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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.
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