Star News

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.

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