmark apology for Australia's treatment of Aborigines last year, said the package was an attempt to redress decades of poor treatment.
"It's time that we put the rancour of the past behind us," Rudd said as he signed the accord aimed at boosting health, education, housing and transport in Western Australia's vast East Kimberley region. "It is time that we recognise the things that have not worked in the past, and it's time we actually marched together towards the future on those things that do work."
The announcement comes a day after the centre-left leader vowed "decisive action" on a government report which revealed that grim living conditions for Aborigines were worsening.
Some 35 in every 1,000 children were suffering abuse or neglect, six times more than the general community, while murder rates were seven times higher. Aborigines are 13 times more likely to be imprisoned, the report found.
When Rudd delivered his historic apology last year, for abuses suffered since white settlement in 1788, he pledged to halve the gaps in infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy and school completion rates in 10 years. But the conservative opposition party says Rudd has achieved little and called for a military and police intervention in the desert communities of the Northern Territory to be expanded into the Kimberley and other western regions. "(Rudd) said these results are devastating and that is right... it seems that nothing has been achieved," said Julie Bishop, opposition spokeswoman for Aboriginal affairs. "I would like to see the intervention moved into WA as well. There are some drastic circumstances for indigenous people in the north of Western Australia."
Rudd's deputy, Julia Gillard, defended the government's record and said it was always going to be a "long-term journey" to reverse years of disadvantage. "You don't turn around decades of difference in life expectancy, education and employment outcomes overnight. That's not possible," Gillard said. Aborigines account for 2.5 percent of the 21 million population, and are Australia's most impoverished minority, with a lifespan 17 years shorter than the national average.
Now in opposition, the conservatives long refused to apologise to Aborigines amid fears it would spark an avalanche of claims for compensation, particularly from the "stolen generations" of children who were forcibly removed from their parents.

 ‘India, US should resolve differences in Doha talks’
PTI, Chicago

India and the US need to resolve their differences on issues of agriculture and industrial tariffs under the Doha trade negotiations to avoid a breakdown in talks, an international trade expert has said.
India and the US need to resolve some of their differences "bilaterally first and reach a resolution so that later there is no breakdown of talks," Mark Nguyen, Principal at international trade consultancy firm MDN Trade LLC told PTI here.
Nguyen said if India and the US do not resolve their differences, it could hamper movement in the talks and "take us back where we were".
The Doha round of trade talks were launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital. The talks collapsed in July last year at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, mainly due to differences between India and the US over the issue of special safeguard - a mechanism that would allow developing countries to raise farm tariffs to protect poor farmers from a surge in imports.
While developed and developing countries are keen to resume the Doha talks and take the deal to a conclusion this year, Nguyen said "2010 is more likely" when the negotiations would restart.
With new governments in place in New Delhi and Washington since the collapse of talks in July, there is need for "political will" to ensure that the talks move forward. "The political will for the trade talks is a real problem.
In the US, the Congress is resistant to trade initiatives and in India, the issue of special safeguard for agriculture is not negotiable," he said, adding that even at the technical level, the modalities need to be resolved before the trade ministers meet to conclude the negotiations.
India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said negotiating texts drawn up in December should be the basis of further negotiations.

 First energy to Thai firm in test of giant Lao dam: WB
AFP, Hanoi

The Nam Theun 2 hydropower development, Laos's largest infrastructure project, has delivered its first test energy to a Thai firm, the World Bank said Friday.
Last week's test delivery to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand sent a total of 60 megawatts to the transmission line that exports electricity to Laos's neighbour, the Bank said.
About 95 percent of production will be sold to Thailand, earning Laos revenues estimated at almost two billion dollars over 25 years, which the communist country pledged to spend on poverty reduction.
The World Bank, which is backing the development, said construction of the electro-mechanical works are nearly complete and the project is expected to start commercial operation at the end of the year. A spokesman for the power company said last month the project was behind schedule but the company was hopeful lost time could be made up.
The development in central Laos on the Nam Theun River, a tributary of the Mekong, required about 8,000 workers and relocation of 6,301 villagers, the spokesman said.
After years of opposition from environmentalists, work on the 1.45-billion-dollar Lao-French-Thai project began in November 2005. It will have a generating capacity of 1,070 megawatts.

 Ericsson wins contracts to supply broadband Internet in China

AFP, Stockholm

Swedish mobile phone network supplier Ericsson won contracts to supply broadband Internet to millions of users in China by a deal with three operators there, it said Friday.
The company, the world's leading mobile network supplier, said it had been awarded contracts with China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom to provide fixed broadband access in provinces including Guangdong, Shanghai and Sichuan.
"Millions of people in an initial nine Chinese provinces will now be able to enjoy high-definition TV, as well as high-speed broadband and quality voice services," it said in a statement.