In Monday's Asia Papers
07 March 2005 01:47 [Source: ICIS news]
A summary of political, economic, trade, business and product news affecting the chemical and related industries.
International Economics & Politics
China warns US-Japan on security pact
Beijing on Sunday (6 March) warned that the US-Japan security alliance should be restricted solely to bilateral issues and not encompass Taiwan, an inalienable part of China. The Taiwan question is China's internal affair and should not be deliberated in the framework of the security alliance between the US and Japan, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said. He spoke at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing annual full session of the top legislature, the National People's Congress. He said any move to include Taiwan directly or indirectly in the scope of US-Japan security co-operation constitutes an encroachment on China's sovereignty and interference in China's internal affairs. He added that the Chinese Government and people are firmly against such action. Beijing last month voiced strong opposition to a US-Japan joint statement which described Taiwan as one of their common strategic objectives. Describing the US-Japan military alliance as an arrangement reached under special circumstances of the Cold War, Li said it would definitely arouse uneasiness on the part of Asian countries and complicate the regional security situation if it goes beyond its bilateral scope.
China Daily, China (online edition)
Japan Times, Japan (online edition)
Straits Times, Singapore (online edition)
Sino-Japanese trade, investment grow
China and Japan witnessed a remarkable growth in bilateral trade and investment in 2004, despite a few negative political factors. Experts claim 2005 is vital for economic relations between the two countries. The trade volume between China and Japan amounted to $167.9bn (Euro125.9bn) in 2004, reflecting a rise of 25.7% from a year ago. Exports of six categories accounted for over 75% of China's total exports to Japan. They included machinery and electrical equipment, textiles, base metal and its products, optical and medical equipment, food, drinks and tobacco, and metal products. China's imports from Japan included base metal, optical and medical equipment, automobile and aviation components, crude textile materials and chemical products. In 2004, Japan was replaced by South Korea for the first time in foreign direct investment (FDI) to China, dropping from the third to the fourth investor of China. Japan's FDI to China totaled $5.45bn in 2004 while Korea's FDI to China reached $6.25bn.
China Daily, China (online edition)
India's IT firms are terror targets
With the killing of three militants and the arrest of two others, police said they have uncovered a plot to strike at the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun and major software companies in Bangalore. The special cell of the Delhi Police on Saturday (5 March) evening busted a module of the militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, when they first apprehended two operatives and later neutralised three others in the city. Two of those killed were Pakistanis. The idea was to strike at the economic strength of the country as software is a major sector for India, he said. Bangalore, known as India's silicon valley, houses software giants like Infosys, Wipro, Texas Instruments and others.
Times of India, India (online edition)
KL to cut subsidies for fuel, health, education
The Malaysian government is planning to trim fuel subsidies and health and education benefits that for decades helped citizens to enjoy comfortable lifestyles akin to a Western welfare state. The government is facing a heavy financial burden because of the fuel subsidies amid record-high global oil prices, along with escalating medical costs and poor repayment of higher education loans, said Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in a speech on Saturday (5 March) to ruling Barisan Nasional coalition lawmakers in Sabah. But he assured Malaysians that the reduction in subsidies would be made gradually to avoid shocking the people. Providing economic stability has been a key pillar of the government's strategy to maintain racial harmony in multi-ethnic Malaysia. With near full employment and a low cost of living, there has been less reason for conflicts in the country, where ethnic Malays enjoy political dominance over Chinese and Indian minorities. The racial disquiet of the 1960s, including a major riot in 1969, gave way to harmony as Malaysia became comfortably well off, and then prosperous in the 1980s on the back of the Asian 'tiger economy' boom.
Straits Times, Singapore (online edition)
Fresh China move to rebuild ties with S'pore
In another sign of improving relations between China and Singapore, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said on Sunday (6 March) that Beijing was ready to further its friendship and cooperation. He was speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament. But he sidestepped a question posed by a Singaporean reporter who asked for an evaluation of the state of bilateral relations. This is the 15th year since Singapore established ties with the communist giant. Relations between the two sides cooled after then-deputy prime minister Lee Hsien Loong made an unofficial visit to Taiwan last July. In protest against Lee's visit, Beijing cut off official visits and exchanges and delayed talks on a free trade agreement that were to have begun in November. Li said that China was willing to further strengthen cooperation with Singapore in the United Nations and other international organisations, as well as within regional frameworks He also noted that the two sides have begun the process for a free trade area, adding that two-way trade hit $105.8bn (Euro79.3bn) last year, topping a pre-set target ahead of schedule.
Straits Times, Singapore (online edition)
Thaksin: Cut fuel use to fight deficit
Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra asked for public cooperation in reducing fuel use as sustained high oil prices and increasing domestic demand contributed to the country's biggest current account deficit since 1997. But he vowed to keep subsidising the price of diesel to minimise the impact on the economy. Thailand posted its first current account deficit in nine months in January due to increased imports of capital goods such as industrial machinery, higher oil prices and heavier consumption of petroleum products. The Bank of Thailand announced that imports for the month expanded at an unprecedented rate of 33.6% year-on-year as both the quantity and prices of petroleum products rose. The current account deficit for January totalled $942m (Euro706m). Thaksin said Thailand's economy remains strong because of the country's huge foreign reserves. Currently, international foreign exchange reserves total $49.6bn. On 22 February, retail market leader state firm PTT raised its diesel sales price by Baht0.60 to Baht15.19/litre in greater Bangkok.
Business Day, Thailand (online edition)
Energy
China group to oversee energy sector
The Chinese government will set up a national leading group to oversee China's energy industry but is unlikely to establish a ministry of energy in the near future, leading to criticism that not enough is being done for the key sector. The Minister of Water Resources Wang Shucheng has been calling for such a ministry for some time. He believes energy is of such importance in China's development that the State Council should have a special ministry to oversee it with total assets of more than Rmb10trn ($1.2trn/Euro906m). Wang has urged enhanced efforts to co-ordinate coal, electricity and oil management, map out energy strategies and promote energy saving. He said the government is speeding up the construction of hydroelectric and nuclear power plants to help ease the reliance on coal, a heavy polluter. Despite the huge investment, Wang said China's development will still face barriers in energy, water and land shortages in the coming years.
China Daily, China (online edition)
Environment & Health
Tsunami victims file 1st global lawsuit
A group of tsunami victims have filed what is believed to be the first worldwide claim, demanding that the Thai authorities, US forecasters and a French hotel chain prove they reacted adequately, their lawyers said on Saturday (5 March). Edward Fagan, who successfully fought a class-action suit against Swiss banks by Holocaust victims, and two other lawyers filed the suit with a New York district court on Friday on behalf of more than 60 plaintiffs from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and France. The plaintiffs accuse the Thai authorities of not releasing information about the impending sea surge as soon as they received it, arguing that a more prompt alert would have saved thousands of lives. They also accuse the NOAA, whose Hawaii-based tsunami warning centre covers only the Pacific, of not informing Indian Ocean states about the tsunami even though they had registered the seaquake.
Straits Times, Singapore (online edition)
Life Sciences
US researchers find two chems to fight HIV
Two chemical compounds may help the immune systems of HIV-infected people fight the disease without invasive gene therapy, US scientists reported on Saturday (5 March). The new research, presented at the 2005 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS, was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) AIDS Institute. It demonstrates that the new chemicals activate telomerase, a protein that boosts immune cells' ability to divide, enabling them to continue destroying HIV-infected cells, the researchers said. Earlier research by the UCLA team has showed that inserting the telomerase gene into the immune cells of an HIV-infected person prevented the cells from aging prematurely. The telomerase enabled the immune cells to divide indefinitely, stimulated their production of a viral-fighting molecule and prolonged their power to kill HIV-infected cells.
China Daily, China (online edition)
Oil & Gas
Row between Jakarta-KL escalates
A dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia over an oil-rich region in the Sulawesi Sea escalated on Sunday (6 March). Kuala Lumpur protested what it said was intrusion into its territory by an Indonesian naval vessel on Saturday while President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the Indonesian military to make its presence felt in the disputed waters. The moves came amid calls by some Indonesians for Jakarta to declare 'Konfrontasi 2' against Malaysia. President Yudhoyono is scheduled to visit the area on Monday while on a trip to the province of East Kalimantan. Tensions boiled over in the Sulawesi Sea after Malaysia's state oil company Petronas on 16 February granted energy giant Shell a concession in an area which the Indonesian calls Ambalat. For decades, Indonesia and Malaysia had disputed the ownership of Sipadan and Ligitan, two small islands east off Sebatik. But in December 2002, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the islands belonged to Malaysia.
Straits Times, Singapore (online edition)
Jakarta Post, Indonesia (online edition)
Company News
LG Chem ends round of foreign hiring
LG Chem, South Korea's largest chemicals manufacturer, said that its executives successfully wrapped up the year's first overseas recruitment drive that ended on Sunday (6 March). Between 2-5 March, LG Chem Chief Executive Officer No Ki-ho and human resources director Yug Geun-yeol visited top universities in the US to recruit MBAs and qualified R&D personnel. Meanwhile, Chief Technology Officer Yeo Jong-kee was in Los Angeles during the weekend to host a tech fair featuring 18 universities in an effort to woo Ph.D students. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to start recruiting overseas talents on a quarterly basis. LG Chem is an arm of LG Group, the country's third-largest industrial group. Along with LG Electronics, LG Chem is a core operation of LG, which split last year into LG Corp and GS Holdings. Inspired by strong growth in its electronics and chemicals divisions this year, LG has been increasingly seeking to further promote itself globally, such as the recent overseas recruitment drive.
Korea Herald, South Korea (online edition)
Singapore worker crushed to death
Another worker died on Sunday (6 March) afternoon in a Jurong Island incident, the eighth person to die in an industrial accident in about six weeks. A 35-year-old technician at Chevron Oronite, a company which produces special chemicals that enhance the performance of lubricant oil, was killed when a three-tonne metal container inside a silo fell off a conveyor belt and pinned him down. Two 10-tonne hydraulic jacks and an air bag were used to extricate the man. The Singapore Civil Defence Force said the exact sequence of events was not yet clear, but a flash fire had also occurred inside the silo, in which another man, a 36-year-old senior technician, suffered 20% second-degree burns on his arms, ears and body.
Straits Times, Singapore (online edition)
(Some stories may not appear in all editions of the cited news media.)
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