The U.S. dollar traded at the upper 87 yen level Thursday in Tokyo.
The dollar bought 87.75-76 yen at 5 p.m., up from 87.32-42 yen in New York and 87.20-21 yen in Tokyo Wednesday.
The euro was quoted at 1.5116-5118 dollars and 132.65-69 yen, compared with 1.5038-5048 dollars and 131.40-50 yen in New York and 1.5086-5088 dollars and 131.55-59 yen in Tokyo late Wednesday.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said it is planning to channel around 700 million U.S. dollars from two new investment funds to its developing member countries as part of a broad global initiative to help developing countries meet the cost of actions needed to combat climate change.
Donor countries, including Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States, pledged over 6.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2008 for the Clean Technology Fund and Strategic Climate Fund.
The two funds are designed to be interim financing tools and will be discontinued once the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change completes deliberations on a new global program for addressing climate change, and the new financial mechanisms needed to support it, the ADB said in a press release.
The Clean Technology Fund, to be issued in concessional loans, will support the deployment of low carbon energy technologies as well as energy efficiency measures for industry, commercial buildings and municipalities. Activities supported by this fund will get co-financing from ADB's regular operations, and this is expected to mobilize additional financing from both the state and private sectors.
The Strategic Climate Fund, to be issued in grants, will support pilot programs on climate resilience, forest investment and scaling up renewable energy use for low-income countries, with the end goal of demonstrating effective climate mitigation and adaptation interventions that can be expanded and replicated in future.
Malaysia is not directly affected by the debt crisis in Dubai, a Malaysian official said on Thursday.
Malaysian Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nor Mohamed Yakcop made this remark after opening the Eighth Malaysia International Trade and Consumer Fair near here.
Nor said that compared with the subprime crisis originated from the United States, the crisis in Dubai involved a loss of 80 billion U.S. dollars, which was much smaller than the 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars loss in the earlier crisis.
Nor also said that the markets in Europe and the U.S. did not react negatively in the first two days after the Dubai crisis shocked the world.
Dubai fell into to a debt crisis when its state-owned investment flagship Dubai World asked for a delay in repaying some of the 60 billion U.S. dollars it had owed to creditors.
However, many heavyweight investment institutions cast doubts on the current default by warning that Dubai's debt might be over 80 billion U.S. dollars while some dubbed the Dubai crisis as the second financial crisis.
Nor said that indirectly, the Dubai crisis might have impact on financial centers in the U.S., London or Europe but there was no direct impact on Malaysia.
The minister also said that Malaysian contractors were investing around the globe and there might be some in the Middle East, but he had no actual statistics in hand.
On another note, Nor said the Malaysian government was not planning to roll out the third stimulus package for the country as the recovery process was going on well.
Nor said that after three consecutive quarters of contraction, the fourth quarter might be able to register positive growth.
The Malaysian government unveiled two stimulus packages worth a total of 67 billion ringgit (19.14 billion U.S. dollars) in November 2008 and March this year to boost the country's economy.
The fair, organized by Malaysia's Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor State, runs from Dec. 2 to 6 and has attracted over 100 local and foreign companies to take part.
Asia has emerged from the latest global financial crisis in a much better position than its Western counterparts, and is set to play a key role in leading the world to recovery, Singapore Exchange's (SGX) chief said on Thursday.
With a growth forecast of over seven percent for developing Asia in 2010, Asia is outstripping the expected growth rates in Western economies many folds, said Magnus Bocker, Chief Executive Officer of SGX.
He said that Asia has one of the world's highest gross national savings rates (aggregate of corporations, households and government). Led by China with a savings rate of approximately 50 percent, South Korea, India and Japan each enjoy a rate of 25 to 35 percent.
This is in contrast to the United States with savings rates of only 10 percent, mainly contributed by their corporate sector.
Based on data from the International Monetary Fund, the size of combined Asian economies, measured by Gross Domestic Product, has overtaken the United States since 2008, and is projected to exceed Europe in 2011.
On the home-front, he said that there are advantages that serve as strong foundation for SGX to succeed as the Asian gateway.
One growth area will be the trading of commodity products where first quarter next year, SGX will be launching the Fuel Oil 380 CST Futures, and its subsidiary, Singapore Commodity Exchange (SICOM) will be expanding their product base to include gold, coffee and the clearing of over the counter rubber contracts.
Its partnership with Chi-X Global to set up the first exchange-backed dark pool is another step towards meeting the demands of Asian and international investors, he added.
Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Friday there's no justification following the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (CBA) decision to raise its interest rates beyond the increase by the central bank.
CBA, Australia's biggest home loan lender, will increase its standard variable home loan rate by 37 basis points to 6.61 percent effective from next Wednesday.
Westpac also this week announced it would raise its standard variable rate, by 45 basis points to 6.75 percent.
The Reserve Bank of Australia increased its base cash interest rate by 25 basis points on Tuesday to 3.75 percent.
"I've said before there is no justification for Westpac and I believe there's no justification for the Commonwealth Bank to move their rates above the official interest rate rise from the independent Reserve Bank,"
"I believe their customers will be angry with these actions." "I believe they will be disillusioned," Swan told reporters.
Swan was however pleased to see competition from other banks such as the NAB which was not following its competitor's rate rise.
"It's good to see there's some competition out there," he said.
"These banks will have to live with the consequences of their action, and I believe they will be harshly judged by their customers and by the broader community."
The U.S. dollar stood firm at the lower 88 yen level Friday morning in Tokyo.
The dollar bought 88.26-28 yen at midday, against 88.21-31 yen in New York and 87.75-76 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The euro was quoted at 1.5061-5063 dollars and 132.93-98 yen, compared with 1.5050-5060 dollars and 132.83-93 yen in New York and 1.5116-5118 dollars and 132.65-69 yen in Tokyo late Thursday
A total of 49,200 units of cars were sold in November in Indonesia, a 7.3 percent year-on-year increase, media reported Friday.
Amelia Tjandra, director for marketing of PT Astra Daihatsu Motor (ADM), a biggest car dealer, quoted by Antara news agency assaying that the accumulative sales from January to October rocketed 23 percent to 438,911 units year on year.
Indonesia has started to recover from the impact of the global crisis, with its economy growing 4 percent in the third quarter and being predicted to grow by 4.6-4.7 percent in the fourth quarter, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani has said recently.
For the whole year, the economy is expected to grow 4.3 percent, the minister added.
South Korea held a third round of free trade negotiations with Australia in Canberra, making progress on key issues, Seoul's trade ministry said Friday.
Starting Nov. 30, the weeklong talks dealt with issues of goods, services, investment, trade standards, and dispute settlement, the ministry said, adding that the two sides have narrowed differences on most of the issues.
During the talks, Seoul and Canberra also held a discussion on agriculture, energy, and mineral resources, which South Korea has been mainly focused on, and decided to have the issues included in the official chapter of the agreement, the ministry said.
The two sides decided to hold their fourth round of free trade negotiations in Seoul in March, according to the ministry.
Bilateral trade reached 23.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, with South Korea posting a deficit of 12.8 billion U.S. dollars, the trade ministry said, citing its government sources.
Currently, South Korea has FTAs with Chile, Singapore and the European Free Trade Association, as well as a pact with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and India.
Also, in November, South Korea initialed a similar trade pact with the European Union.
A free trade pact between South Korea and the United States was signed in 2007, although awaiting ratification in the legislatures of both countries.
Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Friday the loss of 150 jobs at aluminum giant Alcoa is further proof the economic stimulus needed to be maintained.
Alcoa Australia Rolled Products announced it will sack 90 staff at its Geelong plant and 60 from Yennora in western Sydney.
It is blaming the global financial crisis, rising costs and high foreign exchange rates for the sackings.
Swan told reporters the impact of the global financial crisis and the global recession were still evident in the Australia economy.
"I gather Alcoa have acknowledged the impact of the global financial crisis and the global recession on their company," Swan said.
"That's just yet another reason why we must maintain the stimulus, the support for employment which flows from that stimulus."
Japan's 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average edged up 0.45 percent, with the key index rising above the 10,000 for the first time in five weeks on Friday.
Buy orders from foreign investors as the yen retreated further against the dollar, and fiscal stimulus initiatives by Japan's central bank to tackle deflation lifted the market to it's highest level since Oct. 30.
Japan's key benchmark Nikkei added 44.92 points to 10,022.59.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange crept up 0.2 percent to 889.58.
In an emergency meeting held on Tuesday the Bank of Japan (BOJ) announced it would offer about 10 trillion yen (114 billion U.S. dollars) in short-term loans to commercial banks to boost liquidity, whilst maintaining its key interest rate at a super-low0.1 percent.
"The Nikkei's recovery to the 10,000 level was due largely to the steps announced by the Bank of Japan earlier this week," said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities.
"A short-cover rally, which was supported by foreign investors who were relieved to see Japan's economic measures, may have come to an end," said Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities.
"For further gains, investors need to see more clarity about Japan's economic policies, along with U.S. jobs data that could still surprise the market."
Pressure on exporters was eased on Friday with the dollar trading in the lower 88-yen range, up almost 4 yen from a 14-year low a week previously.
Sony Corp. rose 1.41 percent to 2,510 yen as the electronics maker saw "very positive signs" for sales of TVs, personal computers, PlayStation 3 game consoles and Blu-ray discs during the Thanksgiving week in the U.S., according to a statement by Chairman Howard Stringer to the press on Thursday.
"With heavy net buy orders from foreign investors before the opening and the dollar exchange rate in the 88-yen level, investors moved to test the market high," said Yumi Nishimura, a senior equity market analyst at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co.
However as exporters gained Japanese retailers lost ground on Friday, as a weaker yen raises their import costs.
Convenience store chain Family Mart Co. who recently announced their plans to buyout smaller rival am/pm Japan Co. and turn it into a subsidiary, lost 55 yen per share to 2,840 yen, while Seven& I Holdings Co. Ltd. closed trade flat.
Department store operator Marui Group Co. Ltd. shed 0.93 percent to 529 yen and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. dropped 2.56 percent to 780 yen.
Brokers described trade as "directionless" on Friday as there were a lack of domestic cues and traders and investors took a cautious stance ahead of key U.S. job data, due out on Friday.
The non-farm payrolls report due Friday may show that economic recovery in the U.S. is sluggish, although the unemployment rate for November is expected to remain unchanged at 10.2 percent, according to sources close to the matter.
Trade was active on the Tokyo exchange's First section, with some 2.3 billion shares changing hands, compared with last week's daily average of around 2 billion.
Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by 1,037 to 523.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday said it has priced its second issue of one billion yuan renminbi-denominated bonds, or Panda bonds, in China's domestic capital market.
Priced at par, the bonds carry an annual coupon of 4.2 percent per annum and have a maturity date of Dec. 8, 2019, the Philippines-based multilateral development lender said in a press release.
Offered through a book-building process, the issuance achieved a broad distribution with up to 50 percent of the bonds placed with domestic banks, 15 percent with foreign banks, and 35 percent with insurance companies, it said.
The bonds will be traded in the interbank market with clearing and settlement through The China Government Securities Depository Trust and Clearing Co., Ltd. China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) is the sole lead manager of the bonds.
ADB said it will use the proceeds of the Panda bonds to fund private sector clean energy and energy efficiency projects in China. The objective is to help reduce currency mismatches for borrowers that have no foreign exchange earnings.
ADB issued its first Panda bonds of one billion yuan in 2005.
"ADB is extremely pleased to have come back to the PRC bond market after the successful issuance of our landmark Panda Bonds in 2005," said ADB Vice-President Bindu Lohani. "We are honored to have been one of the first multilateral institutions to have issued RMB bonds in the PRC and contribute to the further development of the PRC bond market."
Wei Ding, Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking, said the Panda bonds can bring in a welcome diversification for Chinese domestic investors and the transaction will serve as an excellent benchmark for other international issuers.
ADB said it aims to pursue its local currency bond issuances in other Asian markets particularly in those developing member countries where bond proceeds can either be swapped into one of ADB's operating currencies or be retained to finance ADB projects that require local currency financing.
Pertamina E & P, a subsidiary firm of Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina, planned to invest a big chunk of 924 million U.S. dollars next year in oil exploration, a media reported here Friday.
President of the firm Salis A Aprilian was quoted by Antara news agency as saying that the firm would drill 110 wells including 30 exploration wells and 80 development wells.
The government has eased regulation and provided incentives to entice investors in oil and gas sector, as an effort to boost investment to raise the country's dwindling oil and gas production to meet rising energy demand and contract commitments.
Aging wells and lack of investment have been a reason for the decreased oil production in Indonesia.
Deputy Governor of Indonesian central bank Halim Alamsyah has said that the investment in the country in 2010 may grow by up to 9 percent, on the back of good economic prospects, local media reported Friday.
"We see the year 2010 as the awakening of investment sector. The investment seems to grow between 7 to 9 percent," he was quoted by detik online as saying.
Besides, Halim also said that the country's exports would also improve next year.
Indonesian Trade Ministry has predicted that the country's exports would continue to grow by 5 percent next year and has revised up this year export target from minus 30 percent to minus 20 percent.
After a couple of bullish sessions, investors finally decided to book profits in last trading session of the week here Friday, while grim law and order situation also added to the negative market sentiments.
However, the positive thing for the market was that it successfully maintained the psychological 9,000 levels.
The benchmark KSE 100-Index declined 87.10 points to close at 9,009.13 levels, KSE 30-Index slumped by 105.70 points to end at 9,464.13 levels, whereas KSE All Share Index shed 55.85 points to finish the day and week at 6,408.96 levels.
Earlier in the afternoon, another suicide attack hit Pakistan. This time the other part of the twin cities, i.e. Rawalpindi, where three suicide bombers fired on worshipers then blew themselves up at a mosque near military headquarters after Friday prayers, killing 40 people, including many army officials.
Equities at KSE got off to a mixed start where during the initial moments, the main index paid visits to both green as well as red columns. During the course, it went on to hit the intraday high of 9119.94, but failed to keep momentum as profit-bookers entered the market, who got rid of their holdings that hampered the index's performance and it nosedived into the red ink and stayed their all day long. Towards the closing bells, the key index touched the lowest level of the day of 8,997.94 before recapturing 9,000 levels as support came towards the final moments.
Market volume numbers hardly changed as a turnover of 103.799 million shares recorded as compared to 103.789 million shares traded the other day, showing a meager increment by 10,000 shares. Investors mostly remained active in tech & communication, textile, banking, and chemical sectors during the course of the day where foreigners and local funds and institutions showed limited activity.
Analysts told Xinhua that the current resistance level in the market is 9,150 and if market touches this level during intraday trading then there are chances that it may go beyond 9,300 levels during the next week. They further stated that current political scenario doesn't favor market where Supreme Court of Pakistan has constituted a larger bench to hear cases related to National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which will start proceedings from Dec. 7 (Monday).
Experts informed Xinhua that Pakistan is also confronting severe security challenge where a U.S. troops surge in Afghanistan would have its implications directly on to Pakistan as the government has feared that Taliban would infiltrate into its country in such a case, which would pose even bigger challenges to the PPP-led government in Islamabad.
Main board also favored red numbers on last trading day as a total of 365 issues remained active during the course of the day, out of which, prices of 208 scrips plunged, 147 managed to advance, whereas values of remaining 10 equities stayed unchanged.
DS Industries Limited was the volume leader of the day with a turnover of 8.289 million shares, followed by SilkBank Limited with 8.057 million shares after it announced Thursday to issue rights shares, whereas Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited recorded volumes of 7.145 million shares.
The revaluation of the currency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) aims at "overcoming the abnormal inflation" and raising the purchasing power of the DPRK won, a Japan-based Korean newspaper reported Saturday, citing a DPRK central bank official.
The measure will help increase the circulation of the money, secure the interests of the labors and stabilize their life, the newspaper Choson Sinbo quoted Jo Sung Hyon, the DPRK central bank official, as saying.
Because the economy has stepped onto a healthy track, the DPRK has the ability to revaluate the currency, Jo said
The revaluation of the DPRK won would also boost the use of modern ways of money printing and "improve the ideological and artistic content" of the won, Jo said.
Every household could change its old bills at the exchange rate of 100:1 -- 100 old won to 1 new won -- at the exchange agencies in their neighborhoods from Monday to Sunday, Jo said.
The rate of bank savings will be 10:1, he said, adding that the purpose was to encourage people to save their money in banks.
Jo expected that the price level would not change much after the revaluation, and estimated the price might "decrease a bit."
"The country's economy will mainly rely on planned supply system, not on the market," he said.
The government made ample preparations before suddenly announcing the revaluation, Jo said.
"In order to leave no chance to let the illegal money become legal," the government kept the revaluation secret until the last minute, he said. He said the revaluation might initially cause some problems but things would soon return to normal.
The move will "give favored treatment to those who make earnings by their honest labor," so it was "welcomed and supported" by the majority of workers, farmers and public officers, Jo said.
He said the DPRK would take additional measures to rectify the economic order. Foreign currency would no longer be allowed to be used directly in the DPRK before changing to the DPRK won, he said.
The South Korean government on Sunday said it ordered the GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. (GM Daewoo) to recall its mini-car Matiz Creative for problems in the airbags and windshield wipers.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said in a statement that windshield wipers were found to malfunction in freezing weather and airbags were found to separate from the vehicle in a crash.
The move will affect 30,751 units sold between July and November, among them 16,379 units due to the problems in airbags and another 14,372 units for problems in windshield wipers.
Free repair services would be provided to owners of such vehicles from Monday, the ministry said.
GM Daewoo was formerly known as Daewoo Motor. In 2001 General Motors decided to buy most of Daewoo Motor's assets to form GM Daewoo.
Meanwhile, the ministry also said the South Korean importer of the Land Rover brands will call back 106 units of the brands' two models, produced between December 2006 and February 2008, due to concerns of fuel leaks.
Australia's resources giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto will focus their energies on appeasing competition regulators across several jurisdictions, after signing a binding agreement for an historic 116 billion U.S. dollars iron ore merger at the weekend.
Submissions seeking approval for the proposed joint venture have been filed with the European Commission and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, with similar documentation expected to be submitted to regulators in China and Japan by the end of the year.
The Monday Australian reports that the miners are aiming for the venture -- which will see the pooling of their iron ore mines, ports and railways in Western Australia's Pilbara region into a single company -- to be operating in the second half of next year.
"We are very pleased to now have formal and binding agreements in place to develop this important joint venture," BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers said on Saturday.
"This deal has effectively been more than a decade in the making. It is an important milestone towards delivering substantial additional benefits to both sets of shareholders, and to the shareholders of our respective joint venture partners in the Pilbara."
Under the deal, BHP has agreed to pay Rio about 5.8 billion U.S. dollars to ensure they both have an even 50 percent of the new company.
Concern about competition was one of the biggest hurdles to BHP's hostile takeover bid for Rio which was announced in 2007 but later abandoned.
The U.S. dollar slipped to the upper 89 yen level Monday morning in Tokyo.
At noon, the dollar fetched 89.88-90 yen versus 90.51-61 yen in New York and 88.08-09 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Friday.
The euro traded at 1.4890-4892 dollars and 133.83-87 yen against late Friday's quotes of 1.4852-4862 dollars and 134.43-53 yen in New York and 1.5084-5085 dollars and 132.86-90 yen in Tokyo.
Vietnam's freight transportation went up 4.1 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of this year to 583.4 million tons, said a report on the website of the General Statistics Office on Monday.
In this period, the country's freight transportation by road was 427 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.3 percent, said the report.
Vietnam saw a 2.1 percent rise in cargo transportation by river in the first 11 months of this year to 107.8 million tons compared to the same period last year.
The country posted a decline of 2 percent year-on-year to 41.2 million tons in cargo transportation by sea and a decrease of 5.2 percent to 7.4 million tons in transportation of freight by railway from January to November this year.
In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam's passenger transportation reached 1.81 billion person-times, up 8 percent year-on-year, according to the office.
South Korea's parliamentary committee on Monday approved a bill to expand the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s role in coping with financial instability and investigating local financial firms.
The bill, revised by the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly, calls for a wider role of the BOK, whose authority is mainly focused on keeping price stability under the current law.
The authority to supervise local banks was transferred to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the financial watchdog, in the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998.
If enacted, the bill will allow the central bank to conduct an investigation into local banks on its own when the FSS refuses to jointly work with the BOK without proper reasons.
The government and the financial watchdog, meanwhile, opposed the revision, saying the current supervisory system is not seriously flawed in countering financial turmoil.
"The results that came out run counter to the global trend in discussion over supervisory rights," Chin Dong-soo, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said in a statement, expressing regrets.
The Philippine stock market closed lower on Monday as market participants booked their gains on concerns that the martial law in Manguindanao will weaken investor sentiment.
After touching a 21-month high of 3,119.96 last Wednesday, the market fell for the third time on Monday with the bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange shedding 0.5 percent or 15.36 points to 3,046.63. The all share index lost 0.45 percent or 8.63 points to 1,896.08. Of the six subsector indices, only the mining and oil counter was spared from the bloodbath, while property stocks shed the most.
Trading volume was high where a total of 6.39 billion shares valued at 11.7 billion pesos (254.6 million U.S. dollars) changed hands.
There were also more foreign sellers than buyers at 175 million pesos (3.8 million U.S. dollars), with 57 issues declining, 42 advancing and 66 were unchanged.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo put the province of Maguindanao under martial law Friday night to curb the so-called "lawless elements [that] have taken up arms." Maguindanao is the site of the November 23 massacre that claimed the lives of 57 people including women and journalists.
An analyst at local brokerage Fidelity Securities, Inc. said the Philippine government's decision to put the entire Maguindanao province under martial law has drove away investors on Monday, who fear that such proclamation might spill over to the country's capital.
"There are no other news locally and overseas. The U.S. market was flat so there is not much news there. Investors are looking for an excuse to book their gains and they saw the political crisis in Maguindanao as the fitting reason," he added.
Local brokerage IGC Securities, Inc. said that investors fear that the martial law in Maguindanao might be a prelude to something big and this has caused investors to "panic a little".
But market analysts remain optimistic that the local market will still end the year above the 3,100 level. They're banking on the "Santa Claus market" which usually push up the equities market ahead of the Christmas festivities.
Asian countries should embark on broader discussions on financial regulation to prevent recurrence of the financial crisis, a South Korean official said here on Monday.
Yi Jong-goo, Standing Commissioner of Financial Services Commission of South Korea, told Xinhua on the sideline of the Seventh East Asia Congress here.
Yi said that after the financial crisis that originated from the United States, Asia became more important as five Asian countries were included in the G-20.
G-20, or the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies. China, South Korea, Japan, India and Indonesia are its members.
Noting that there were many collaboration initiatives in the Asia including the "ASEAN+3" (ASEAN plus China, South Korea and Japan) and an integrated bond market, Yi said more could be done.
Yi said that specific reform needed to be devised and implemented and that opportunities to carry out such reform should not be wasted.
Yi also said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) should monitor the implementation of the reform to ensure consistent implementation of the new rules.
Earlier in his presentation, Yi pointed out that emerging market economies (EME) had greater interdependence on the advanced economies but current discussion of financial regulatory reform was advanced economy-oriented.
Yi said that EME's concerns must be considered and these included foreign exchange market stabilization in EME, stronger information sharing and reduction of moral hazard.
Yi also said that the roles of international financial institutions must be enhanced and the overlapping work areas between the IMF and the FSB needed to be clarified.
FSB's coordination function of opinions among national authorities and international standard setters must also be more efficient, added Yi.
When asked if a common currency mechanism would emerge in Asia, Yi said that this might take some time if it was to be established, as different countries had different development stages and fiscal situations.
The Japanese government on Tuesday unveiled a new economic stimulus package that includes 7.2 trillion yen (80.60 billion U.S. dollars) in spending, to fortify the economy against a return to recession.
The delayed announcement, which was due on last Friday, came after much debate between the three-party coalition government as to exactly how much should be spent on the package.
People's New Party chief and Banking Minister Shizuka Kamei strongly urged that the package be much larger than 7.1 trillion yen proposed last week by Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) lawmakers to their junior coalition partners.
DPJ officials, following resolute pressure from the People's New Party for greater expenditure, decided to up the final figure to 7.2 trillion yen, to accommodate Kamei and the People's New Party -- despite the party's diminutive stature, according to sources close to the matter.
A preemptive strike against a double-dip recession occurring ahead of the upper house elections in mid-2010, as the yen strengthens and mild deflation grips the economy, has also been cited as reasons for increasing the amount of the stimulus package.
The 7.2 trillion yen stimulus package includes costs to make up for possible shortfalls of around 3 trillion yen in tax receipts for local governments, according to lawmakers and is likely to entail actual fiscal spending of around 4 trillion yen.
The package is focused on improving employment conditions, corporate financing of small and midsize firms and the elevation of consumption in the private sector by making provisions for the increased purchasing of environmentally friendly products.
The additional stimulus measures will be financed by the upcoming second extra budget for the year through March 31, according to government officials who said the previous administration's extra funds will be "unfrozen."
However, Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii, when asked where the extra money for the package would come from, told reporters on Tuesday that the government may issue construction bonds, instead of issuing new debt-covering bonds.
Contrastingly, Japan's fiscal law stipulates that construction bonds be sold only for public works, such as the construction of new roads, bridges and their maintenance.
As a recent slew of governmental reports, providing key economic gauges and data for Japan's economy, indicate that Japanese exports have slowed, expansion weakened, industrial production declined along with wages and consumer prices, the Japanese government's rescue package is very timely indeed, according to a number of economists.
Japan's economy is continuing to slowly move away from its downturn, according to the Indexes of Business Conditions released by the cabinet office on Tuesday, which said conditions were "improving."
Preliminary figures showed that the coincident index rose by 1.1 points in October to 94.3, where statistics from 2005 are equal to 100. It is the seventh consecutive month in which the coincident index has posted a rise.
The index, which compiles data from a number of measures, showed that the job market is picking up, with 528,968 people, excluding graduates, receiving new job offers in October. The figure is up from 523,344 people in September, and the second consecutive month that the nation has seen the figure rise.
Consumer confidence also posted an increase of 0.1 percent to 40.8, moving upward for the ninth consecutive month.
The index of nonscheduled work hours also increased from 74.2 to 75.8, indicating that employees are being asked to do more overtime to cope with additional demand.
Industrial production in mining and manufacturing grew from 85.7 to 86.1, demonstrating that secondary industries in Japan are continuing to recover.
The unemployment rate also fell from 5.32 percent to 5.1 percent, continuing a steady decline after hitting a high of 5.69 percent in July.
The report also showed that the leading index had risen from 87.5 to 89.7, and the lagging index had grown by 1.7 points to 84.8.
Japan has seen its economy slide since last year, when the credit crisis that originated in the United States reached its shores. In recent months, the economy has showed signs of recovery, and on Tuesday the government of the Democratic Party of Japan unveiled a new 7.2 trillion yen stimulus package to try to calm fears that the nation may be heading for a double-dip recession.
Australian consumer confidence fell for the second consecutive month in December, a survey showed on Wednesday.
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment fell 3.8 percent to 113.8 points in December, from 118.3 in November. This is partly because Australian households with mortgages worried about the impact of higher interest rate charges on their budgets, the survey says.
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said the fall in the index was a "surprisingly modest" following the recent rises to interest rates.
The Australian Reserve Bank (RBA) lifted the overnight cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent on Dec. 1, following similar moves in October and November.
It was the first time the RBA had lifted the cash rate for three consecutive months since announcing its monetary policy decisions in January 1990.
Singapore managers have the third-highest spending power in Asia, local media reported on Wednesday.
They rank behind those in China's Hong Kong and Thailand, a study by management consultancy Hay Group, which calculated spending power by taking into account salaries, cost of living and taxes, local English newspaper The Straits Times reported.
Last year, Singapore managers ranked 4th in Asia and 22nd in the world in terms of spending power. But Hay Group said the comparison to this year's figures may not be suitable as it has changed the way it calculates the cost of living.
One reason Singapore managers have lower spending power than their counterparts in economies like China's Hong Kong is that taxes here are higher.
Singapore's highest tax rate of 20 percent has remained unchanged for a number of years. Compared to China's Hong Kong, where the highest tax rate is now 15 percent, higher wage earners in Singapore, such as managers, would have a lower income after tax.
Still, Singapore managers are better off than those in many other Asian countries or territories this year, in part because of the generous recession cushions provided by the government, the report said.
Singapore's popularity as one of Asia's top real estate investment destinations has taken a dip, local media reported on Wednesday.
A new survey by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) put the city state in 5th place in the latest rankings of Asia-Pacific cities with the best property investment prospects, where it previously came in second, local English newspaper The Straits Times reported.
The top three cities are China's Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing with South Korea's Seoul in 4th place.
PwC said that the results came as no surprise in the light of the remarkable resilience of the Chinese economy.
About 270 industry experts from across the region, including investors, developers, property companies, lenders, brokers and consultants, were asked about their views on the outlook of the property sector for the survey.
Concerns about an oversupply of property in Singapore over the next two years dented the city's ranking among developers.
Malaysian Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui said after an assembly near here Wednesday that the new electricity tariff increase application made by Tenaga Nasional Bhd, the main Malaysian energy provider, was being studied.
The result would be submitted to the Malaysian cabinet to seek approval, added Chin.
Chin said the electricity tariff was being reviewed every six months due to the fuel price adjustment but whether or not there would be a new tariff depended on the Malaysian cabinet's decision.
Earlier, Malaysian Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said the Malaysian government was striving to review utility costs in the country in order to bring the business-doing cost down.
Chin said it was normal for the company to ask for an increase in tariff as power generation cost was escalating.
However, Chin stressed that the Malaysian cabinet would look at the economic condition and the people's affordability before giving green light to the tariff-rise.
Indonesian Vice President Boediono said that the country has potentials to become nations like some emerging countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC),due to its favorable demographic and fiscal condition, Bisnis.com online news reported on Wednesday.
However, Boediono said that it is not enough depending only on potentials it has because it needs concrete steps.
"So that the potentials could be used to achieve economic growth of more than 7 percent," said Boediono in his keynote speech at an economy dialog here.
According to Boediono, Indonesia has more productive-age populations compared to non-productive ones, which is an important factor for the nation's progress.
"We do not realize the factor as it has ‘a structural nature’ which is very good for economic development," he said.
He also said that Indonesia has a very good fiscal condition, which in turn creating a room for economic growth.
"Many countries have deteriorating fiscal and increasing debt, but we don't have them. Indonesia could be optimistic on the fields," he said.
Indomaret, a local retail chain had struck a deal with FIFA's exclusive worldwide licensee, the Global Brands Group, to have the right to operate FIFA World Cup 2010 Official Event stores in all of its 4,000 outlets all across Indonesia, the Jakarta Post reported on Wednesday.
Indomaret would start selling around 300 exclusive FIFA World Cup official merchandises next month.
"We see football fans in Indonesia as a big market potential and we want them to celebrate the festivities of the World Cup with official merchandise," said the Marketing Director of Indomaret, Laurensius Tirta Wijaja, adding that his company expected sales of 1 billion rupiah (about 106,000 U.S. dollars) by July 2010.
With this deal in place, Indomaret is targeting an increase of 25 to 30 percent in sales next year.
Laurensius also said that the retail chain would add up to 850 new outlets by the end of next year, and would aim to double its consumer base to 12 million, compared to 6 million currently.
Foreign investment is needed to protect jobs, the Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan says on Thursday.
Swan said foreign investment is essential to the Australian economy and jobs, and "there would also be very substantial costs to its productive capacity, given the role of foreign direct investment in building our capital stock."
A new Treasury analysis shows limiting foreign investment and relying on domestic savings would mean business investment would be about 25 percent lower. It would also cut about three percent from output, resulting in about 200,000 fewer jobs, as reported by Australian Associated Press on Thursday.
The number of Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) members will increase from three to four, broadening its expertise and experience, Swan told the Global Foundation Conference in Brisbane Thursday.
The board also will release a reader-friendly version of the foreign investment review framework which will be available in various languages including Chinese, Japanese and others for prospective investors.
Swan said over the past 24 months, Chinese investments represented only one-tenth of FIRB's largest applications.
"A robust and open foreign investment framework reflects that adventurous, entrepreneurial Australian spirit," Swan said, adding the government's stewardship was in accord with that spirit.
The Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Agency is optimistic that direct investment could grow 15 percent to 46 billion U.S. dollars in 2010 compared to this year's realization, Bisnis Indonesia daily quoted an official as saying on Thursday.
The agency's head Gita I. Wirjawan said that the government will keep improving infrastructure, both physics and non-physics, to dig the investment potential deeper.
One of the efforts is by providing investment facilities in one-stop integrated service.
"The facilities should be materialized so that Indonesia becomes investment choice," said Gita in the sideline of an investment dialog on Wednesday.
This year, Gita expected that domestic investment realization could reach 300 trillion rupiah (about 30 billion dollars), increasing 104 percent compared to 2008.
Meanwhile, the foreign direct investment (FDI) would only book 10 billion dollars, declining 28 percent from 2008.
"Next year, the whole investment is expected to increase 10-15 percent compared to 2009. The FDI is expected to decrease slightly due to the impact of the global financial crisis. However, we will try to push it above 10 billion dollars," said Gita.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that investment is related heavily with economic prospect of a country.
She said that investors would see relatively healthy economic growth in 2010 if political and economic stability is maintained even though inflation would not be as low as this year.
Myanmar has been making progress in soft-shell crab production on its own with its raw materials after two years' endeavors in the move, sources with the Crab Entrepreneurs Association (CEA) said on Thursday.
Previously, Myanmar exported crabs to neighboring China on demand and raw materials to Vietnam and Thailand for production of soft-shell crab.
Soft-shell crab has become a new export item of the country's marine export products in addition to fresh-water fish, crabs and prawns.
In the first eight months (April-Nov) of the 2009-10 fiscal year, Myanmar exported a total of 20.12 million U.S dollars worth of crabs, of which the soft-shell crabs accounted for 5.04 million dollars, statistics show.
The Myanmar CEA has set a target of crab export as 35 million dollars for the present fiscal year 2009-10 against the previous years' 31.5 million dollars.
According to an overall statistics of the fishery department, Myanmar's marine export hit 283 million U.S. dollars in the first eight month of 2009-10, accounting for 40.4 percent of the targeted export of 700 million dollars for the entire year.
Among the marine export, that of fresh-water fish fetched the largest amount with 75.55 million dollars.
Meanwhile, China topped Myanmar's marine export country line-up, followed by Thailand, Japan and Singapore.
The other marine products exporting countries include Middle East countries, European Union countries, South Korea, Japan and Argentina.
Myanmar's fishery sector remained as the fourth largest contributor to the gross domestic product and also the fourth largest source of foreign exchange earning during the past five years.
With a long coastline of over 2,800 km and a total area of 500,000 hectares of swamps along the coast, the country has an estimated sustainable yield of marine products at over one million tons a year.
The U.S. dollar rose to the lower 88 yen level Thursday morning in Tokyo.
The dollar bought 88.23-24 yen at midday, up from 87.82-92 yen in New York and 87.90-92 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The euro was quoted at 1.4737-4738 dollars and 130.02-06 yen, compared with 1.4721-4731 dollars and 129.33-43 yen in New York and 1.4713-4715 dollars and 129.33-37 yen in Tokyo late Wednesday.
South Korea's central bank on Thursday announced to keep the key interest rate at a record low of 2 percent for the 10th consecutive month, citing lingering doubts over an economic recovery.
The Bank of Korea (BOK), in a monthly policy meeting, decided to leave the benchmark seven-day repo rate frozen at a record low of 2 percent, as widely expected by local experts and media.
"The local economy is continuing with its recovery movement on the back of improvements in exports and domestic consumption, as well as a bounce back in the global economy. But at the same time there still lie uncertainties in the pace and path of the growth," the BOK said, as it explained the background of the rate freeze.
The South Korean economy, during the third quarter, rebounded to positive territory, with a gross domestic product (GDP) rising 0.9 percent from a year earlier, the BOK showed in its report.
Consumer prices, though accelerating in growth, have been stabilizing this year, with the November consumer price index expanding at 2.4 percent, below the government's target level, according to the BOK.
A surge in the nation's housing prices, which triggered BOK Governor Lee Seong-tae to hint at a possible rate hike in September, has been stabilized as well, growing 0.3 percent from a year earlier, the BOK said.
The local financial markets have mostly been under a stabilizing move, although uncertainties in foreign markets temporarily increased market volatility in recent days.
Despite of indicators in the real economic sector and financial markets underpinning optimism on the South Korean economy, the BOK said that it would maintain the current accommodating monetary policy stance, taking risks that remain in the global and domestic markets.
Local experts are divided over the timing of a possible interest hike, with some claiming it should come in the first quarter of 2010, while others saying it should be delayed till the first half of next year, local media said.
Amid a heated discussion on the issue, BOK Governor Lee Seong-tae said the bank will weigh the timing of a possible rate hike, adding that the process of normalizing the key rate needs to be gradual.
The BOK slashed the rate by a total of 3.25 percentage points between October 2008 and February in a bid to pull the sluggish economy out of the worst recession in a decade
Australia's Victorian state government on Thursday shelved plans to export brown coal to India amid fears of a voter backlash.
The Age newspaper in October revealed plans for Melbourne-based company Exergen to develop a 1.5 billion Australian dollar (1.37 billion U.S. dollar) scheme to mine, dry and ship 12 million tonnes of Latrobe Valley brown coal to India for use in power generation.
However, Victorian Energy Minister Peter Batchelor has now ruled out the export plan.
A spokeswoman for Batchelor, Emma Tyner, told The Age newspaper the plan had since been dumped.
"The government has no plans to allocate coal to Exergen or to any other company outside of a competitive tender process," she said.
Australia's trade balance has plunged further into deficit because of falling demand for minerals from China, its biggest export market, The Australian newspaper reported on Thursday.
Australia's sales to China have now fallen in five of the last six months and October's shipments of 3.1 billion Australian dollars (2.8 billion U.S. dollars) are now 25 percent below the peak reached in March.
The trade deficit jumped to 2.4 billion Australian dollars (2.2billion U.S. dollars) in October, which was the worst since March last year and one of the biggest on record.
Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said the deficit was the result of weak exports, which fell 3.5 percent in the month, while imports were also 0.8 percent lower.
"This is another reminder that Australia is not immune from the global economic downturn," he said.
Strong demand from China in the first quarter of this year was one of the reasons Australia was able to avoid recession, alone among developed nations.
However, many of China's purchases at that time appeared to have been speculative stockpiling at a time of low prices and cheap credit.
"In the first half of the year, there was significant Chinese buying of all sorts of commodities as prices were at attractive levels from their perspective," Wilson HTM commodities analyst Keith Williams said.
"One would expect that they have eased off from these levels, having restocked and with prices having run up higher. There is not the same buying imperative."
South Korea is mulling over the timing of a possible interest rate hike as the economy is emerging out of the recession, the chief of the nation's central bank said on Thursday.
"We will have to contemplate on the timing (of an interest rate hike), taking the economic condition and inflation into account down the road," Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Seong-tae said at a press conference held after the bank's monthly policy meeting.
Earlier in the day, the BOK held its monthly policy meeting where they decided to freeze the nation's benchmark seven-day repo rate at a record low of 2 percent for the tenth consecutive month.
The BOK also reiterated that it will maintain the current accommodating monetary policy for the time being.
"As we could not overlook uncertainty factors lingering in the domestic and global markets, we have reached such a decision," Lee said, explaining the background of the rate freezes.
The governor, however, said that the interest rate at the current level is too low, considering the economic growth is forecasted to reach around 5 percent next year.
"The growth outlook for next year mostly hovers around 4 to 5 percent, and the current inflation rate stays at 2.4 percent, while the expected inflation rate exceeds 3 percent. Considering such data, a key rate at 2 percent can be considered severely low," Lee said.
"Although we did say our monetary policy will be focused on bolstering the economy, it does not mean that the interest rate will not move at all," the governor said, adding that a "gradual" process of normalization is in need.
The remarks came amid a heated controversy over whether and when the BOK should revise up the nation's key interest rate.
Local experts are currently divided over the timing of a possible interest hike, with some claiming it should come in the first quarter of 2010, while others saying it should be delayed until the first half of next year, local media said.
Thanks to the BOK's rate slash by a total of 3.25 percentage points between October, 2008 and February, 2009 the South Korean economy was pulled out of the recession at one of the fastest rate in the world.
Indonesian Minister for Maritime and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad said Thursday the country has a chance to be the world's largest fish producer in 2015 by cultivating superior fishes, detikcom online news reported.
"We could be the biggest fish producer in the world, beating Peru and Chile," he said at a regional economy seminar here.
"To achieve the goal, we have to cultivate Indonesia's superior fishes like tilapia fish, milkfish and freshwater cat fish, among others. We will also increase production of seaweed by 300 percent," Fadel said.
He said that banking sector should support fisheries business units to develop fish nursery, fish meal and researching institutions, among others.
All these years, he said, fish cultivation in the country has been hampered by problem related to food meal that is still imported. 60 percent of fish selling price is to cope with fish meal.
Responding to the fact, Fadel said that he had explored the development of alternative fish meal in coordination with the Bogor Agriculture Institute in West Java province.
"Fish meal price could be reduced to 2,000 rupiah (20 U.S. cents) from 200,000 rupiah (20 dollars) per kilogram," he said.
He also said that he had asked Bank Indonesia, the central bank, to order banking sector to give more attention to the fisheries sector by providing more credit.
U.S.-based mobile telecommunication producer , Motorola, introduced its latest Bluetooth gadget embedded with its brand new bone conduction technology for Indonesian customers on Thursday.
Unlike the other ones currently available in the market, Motorola's bone conduction Bluetooth gadget, codenamed HX-1, offers a particular technology that uses highly sensitive censor to transfer vibrations resulted from human ear's bones while they are talking, into clearer voice vibrations that received by inner hearing organs.
According to Tracy Yeo, a Motorola's senior official who oversees Motorola's retail sales operation in the Southeast Asian region, with such a technology HX-1 is particularly different from the other Bluetooth gadgets that are still using eardrums to transfer voice vibrations to human inner hearing organs.
"The bone conduction technology is derived from military telecommunication technology that demands high-quality and accurate performance in such an extreme condition to help succeed military operations," Tracy said on the sidelines of Motorola's MoU signing with Indonesian mobile telecommunication gadget vendor, Wellcomm, here.
The Singapore-based Motorola official said that Indonesia becomes the third country in the Southeast Asian region, after Malaysia and Singapore, where Motorola launched its HX-1 Bluetooth gadget.
China became the first Asian country to see the launching of the gadget in the continent that was conducted in June this year, she added.
According to Tracy, besides offering super clarity voice, Motorola HX-1 Bluetooth gadget also offers superb noise reduction technology that allows users to have comfortable phone conversation amid extremely noisy background.
The gadget is able to completely eliminate extreme noises around the user while he was talking through the gadget that makes his talking counterpart receives the clear voice of the gadget user only.
China's State Council said Wednesday that the government will continue to tap into the domestic market for a stable and relatively rapid economic growth next year.
Policies to boost consumption will be further strengthened and most of the current policies will be continued, according to an executive meeting of the State Council, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.
China will continue to expand domestic consumption next year and especially to highlight consumption's role in boosting economic growth, as China's economy will still face many challenges next year, according to the meeting.
Policies to subsidize rural households to buy electric appliances will be continued next year and policies to subsidize rural households to buy automobiles will be prolonged to the end of next year.
After home appliance replacement ended trial operation in May next year, the policies will be fully carried out and further promoted. Measures to subsidize agricultural equipment will be continued.
Policies to reduce purchase tax on passenger cars will be continued but adjusted to 7.5 percent for models with engine displacements of less than 1.6 liters.
The central government has implemented a series of policies in improving people's living standards and promoting consumption since the fourth quarter in 2008 to fight the global financial crisis.
The policies have effectively tapped consumption potentials and boosted China's economic recovery, according to the meeting.
The meeting also issued a guideline on trial operation of social insurance fund budget to put social insurance fund under government budget management.
China's exchange rate regulator said Tuesday it would work to promote balance of payment next year by stabilizing exports while expanding imports.
The promotion of balance of payment should be the fundamental of the work in 2010 in order to safeguard the nation's economic and financial security, said Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
He said SAFE would continue to diversify the investment of foreign reserves, and ensure the safety, liquidity and the value of the mounting assets, which have ballooned to more than 2 trillion U.S. dollars.
The authority would also step up supervision of the cross-border money flow to protect national financial safety, he said.
Yi also noted SAFE would seek chances to push forward reforms in key areas and links of the foreign exchange management but didn't elaborate.
The Chinese government pledged Monday to push forward the transformation of its economic development pattern next year while maintaining stable and comparatively fast economic growth.
Participants at the three-day annual Central Economic Work Conference agreed that the global financial crisis highlighted the urgency to transform China's economic development pattern.
They agreed that the government should coordinate efforts to maintain stable and comparatively fast economic growth and speed up the transformation of the economic development mode.
The Central Economic Work Conference, held once a year to set the tone for next year's economic development, comprises policy-making officials from central and provincial-level governments, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
The conference outlined six major tasks for next year's economic work: to improve macro-regulation to ensure stable and relatively fast economic growth, advance economic structure adjustment to lift quality and efficiency of economic growth, boost rural development momentum, deepen reform and opening up to enhance momentum and vigor of economic growth, promote stable export increase, improve people's livelihood and maintain social stability.
The government would continue efforts to boost domestic demand, especially expand people's consumer demand, and make consumption contribute more to boost economic growth, according to a statement released after the conference.
The government would also seek to push recovery of exports and promote balanced international trade, it said.
More efforts would be spent to deepen economic system reform and enhance the momentum and vigor of economic growth.
The government vowed to balance the tasks of ensuring a stable and relatively fast economic growth, adjusting economic structure and managing inflation expectations next year.
This was the second time the government mentioned about managing inflationary prospects in a national event after a State Council meeting in October picked the issue as one of the key points in macro-regulation for the rest of 2009.
The country would maintain the continuity and stability of macro-economic policy and continue implementing the proactive fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policy.
The Chinese government will push recovery of its exports and promote balanced international trade as one of its major tasks next year, the country's senior policymakers agreed at the annual key economic conference on Monday.
The government would maintain the "continuity" and "stability" of its foreign demand policy, diversify its market strategies, tap into new markets while maintaining old ones in order to promote export growth, they agreed, according to a statement released from the conference.
They would improve the quality and added value of its exports, strictly control exports of resources-intensive and highly polluting and energy-consuming products, the statement said.
Meanwhile, China would increase imports in order to promote trade balance.
The meeting participants also agreed to facilitate foreign investment in promoting scientific and technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and coordinated development among regions, of which the less-developed central and western regions were expected to see increasing foreign investment.
The government would also encourage domestic companies to invest overseas and expand their business.
The Central Economic Work Conference, which meets annually, comprises policy-making officials from the central government and its departments as well as provincial-level governments.
China's economic growth is projected to reach 8.8 percent in 2010, but will still fall short of pace according to pre-economic crisis levels, a new UN economic report said here on Wednesday.
A preview of the annual economic report, which was launched here at the UN Headquarters in New York, recognized that the global "economic revival" is a byproduct of the massive fiscal stimulus by governments worldwide toward the end of 2008.
According to the report, the world economy is expected to slowly rebound in 2010 where developing Asia would lead the pack in the strongest recovery.
India was also listed as another developing country where economic growth would take place, at a projected rate of 6.5 percent.
According to the report, China has experienced a surge in outward investment, which reached an estimated 150 billion U.S. dollars in 2009. This was compared to the outflows of capital from emerging economies to other developing countries which had "moderated" in the last two years.
Citing that "investors in emerging economies recoiled along with those in developed countries," the report noted that China was "bucking the trend."
Warning that the economic recovery was "uneven and conditions for sustained growth remain fragile," the report urged "rebalancing global growth." This was needed, the report warned, in order to avoid the recurrence of another global imbalance.
The annual report which is scheduled to be released next month is produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and five UN regional commissions.
Taiwan's sluggish economy is looking to a year-end recovery as the prosperity indicators picked up recently, but analysts say it still has a long way to go before back to the pre-crisis level.
The island's economic boom index bounced back to the green-light zone in November, after stagnation in 18 consecutive months, caused by the global economic downturn.
At the end of November, Taiwan's statistics authority raised its 2009 growth forecast to minus 2.53 percent, 1.5 percentage point higher than the estimate in August.
The authority predicted the island's economic growth rate to reach 4.39 percent next year.
Taiwan's statistics authority chief Shih Su-mei said, "Considering the export is rallying, Taiwan will have a moderate growth next year."
Analysts say Taiwan's export will continue to be boosted by demand from such emerging markets as the Chinese mainland during the fourth quarter of this year.
Hsu Sheng-hsiung, honorary director-general of the Taiwan Importers and Exporters Chamber of Commerce, said indicators showed Taiwan's economy was bottoming out and picking up as a whole.
However, analysts believe the recovery of this round lacked solid foundation because the employment and consumption indicators showed no signs of noticeable return.
Unemployment rate dropped in October only by a small margin to 5.96 percent, showing no clear evidence of employment recovery.
On Nov. 28, Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou called on people to "spend more to help the market recover", as worries remain of spreading A/H1N1 flu and the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot in August, which may affect consumer confidence.
China's industrial profit in 22 provinces and regions across the country declined 3.4 percent year on year in the first 10 months, but the rate of decline was slowing, figures show.
A statement posted on the website of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Monday said industrial profits reached 1.79 trillion yuan (261.6 billion U.S. dollars), but the rate of decline was 5.7 percentage points lower than that for the first nine months.
Main business revenue in the 22 provinces and regions was 32.48trillion yuan for the same period, up 5 percent year on year, and 1.6 percentage points higher than in the first nine months.
From January to October, industrial profits were up for manufacturers of rubber products by 61 percent, chemical fibres by143.8 percent, and transport equipment by 33.7 percent.
Manufacturing profits also rose 28.4 percent in the food sector,19.1 percent in pharmaceuticals, and 24.2 percent in plastics.
Meanwhile, profits were down for oil production by 65.5 percent, steel making by 53.7 percent, and electronics by 23.9 percent.
The 22 regions and provinces excluded Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Chongqing, Tibet, Yunnan, and the southern provinces of Hunan, Guangdong, Anhui and Hainan.
PRADA has released its first book, recapping 30 years of being at the vanguard of fashion, architecture, cinema and retail.
Conceived and edited by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, the navy blue hardback, titled simply "Prada," comes in a matching slipcase, embossed with the house's roped and crest logo. The 708-page tome, priced at 100 euros, (148 U.S. dollars), is being rolled out to Prada stores worldwide, to select bookstores and on prada.com.
"For Prada, fashion, luxury and style go beyond producing an infinity of clothes and shoes, so the book wants to illustrate the various aspects through which Prada expresses itself," said Bertelli, chief executive of Prada Group.
Roughly divided in two parts, called "Inside" and "Outside," the book begins by retracing the company's history and includes a photo essay by photographer and longtime collaborator Brigitte Lacombe, who also documents the elaborate manufacturing process behind a product.
Miuccia Prada's creativity is portrayed in many ways, including a collage featuring 3,885 thumbnail images of her most directional shoes and bags.
This chapter also dips into the design studio's creative culture. "I think we work extremely hard and our method is unusual because I don't design, but I think of a concept and then develop it with my collaborators," said Miuccia Prada at the launch.
Typically shunning the limelight, the designer was clad in a steel gray, laser cut skirt suit and black and Plexiglas sandals.
Part two of the tome showcases the brand's activities in architecture, events, parties, exhibitions, the red carpet and the America's Cup.
The last section is dedicated to the Fondazione Prada and ends with the Rem Koolhaas-designed museum being erected in Milan. Bertelli is also considering Shanghai as a potential location for the next Prada Epicenter.
Malaysia's National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau (NPCB) has banned 12 cosmetic products as they contain toxic ingredients and are dangerous to health, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.
The products are Felisa Gentle Peeling Solution, Krim Malam Rahsia Rimba, Biocosmet Whitening Essence Cream, H2O + Waterwhite Brightening Night Cream, Magixpress Lightening Plus, A. Vant Cream, Eriesya Spa Beauty Cream, Natasya Krim Herba, Temulawak Whitening Pearl Cream Papaya, Ratna Sari Whitening Night Cream, Atika Beauty Renewal Night Cream and Chantique Whitening Night Cream.
The bureau canceled the registration of the products over the past 11 months because they contained the prohibited ingredients tretinoin (retinoic acid) and hydroquinone, the New Straits Times said.
NPCB no longer allows the import, manufacture, distribution and sale of these products, and must be removed from the shelves, the daily said.
According to the report, tretinoin, used to control acne, decongests the pores by peeling the superficial skin layer. The problem is that the acne would get worse before it gets better, and side effects include scaling of the skin, stinging, swelling or flushing.
In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that products with hydroquinone be sold only under prescription because it was a possible carcinogen and for a possible link found in studies in Africa to a skin disorder called ochronosis, according to the daily.
NPCB banned six cosmetic products for similar reasons in 2008.
A recently-concluded 33-episode TV series titled Dwelling Narrowness (Wo Ju, which literally means "snail home") has become the talk of the town. The hit TV series centers on two sisters' struggles in a fictional metropolis modeled on Shanghai. Guo Haiping is obsessed with buying a house of her own, and her younger sister Haizao tries to help her by becoming a government official's mistress.
It strikes a chord with viewers by putting several sensitive issues under the spotlight. Of these, soaring housing prices triggers the most passion. Many sympathize with Guo Haiping's monologue:
"Each night I sit at the window and stare into the street lights. I cannot help but marvel at the various lives people live in this wonderful metropolis.
"I don't know about others. But for me, every morning when I wake up, a cluster of numbers pops up in my mind: 6,000 yuan ($880) for mortgage, 2,500 yuan for daily expenses, 1,500 yuan for my daughter's kindergarten, 600 yuan for socializing, 580 yuan for transportation, 300 yuan for property management, and 200 yuan for water, electricity and gas.
"The numbers force me to battle on and leave me no time to think about the future. Actually, I have no future. My future is the present. "
Scriptwriter Liu Liu says anyone like Guo Haiping, who occupies a small office cubicle, gobbles inexpensive lunches, relies on public transportation, and tightens her belt to pay the mortgage, will find traces of her life reflected in the TV series.
The multitude of online comments confirms how resonant this situation is. For instance, a netizen writes in the Tianya online forum: "I have heard and seen too many similar stories in real life: Young lovers break up because they cannot afford an apartment; married couples quarrel and fight over their limited daily expenses; and young women leave their poor boyfriends for rich married men."
An ongoing survey by portal Sina.com shows that 73 percent of the 27,602 people polled see the series as an accurate reflection of reality, and 61 percent find the portrayal of "house slaves" to be authentic.
"House slaves" (fang nu) refer to those who lead an extremely frugal life in order to pay off their mortgage, as in Guo Haiping's case, surviving on boiled noodles seasoned only with salt.
According to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the top three reasons the Chinese save are: to pay for their children's education, to prepare for their retirement, and to buy a house.
The desire to own a house is deeply rooted in the Chinese psyche. For many, living in a rented house doesn't give the same sense of security and happiness.
But skyrocketing house prices have been hitting urban dwellers hard, especially in big cities. A small apartment can quickly drain the savings of a dual-income family and, sometimes, even those of their parents.
Says director Teng Huatao: "A house represents all the material temptations for which people come to big cities".
"In the series, I wanted to establish a fundamental value, that the betterment of life can be realized only through arduous efforts."
Businessman Han Gang owns a house in downtown Shanghai, but never calls it his home. "I have paid too much for it," he says. "[It has come] at the cost of my love."
Five years ago, Han graduated from college and landed a job at the same company as his girlfriend Dong Jun. They concealed the fact they were lovers, because company rules did not permit the employment of a couple.
To make more money, Han immersed himself in work and spent little time with Dong. In the meantime, Dong sensed the boss's affections for her.
She told Han about it and suggested they tell the boss about their relationship. Han said something to her then that he still regrets, although he is convinced he wasn't wrong.
"I work so hard, just to make enough money for a house and then marry you. Now that things are on the right track, why can't you be more patient?" he told Dong.
He didn't realize he had hurt her. She thought that all he cared about was money and the house. "But for me, marriage and house were inseparable," he explains. "I couldn't see myself marrying my loved one in a rented house."
Han became even busier with work, while Dong, disappointed with Han, fell in love with the boss. When Han finally had enough money for the down payment, Dong said yes to the boss's proposal.
Han left the company, started his own business, and bought his own house. All is smooth sailing now, except that he never feels at home, alone in his house.
Zhang Xiang and Li Wenjun, on the other hand, are quite happy to live in a rented house. In fact, they have been living in a rented one since they got married a year ago.
"Home is where love is; that is the most important thing," they say.
Zhang and Li got together when they were at college. When they decided to marry, they couldn't think of buying a house given their combined monthly income of 5,000 yuan.
They chose not to turn to their parents. "We felt that insisting on something that was beyond our abilities could not bring us any happiness," explains Zhang.
They say they may be poor but are content, and derive pleasure from their simple, everyday routines: going to work together in the morning, cooking together after work, taking a walk after dinner, cleaning up over the weekend and doing up their home themselves.
Li says she doesn't believe a woman's sense of security rests on owning a house. "It's definitely good if we have our own house. Since we don't, we see it as our goal and find happiness in its pursuit," she says.
"We made the choice of renting a house instead of buying one, because between a mere house and a substantial home, we prefer the latter," Zhang says.
Qin Lifang, 35, used to tell her friends, "If you believe you can be happy getting married in a rented house, then stick to it." That was until seven years ago when her landlady asked the couple to leave before the lease expired, despite knowing that Qin was pregnant.
In the beginning, Qin did not care much about owning a house, as long as she could live with the one she loved. That's why she got married and happily moved in with her husband into a 30 sq m unfurnished rented room.
But the incident seven years ago made her realize how important owning a house is, especially with a child on the way.
After weighing their options, the couple settled on an incomplete apartment. They expected to move in soon after the baby was born, but only made it three years later because the developer ran into money problems. The only saving grace was that the house price tripled during those three years.
Now Qin's son is a first-grader and her husband's business is developing steadily. She dreams of a bigger house, with a more spacious bedroom and a sun-drenched balcony.
She knows there is still a long way to go before paying off the mortgage. "But I hate this rootless feeling," she says. "For a comfortable haven in a city teeming with strangers and competitions, I am happy to be a house slave."
Xinmin Weekly and Commercial Times contributed to the story
American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder, who is blind since birth, was named on Thursday at the UN Headquarters in New York a UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on helping people with disabilities.
"It is truly an honor beyond any that I have ever imagined could happen in a lifetime," Wonder told reporters at a press conference here, where he was introduced by UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to observe the International Day for Persons with Disabilities.
Dec. 3 marks the International Day where an estimated one person in four around the world are affected by a disability.
"It makes no sense to me, approaching 2010 in this new millennium, that we have people in the world that just because they can't see, we have not made this world accessible to them," Wonder said.
"It makes no sense to me that a person who may be deaf is not able to have accessibility in a way that is possible, when we are traveling in space -- not just to the moon but beyond," he said. "It's unacceptable."
"At the end of the day ... if I have to write a song, it's gonna be a No. 1," he said as he explained that he would treat his appointment as a challenge -- just like writing a song. "We're gonna win on this one, too."
The songwriter, who has won 25 Grammy awards, is being recognized for his years of philanthropy, which included his work with the U.S. President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, the Children's Diabetes Foundation and Junior Blind of America.
"We all know Stevie Wonder is a musical genius whose songs have given pleasure and hope to millions of people around the world," Ban said. "He's also a great humanitarian, who has campaigned against apartheid, for children in need, and for persons with disabilities."
"We're very lucky to have him join our fight for disability rights," Ban said. "All of us at the United Nations look forward to working with Stevie Wonder."
As the 11th UN Messenger of Peace, Stevie Wonder joins the prestigious list of figures, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, actors George Clooney and Michael Douglas, conductor Daniel Barenboim and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Credited with popularizing Bossa Nova in Japan, Brazilian-born Lisa Ono is currently presenting her Winter Bossa Tour 2009 in China, playing in Beijing Saturday night. The concert is the second in the capital for Ono this year, after a disappointing showing at her January performance.
"I bought the most expensive ticket to see her show, but the attendance was only about one third. I felt so sorry," Yu Yan, a music fan who attended the January concert told the Global Times. According to CRI online, the poor turn out was due to overpriced tickets and a large and cold venue, the National Olympic Sports Center.
"The best way to listen to Bossa Nova is to sit close to the performer," Ono told the Global Times. Adding that the smaller Beijing Exhibition Theater for Saturday's performance will recreate the scene of an intimate café.
Born in Sao Paulo, Ono moved to Tokyo when she was 10. She started singing and playing the guitar when she was 15 and debuted as a professional Bossa Nova singer in 1989. She has performed with some of the world's leading Bossa Nova and Samba artists since and has released 24 albums to date.
Coming to fame in Japan after appearing in several TV commercials, Ono's music evokes calm images of a vast blue ocean, dancing shadows of coconut trees and cotton dresses of beautiful girls swaying in the breeze. Her sultry tones have won her international acclaim and helped popularize the genre in Japan.
Many Chinese fans became familiar with Ono after she wrote the score for Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood For Love and her song La Vie En Rose was picked for Feng Xiaogang's No Thief.
Ono's style of Bossa Nova has been labeled "chicken soup for the soul" after a letter sent to the 5th Jazzy Shanghai festival organizers described it as such. A fan said in the letter, "I was depressed after losing my shares on the stock market. Listening to Lisa's songs gave me the power to regenerate my life. Her music is the chicken soup for my soul."
This time around, Ono's China tour sees her head to cities she previously has not been to.
"I'm looking forward to the scenery and feeling the culture of each place. I went to Changsha for the first time the other day and it was a wonderful place, the greenery was beautiful." After Beijing Ono will hit Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Chongqing.
Dozens of garments and personal effects once belonging to the gorgeous, charming deceased movie star Audrey Hepburn will be auctioned in London next week, according to media reports Wednesday.
A preview of the collection will open at Sotheby's in Paris before the Dec. 8 sale in London.
"For her, what was important was not decoration and lots of embellishment. She liked very simple things — less was always more for Audrey," said auctioneer Kerry Taylor, whose eponymous auction house is handling the sale.
Star lots include an Yves Saint Laurent empire waisted gown in white cotton that she wore to her son Luca's 1970 christening, estimated at 1,500-2,500 pounds (2,485-4,141 U.S. dollars), and an abbreviated, long-sleeve Valentino Haute Couture dress in ivory silk and lace that's identical to the one worn by Jacqueline Kennedy at her 1968 wedding to Aristotle Onassis.
A Givenchy black lace dress that Hepburn wore in "How to Steal a Million" and a demure ivory wedding gown that never made it down the aisle are among the items.
It is worth notice that the famous Givenchy black dress: pared-down cocktail dresses, buttery silk tops, ladylike coats and dramatic sweeping gowns made by the legendary French couturier, who regarded Hepburn as his muse.
"She said of Hubert de Givenchy that he was her greatest friend and he said of her that it was a real romance between the two, a real love affair that lasted all their lives," Taylor said at Sotheby's Paris showroom, where the two-day-long preview was held.
Most of the lots come from the closets of Tanja Star-Busmann, a longtime friend of the actress. The two met in London when Tanja was 15 years old and Hepburn 20 — just before her career took off.
"I was perhaps her first unofficial fan — writing letters to her from boarding school and receiving replies," Star-Busmann, who is now in her 70s, wrote in the auction catalog.
Highlights are on display at Sotheby's in Paris through Wednesday. Half the proceeds from the sale are to go to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund and UNICEF.
On the tenth anniversary of Macao's return to China, the Special Administrative Region's government has held a competition to find the best songs to celebrate the occasion. Three songs were chosen. One titled "A Wonderful Place" was released.
The music video for the song is a panorama of Macao's architecture, landscape, people and changes over the past ten years.
The song is the brainchild of a Macao local musician Leo lei. He says it is an authentic made-in-Macao work, and also blends western elements.
Leo Lei, musician, said, "The lyrics are half Mandarin, half English, so both Chinese and foreigners will understand. Also I have combined traditional Chinese musical instruments such as the Erhu, Pipa and Zither with the electric guitar and piano, to show the east-meets-west background of Macao."
Nine Macao singers contributed vocals for the song, including a six-year-old girl, Han Yiqing.
The other two winning songs, "Song of Macao" and "Prosperous Lotus" will be unveiled to the public soon.
A bistro owner in Malaysia's northwest state of Penang will be fined up to 20 million ringgit (some 5.7 million U.S. dollars) for illegally downloading music into his karaoke set.
The 49-year-old man, who opened his bistro just two months ago, had been nabbed by officials from the Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Ministry on Wednesday under the country's Copyright Act 1987, local newspaper the Star reported here on Thursday.
If convicted, the man will be fined up to 2,000 ringgit (some 571 U.S. dollars) for each of his 10,000 illegally-downloaded foreign and local songs or jailed up to five years, or both.
The man's karaoke set worth 50,000 ringgit (some 14,286 U.S. dollars) was also be seized.
The raid was conducted following complaints from both the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) and Public Performance Malaysia Sdn Bhd, said local enforcement officers.
The authorities had carried out 55 raids of this kind so far this year and arrested 38 individuals for such offenses, they added.
RIM chief executive officer Tan Ngiap Foo said some 3,000 pubs, lounges, cafes and restaurants in the country were using pirated karaoke songs in their premises, causing the music industry to lose at least 60 million ringgit (some 17 million U.S. dollars) in revenue each year.
He said that they would launch a nationwide campaign to tackle the issue, including illegally loading songs into handphones, of which 90 percent are pirated copies given to the handphone buyers.
The Jackson brothers are to reunite in a program this Sunday, according to news reports Tuesday.
After their brother Michael's sudden death, Jackson 5's other four founding members, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon, are planning a reunion in a six-hour A&E series "The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty" to be premiered this Sunday.
The Jackson 5 musical group, with Michael as the key singer, was one of Motown's biggest acts in the early 1970s, scoring hit songs such as "ABC" and "I'll Be There."
Jackson 5's fans, including fans of MJ, have begun to guess whether the four Jackson brothers will plan a reunion in the next few years to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the famous performing group.
Producers on last Friday said fans would have to watch the six-episode show to find out whether the brothers decide to go ahead in some form, without Michael.
Today we countdown the most popular new music videos and albums recently released in China.
NO 5. EASON CHAN "YOU & ME"
"You and Me" is a new track sung in Taiwan dialect by Hong Kong pop icon Eason Chan. It is from his latest Mandarin album entitled "5th Floor Blissful". This is the first Taiwan dialect song in Eason Chan's career. The album includes new works from different talented composers. Chan himself also penned one of them, calling for more attention on environment protection.
NO 4. SODA GREEN "FEVER"
Taiwan pop band Soda Green's latest album "Fever" comes as the second in their "Vivaldi Project". Inspired by the Summer, this new album takes Soda Green's feverish musical pursuits to a new height. Listeners will catch authentic Rock & Roll in the British style.
NO 3. ELVA HSIAO "WOW"
"Diamond Candy" is the tenth album from Taiwan pop singer Elva Hsiao. And it has been at the top of twelve music charts within one month of its release. Taking advantage of the success of the album, Elva Hsiao is now preparing for a year-end solo concert on December 31st in Taipei. That will be the opening show for her worldwide tour. Hsiao and Show Luo will team up to sing the title song of the concert: "WOW".
NO 2. ANGELA CHANG "WHITE"
After a twenty-month-long break, Taiwan sweetheart Angela Chang comes back with a new album "The Fifth Season". The first track of the album "White" is co-produced by a group of elite musicians. According to Angela Chang, the title "White" here implies "comprehensive". And once again, Chang is using her highly penetrating voice to impress the listeners.
NO 1. ANSON HU "LOVE SONG FOR THE JOBLESS"
It has taken Taiwan the creative singer Anson Hu two years to complete work on his new album "Love Song for the Jobless". The album is slated to be released on December 8th in Asia. Anson Hu has been best known as a musical perfectionist, and he has input his new understanding about life in the last two years into this new album. The title track "Love Song for the Jobless" is intended to encourage frustrated people facing the global economic storm.
A joint team with experts from both China and Mongolia have "rescued" more than 500 long-tune folk songs of Mongolian ethnic group from being vanished in a two-year field survey that concluded recently, cultural department of northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said Sunday.
The activity was based on a field survey agreement made between the two countries in 2007 for protecting the Mongolian long-tune folk songs.
Over the past two years, a team of 10 made survey of 16 counties in Hulunbuir, Tongliao, Ordos cities and the prefecture-level leagues of Xiling and Araxan in Inner Mongolia of China, traveling more than 12,000 kilometers.
The team interviewed 420 local singers of folk songs, recorded video materials in 84 cassettes and "saved" 266 long-tune folk songs that were on the verge of extinguishment.
During the survey in the Republic of Mongolia, the team traveled 6,250 km in nine provinces, made interviews of 118 local singers and "rescued" 246 songs.
Appraised as the "living fossil" of Mongolian music, long-tune folk songs were included in the UNESCO representative list of world intangible cultural heritage in 2005. The inclusion was applied for jointly by China and Mongolia.
Internationally renowned director Zhang Yimou has changed his mode of operation in his latest film a bid to capture a dwindling cinema market – young people. Zhang has taken a completely different tack by adding rap, fresh dialogue and controversial stars to his latest work A Simple Noodle Story that opens across the country today.
"I will be more than thrilled if young people take up a majority of audiences and the film receives good feedback from them," Zhang said, adding that he is targeting those born in the 1980s and 1990s in an effort to attract them to the cinema.
The first group of people that Zhang invited to the test screening were all born in the 1990s.
"They are my most important target audience and the future of the Chinese film market relies on them," Zhang said.
He explained that after the test screening, the young audience members made very valuable suggestions.
Unlike the traditional and costly promotional activities of his previous blockbusters Hero and House of Flying Daggers, this time Zhang is attempting to attract those in their teens and twenties by using modern technology such as the Internet.
An interactive online game has been developed, set against the same backdrop of the film, a noodle restaurant. Scenes from his previous works have also been selected and edited into a short comedic film that has been widely distributed online.
Zhang has denied the rumor that A Simple Noodle Story is a small-budget film aimed at making quick money in the New Year period. According to producer Zhang Weiping, the cost of the film totaled 100 million yuan ($14.65 million), 80 percent of which were production costs and the rest was promotion.
"The copyright of using the Coen Brothers' script alone cost us several million yuan," Zhang Weiping explained. He said that although the cast is not made up of the top actors and actresses in China, their wages still cost 20 percent of the budget. The production spent another 5 million yuan ($732,362) on building and shooting on location in Gansu Province, an investment typical of Zhang Yimou.
Zhang Weiping added that although with a big budget, it is still a small-scale film, taking place in a small noodle restaurant with limited special effects and not an A-list cast.
"After our last three cooperations, Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower, there have been too many people making epic action films. Zhang Yimou and I both decided not to repeat ourselves this time, but to make a small-scale and more successful film."
He also confirmed that their cooperation would continue in Zhang Yimou's next project, which is about the Nanking Massacre and rumored to start shooting in September. Leading actors are expected to be cast from Hollywood's A-list.
Actor Johnny Depp has promoted his latest movie in Japan, but admitted that he hadn't personally gone out to see it yet.
Depp arrived in Tokyo Tuesday for the Japan premier of "Public Enemies." "I haven't seen the film yet, but I hear great things about it," he said at a news conference Wednesday.
The "Sexiest Man Alive," as described by People magazine recently, was greeted by hordes of screaming fans upon his arrival at Narita International Airport Tuesday.
The "Pirates of the Caribbean" stud highly recommended his new movie to the Japanese, and told them he was particularly interested in John Dillinger when he was a child.
John Dillinger was an American bank robber during the Great Depression, and was declared public enemy No. 1 by the federal authorities.
"I don't think I have any enemies, really," Depp said. "The scariest enemy is within, allowing yourself to conform to what is expected of you."
The seventh edition of the International Mountain Film Festival is all set to be held in Nepali capital Kathmandu on Dec. 10-14, 2009, the National News Agency RSS reported on Tuesday.
According to the RSS, some 49 films would be screened in the festival, organized by the Himal Association.
The organizer received more than 200 entries from 46 countries this year, of which 59 films from 26 countries have been selected for the festival.
The film festival focusing on the major theme of climate change has a wide array of subjects, including conflict, culture, lifestyle, mountaineering, wildlife, environment, globalization, gender and climate change.
Eleven years ago James Cameron's Titanic premiered in China and was the country's highest-grossing film, until Transformers 2 this summer.
Now, a month before his 3-D extravaganza Avatar debuts in theaters here, the director is talking up his latest creation.
"The Chinese economy is growing so rapidly (and) is beginning to face the same problems that we've had in America and Europe, such as the degradation of our natural environment and resources," says Cameron in a telephone interview.
"I think that for anybody that loves nature, for anybody that feels that their life is being changed by living in a technological society or civilization, Avatar has something to say.
"The theme is going to have relevance for Chinese people the same way it has in all the places that is dealing with this issue about industrialization."
In the $230 million fantasy film, Cameron creates a new alien world named Pandora, where Avatars, or hybrid creatures that are a mix of the DNA of humans and the local species Na'vi, fight with pure Na'vi - tall, blue aliens - for a precious mineral on the planet.
Cameron's other smash hit, The Terminator, is widely known as being inspired by a feverish dream in 1981, in which he saw a chrome, metallic and skeletal robot came out of a fire.
Avatar, he says, was inspired by all his dreams.
"I call it my dream project, or pinch-me project. It pinches me and lets me know I am actually awake now," he says.
Cameron, whose parents were an electrical engineer and an artist, was keen on futurology even as a kid. He read science fiction during the day and painted the subjects at night.
The University of Toronto dropout did various jobs, such as truck driver and machinist, while writing and illustrating science fiction stories. In 1977 he decided to start his film career after seeing Star Wars, which stunned him and made him obsessed about how George Lucas had done it.
"For me, Avatar is the opportunity to do the kind of movie I've always dreamed of making, in which you create an environment, plants, landscapes and creatures," he says. "I guess I've been working toward it for all this time."
To make the flick, which according to Wired Magazine could change the way people watch films, Cameron has worked hard in the 12 years since making Titanic, even though he directed no feature films.
He partnered underwater camera specialist Vincent Pace and deep-sea explorer Andrew Wight to make four documentaries on the deep ocean, two in 3-D, while perfecting what he visions as "the holy grail of cameras" - a high-definition rig that is maneuverable, digital, high-resolution, 3-D and will not give viewers a headache.
He let other directors, such as Robert Rodriguez, test his system to demonstrate demand for more 3-D movies, while talking directly to theater owners to persuade them digital 3-D is the new trend in cinema and they should invest in new-generation projection systems right away.
In 2002, when Peter Jackson's Weta Digital in New Zealand created the stunningly believable computer-generated character Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films, Cameron found the special effects technology was ready, too.
After four years of production, Avatar turned from being an idea in his mind for 15 years to be the first action movie shot entirely in digital 3-D. The characters and objects appear to leap from the screen. Around two-thirds of the film is computer-generated, one-third real. Cameron deliberately blurs the distinction between the two so it is hard to tell where reality ends and fantasy begins. The film features more than 3,000 effects shots, and Cameron has redone many of them up to 20 times.
"We have accomplished a lot," he says. "We figured out how to create a photo-realistic world, plants and characters. But what we didn't figure out is how to do it faster, so my next goal is to figure out how to do a film like Avatar, maybe in two years instead of four."
Known as a genius for the way he seamlessly combines technology and storyline, Cameron is alert to the epic's emotional appeal.
The hero Jake Sully, an Avatar played by Sam Worthington, falls in love with Neytiri, a Na'vi princess played by Zoe Saldana. Their emotional bond, as Cameron elaborates, is at the center of the film.
"I learned the lesson on The Terminator 2 that if a movie doesn't have heart, doesn't make you feel the emotion, it has no purpose," he says.
"The film is a little bit overwhelming from a technical stand point, but I think the audience cares more about what they see on the screen, they care about the people, the relationship."
In Titanic, Cameron found the balance between technology and emotion was one of the biggest challenges for a filmmaker. Fortunately he made it, by putting the visual effects, giant sets and thousands of actors, in balance with small intimate moments, to make the film really resonate for the audience.
"You will see the same balance and blend in Avatar," he promises. "It costs a million dollars a minute to do computer-generated characters in Avatar, so it's a very difficult thing to stop for those extra few seconds, the extra bit of time to let the characters have an intimate moment together, maybe just a look, a glimpse, or just a line of dialogue, but you have to do it, that's really critical."
In a time when blockbusters need to be "pre-sold", by comic books (Batman), bestsellers (Harry Potter) or toys (Transformers), Avatar does not have these advantages and is a brand new thing to audiences, globally and in China alike. Yet Cameron, who proclaimed, "I am the king of the world", at the 1998 Academy Award ceremony, which he swept with 11 wins, sees it as a legitimate concern.
"It is not a limitation that I ever believed in because Titanic was not pre-sold, True Lies was not pre-sold, and when I made the first Terminator film, nobody ever heard of that," he says.
"I don't think Hollywood should accept that limitation, Hollywood should have the courage to make films. I am sure in the Chinese film industry you have the same issue. People need to have the courage to make new things, even at a blockbuster level of budget."
Blockbusters with a mega budget have become a norm for Cameron. The 55-year-old earned a record $1.8 billion globally for Titanic, which cost $200 million, at the time the most expensive film ever made. When he made The Abyss in 1989, it was also dubbed the most expensive movie ever made, though that was not true. The Terminator 2 was also the most expensive movie made, at the time.
"I do like to make big, expensive and visually spectacular films," he says. "I think the way people should look at this is, you spend the same amount for a ticket, no matter what the movie costs. So if a film costs more and brings more pleasure, more visual enjoyment, more spectacle, that's the best entertainment bargain you can get. As long as my films make money, people should feel good about what they cost."
The film is expected for a theatrical release on Dec 18 in North America and around Jan 2 in China, in both 2-D and 3-D.
The feature film "The Dream of the Red Chamber" was produced by the Korean Film Studio of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the official KCNA news said on Sunday.
It was the film version of the opera "The Dream of the Red Chamber" which was performed by the Phibada (Sea of Blood) Opera Troupe this year, the "Year of the DPRK-China Friendship."
The Chinese classic-based film showed "the ruin of an aristocratic family based on a patriarchal tradition" and "what happened in feudal China which was on the verge of collapse and its inevitable downfall," the KCNA said.
Mulan predates Disney and Ma Chou-sin but the Hong Kong director's latest movie about the warrior who famously replaced her father during a battle between the Southern and Northern dynasties (420-589) is perhaps more of a fitting tribute.
Disney's animated film has made over 300 million U.S. dollars worldwide in the space of a decade while Ma's version also got off to a great start, grossing 300 million yuan (44 million dollars) on its opening weekend in China.
As the story of Mulan is based on an old Chinese poem, the two versions show different interpretations of what essentially boils down to an old folk tale.
The live action version avoids glorifying the young woman, one of China's best-known female warriors. Instead, it focuses on her vulnerabilities and love affairs, with Ma delighting film buffs by portraying her as terrified when confronted with the death of her comrades instead of simply smiling in the face of adversity.
Ma, who is known for his romantic movies, said he wanted to focus on her humanity more than her symbolism. "Traditionally Mulan is a great hero, but I think she is also a woman," he was quoted as saying.
Mainland actress Zhao Wei, who starred in Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer and John Woo's Red Cliff, plays the main role. Known for her saucer-like eyes and straightforward demeanor, Zhao sweats under a heavy helmet and armor for much of the movie, her face stained with dirt and blood. The 30-year-old actress prepared for the role by taking horse-riding lessons and combat training. She has gone on record as saying it is her favorite role to date.
The relationship between Mulan and General Wentai, played by mainland actor Chen Kun, is an important component of this battlefield drama, with viewers likely to sympathize with Mulan's devastation when she learns of Wentai's death.
More movies:
Jump
Hong Kong director Stephen Fung Tak-lun's third movie, Jump, opens this weekend. The story of a country girl trying to fulfill her hip hop-showbiz dreams by relying on hard work and faith in herself. May be an old formula, but it still works.
The movie, conceptualized by Hong Kong director Stephen Chow, originally starred disgraced star Edison Chan and was finished two years ago. After Chan's sex scandal involving other Hong Kong starlets lit up the papers the movie was shelved and re-shot using another actor.
The 35-year-old director said that the incident was unexpected and almost caused the collapse of the production, but he finally saw it through to its theatrical release with the help of Chow. In this respect, Feng likens the pursuit of his movie-making dream to that of the film's protagonist and its basic message to never say die.
Twilight
Edward Cullen, played by British actor Robert Pattinson, is unlike the typical Hollywood vampire of old; in fact, he's from a different crypt altogether. He is tall and blonde, and serves tirelessly to protect his chick (high school student Bella). The two find each other dangerously irresistible even though they realize that their love can never be condoned. Cullen's moral preference for animal rather than human blood does not make life that much easier on them. In English.
District 9
District 9 is a low-budget sci-fiction thriller which depicts aliens as unwanted immigrants in downtown Johannesburg. In English.
Oscar-winning director James Cameron is planning to meet Chinese fans on December 23 in Beijing during the Asian promo tour for his upcoming science fiction film Avatar, the director told The Beijing News.
The eagerly-anticipated film is Cameron's first heavyweight commercial project in 12 years, since his ground-breaking 1997 flick Titanic, which grossed more than 1.8 billion U.S. dollars worldwide.
Since the huge success of Titanic, Cameron has been away from the mainstream film market, instead devoting his efforts to 3D technique experiments. Obsessed with the idea of a 3D revolution, the director and his team have created and refined a digital cinematography method through four deep-sea themed documentaries. He also spared no effort in persuading theater owners to introduce his 3D projection system.
Luckily for him, the development of 3D films has boomed in the past year and there are now thousands of 3D digital screens all over the world.
Cameron also created a new linguistic and cultural system for the imaginary Pandora planet for Avatar, his dream work that combines all his childhood imaginings of an exotic world.
The director is optimistic about his new film's box office outlook in China, because he says Avatar is as touching a romantic story as Titanic.
Already a hot topic among film fans, the film is slated for worldwide release on December 18 and will open in China on January 2, 2010.
A Japanese film festival to strengthen the mutual friendship and boost cultural exchange between Japan and Myanmar will be launched in the two biggest cities of Yangon and Mandalay this month, according to the Japanese embassy here on Wednesday.
The four-day film festival will be held in Yangon's Thamada cinema from Dec. 10 to 13 and in Mandalay's Winlight cinema from Dec. 17 to 20 respectively, the sources said.
Four famous Japanese films, namely "Turn Over", "Blue", "Breathe in, Breath out" and "A Scene at the Sea" will be screened in the festival, it added.
Japanese film festival has been held annually in Myanmar since 2000, sponsored by the Japanese embassy in collaboration with the Japan Foundation.
Meanwhile, a ten-day 18th European film festival was held in Yangon last month in which European Commission join the event for the first time in addition to Britain, Italy, Germany and France.
With English subtitles, a number of famous films which include "One day in Europe", "Emma's Bliss", "Zo Zo", and "One Hundred", from Germany, "Jean De la Fontaine" and "Love is in the air" from France, "The Early Bird Catches The Worm", from Italy and "Becoming Jane" from Britain were introduced.
Actress Athena Chu Yan stole the show Monday afternoon in Beijing at a press conference to launch the official website of "Once Upon a Chinese Classic", a much anticipated work by director Jeffrey Lau after the hit romance movie, "A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box" he made 15 years ago, sina.com reports.
Chu Yan, the lead actress playing opposite comedian Stephen Chow in "Pandora's Box", loosely based on the Chinese classical novel "Journey to the West", only makes guest appearance in Jeff Lau's new film.
In the film, "Pandora's Box" still applies its magic and has people go back in time and space. Chu Yan reprises the immortal fairy Zixia, serving as a connection line that mixes different scenarios together.
Co-starring Hong Kong actor Ronald Cheng Chung Kei and mainland actress Sun Li, "Once Upon a Chinese Classic" has rallied many other veteran actors like Huang Bo, Sandra Ng Kwan Yue, Eric Tsang Chi Wai.
The slapstick is set to tickle the audience as it reaches out to many classic scenes from blockbuster films like John Woo's "Red Cliff", the black comedy "Crazy Racing Car" by Ning Hao, as well as 1997 romantic drama "Titanic" and directorial work of Stephen Chow "CJ7".
U.S. renowned actor Alec Baldwin claims that he has lost interest in acting and considers to set about something new, according to foreign media Monday.
"I don't have any interest in acting anymore." Baldwin said.
51-year-old Alec Baldwin, best-known for his Emmy-award winning role in the NBC comedy "30 Rock" and the man chosen to co-host the 2010 Oscar ceremony, added: "Movies are a part of my past. It's been 30 years. I'm not young, but I have time to do something else".
Baldwin began a television-acting career in the 1980s and has filmed scores of movies, including the 1988 cult classic "Beetlejuice". He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the 2003 film "The Cooler" and stars in the upcoming movie "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep and his Oscar co-host Steve Martin.
"I consider my entire movie career a complete failure," he said. "The goal of movie-making is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that."
Baldwin said the 1990 action film "The Hunt for Red October", in which he starred and which made more than 200 million U.S. dollars worldwide, was successful because it was based on a popular Tom Clancy novel.
Baldwin will retire at "30 Rock"'s wrap party. He has expressed interest in politics in the past but did not say what he intended to do after he quits acting.
Taking advantage of wide expectation and lingering loyalty to the original film of "The Twilight Saga," the sequel "New Moon" has kept the No. 1 billing at the North America box office with a haul of 42.5 million dollars over three days beginning on Black Friday, latest projection suggested Sunday.
Actor Robrt Pattinson, star of the new film "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" poses at the film's Los Angeles premiere November 16, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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Entering into the second-week screening in Canada and the United States, the vampire romance is expected to fetch 231 million dollars in combined ticket sales, the North America box office authorities estimated. In the meantime, ever increasing number of merrymaking moviegoers in the region has "obliterated" the previous record by buying 278 million dollars worth of tickets, or an increase of 34 million dollars over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday last year, representing an 8.7 percent increase in studio revenue this year.
A Summit Entertainment production that based on a series of four novels by author Stephenie Meyer, "New Moon" is directed by Chris Weitz instead of Catherine Hardwicke in the first installment. However, the movie is exceptionally faithful to the 2008 beginnings. The success of the teen romance is originated from the big-effort promotion by the Summit Entertainment that saw major actors and actresses making a pitch in 15 major cities across North America.
Actress Kristen Stewart, star of the new film "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" poses at the film's Los Angeles premiere November 16, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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The second place of the chart also remained unchanged, with "The Blind Side" featuring Sandra Bullock garnering three-day sales of 40.1 million dollars. A drama sports film about an American football player that was made by privately owned Alcon Entertainment and distributed by Warner's Bros., the flick is estimated to make a haul of 57.5 million dollars over five days during the Thanksgiving holiday. Its two-week sales total will surpass 100 million dollars, according to estimates.
Rounding out the top five are:
No.3: "2012," Sony/Columbia, 18 million this weekend, 138.8 million dollars in three weeks;
No.4: "Old Dogs," Disney, opening with 16.8 million dollars this weekend;
No.5: "Disney's A Christmas Tale," Disney, 16 million dollars this weekend, 105.4 million dollars over four weeks.