News
In Wellington you discuss the weather and in Auckland the property market - Malaysians bond over food.
The decree will also waive tax on imported raw materials or appliances for specific investment sectors or those not made in the country five years after production date
AS A policeman ineffectually sledgehammered the windows of a hijacked bus, in a desperate effort to reach 15 hostages trapped inside, it became sickeningly clear that a rescue operation had gone dreadfully wrong. More than an hour later the police got in by opening the emergency exit, and found proof of their bungling: eight of the 15 hostages, all Hong Kong tourists, had been shot dead, as had the hostage-taker, a former policeman.
Kiwifruit battler Turners & Growers is to appeal last week’s High Court ruling in favour of export giant Zespri.Last week the High Court in Auckland declined a first cause of action and struck out two others taken by T&G.T&G chairman Tony Gibbs said the company had reviewed the judgment over the weekend and would lodge its appeal as soon as possible.
Vietnamese exporters may face tougher restrictions this year as countries employ trade remedies to address anti-dumping and countervailing issues on items produced by importing countries according to trade experts.
JULY 19, 2010, must become a pivotal date in our history. We must mark it as the moment we finally realised we had to radically change the way we do business.If we don't, we will continue to limp along happy with the crumbs our current businesses throw off.
Chinese companies should look for more cooperation opportunities with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to realize the full advantages of the free trade agreement between the two, government officials said on Monday
The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday lauded China for the significant role it has played in reviving global trade growth and said the nation has more than fulfilled its commitment to the organization.The WTO said in its annual report released on Friday that it expects global trade to grow by 10 percent this year.
Increasing New Zealand's trade with Vietnam and maximising the value of aid to the southeast Asian nation were the priorities of Prime Minister John Key's just-completed trip here. Mr Key also hopes that by improving the economic relationship and building on 35 years of diplomatic relations, New Zealand can help Vietnam overcome its appalling human rights record.
SINGAPORE - Singapore expects its economy to soar 15 per cent this year after surging manufacturing fuelled a record expansion in the second quarter.
Jul. 14 – The General Department of Customs will offer its e-customs services to 12 more offices as a way of encouraging companies to use the service.This will bring the total number of offices with the e-customs service around the country to 36. Eventually authorities aim to offer the service in 70 percent of their offices as part of Project 30 to simplify administrative procedures and improve investment process for both foreign and local businesses.
HANOI, Jul. 9 – The 43rd ASEAN Ministerial Meetings will take place in Hanoi from July 19-23 and are set to examine ways in which the ASEAN charter can be better implemented and the new administrative apparatus used to better forge links between members
Cementing New Zealand's relationship with Vietnam through trade, aid and our bid for a spot on the United Nations' Security Council has been the aim of Prime Minister John Key's trip to the southeast Asian nation.
Wilmar International is to pay A$1.75 billion ($2.14 billion) to buy the sugar assets of Australian conglomerate CSR, including its stake in the New Zealand Sugar Company - owner of the Chelsea brand and Birkenhead refinery.
New Zealand's next Ambassador to Egypt will be career diplomat David Strachan, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said today.
The Asian workforce in New Zealand is growing at a rate where it will make up 15 per cent of the country's total workforce by 2026, new research shows.
“Building these bridges and these connections with Asia is absolutely vital” - Case Study Te Puke High School
The list of projects includes the country’s third oil refinery, the Long Son oil refinery in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. The US$7 billion project is now looking for new investors after Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA stepped out the project.
THE inauguration of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino as the Philippines’ new president on June 30th looked less like a ceremony of state than the climax of a revolution.
Cuddly pandas, deadly torpedoes and Chinese food safety will be among the talking points when Prime Minister John Key travels to Asia next week.
An informative newsletter from Export New Zealand.
Vietnam will waive visa fees for foreign visitors to the country from August to September as part of the “Impressive Vietnam Grand Sale 2010” campaign.
An all-out massacre in the capital has been avoided, but Thailand is not beyond the risk of civil war
AUT journalism graduate Claire Rorke remembers her experience at the Jakarta Globe in September 2009. She was an on an Asia New Zealand Foundation-supported internship there for four weeks.
The Aquino family has a second shot at running South-East Asia’s laggard
Foreign contractors are subject to withholding tax on payments for work done in the country based on contracts signed between them and Vietnamese partners.
WITH its three high-rise towers topped by a sweeping open-air SkyPark, the Marina Bay Sands casino, which opened on April 27th, is a striking addition to the Singapore skyline. It also symbolises an interesting, and potentially risky, new phase in the city-state’s highly successful government-led industrial policy.
Vietnam signed trade deals with China’s east province of Jiangsu during the China-Vietnam Economic Cooperation Forum held in Nanjing on April 27.
When I took up the appointment in 2007 I wasn’t given any specific objectives, other than maintaining the good relations that have marked our 50 years presence in Wellington, and improving Indonesia’s profile.
After a riot on April 10th which left 23 Thais dead, a tense stand-off has ensued on the streets of Bangkok, paralysed for the past several weeks by red-shirted anti-government protesters.
Thai anti-government protesters have built formidable barricades of tyres and sharpened bamboo canes in Bangkok as tensions build in the capital.
The Centre for the Resolution of Emergency Situations (CRES) has vowed to crack down on red shirt demonstrators if they attempt to occupy Silom Road or other Bangkok thoroughfares
Singapore has reported a rise in exports of more than a quarter as shipments of electronic goods to the rest of Asia jumped sharply.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment has released the latest draft of regulations on pilot Public Private Partnerships (PPP) projects for infrastructure development.
New Zealand’s ASEAN business community will likely see more networking events following positive feedback from delegates at the first forum held in Auckland recently.
The second round of Track II discussions between the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam (DAV) and a New Zealand team convened by the Asia New Zealand Foundation took place in Wellington on 22 and 23 March 2010.
One of Vietnam's major advantages is its large, skilled and inexpensive labor force that makes it an attractive destination for foreign investors.
From the moment Abhisit Vejjajiva was elected Prime Minister of Thailand by a special vote of Parliament in 2008, the British-born, Eton-educated politician has been fighting off one crisis after another.
Companies operating in Vietnam should be aware that the Vietnamese government has delayed the schedule for quarterly payments of corporate income tax for 2010.
Former prime minister and palace insider Anand Panyarachun epitomizes the ammataya, or aristocratic elite, that Thailand's red shirt-wearing United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) protest group claims to be up against in a "class war" for democracy.
Fletcher Building CEO Jonathan Ling outlined his thoughts on doing business in Asia at the latest Action Asia Business Leaders seminar at KPMG’s Auckland office on 18 March.
Following customs procedures when importing or exporting goods in Vietnam is one of the vital aspects of doing business in a country where manufacturing costs are leveraged to its favor.
FOR decades Thai politics suffered from a surfeit of pragmatism. Indeed, grimy compromises were dignified as “Thai solutions”. Parties tussled over the perks of office, without letting policies or principles get in the way.
Only one third of secondary school heads of department say they have included some Asia-specific topics in their teaching programmes over the past two years, says a new Asia New Zealand Foundation report.
Tim Groser is fond of this statistic: that the increase in exports to China last year was the same as that year's total exports to Korea. That analogy says much about east Asia's growing indispensability to our Polynesian and British outlier nation.
New Zealand's next Ambassador to Indonesia will be career diplomat David Taylor, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.
"Indonesia is an important partner for New Zealand, both bilaterally and as a leading democracy in South East Asia, and we need to continue to strengthen our growing, broad-based relationship," Mr McCully said.
Northern Thai Nguyen Province is being groomed to become a major metallurgy, mechanical manufacturing and precision engineering hub in the country.
As the government prepares to celebrate Hanoi’s 1,000 year anniversary in October, plans to slowly expand the capital city have already begun since 2008.
The results of the latest Perceptions of Asia survey are available now. Conducted by Colmar Brunton in August and September 2009.
Expansion into Asia is on the cards for international resin manufacturer Nuplex Industries, which reported record profits last week.
Authorities want to target US$180 million worth of new investment projects for 2010, an increase of 37.62 percent compared to the previous year.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance is now allowing foreign firms in the country to choose the currency unit they want to use for accounting purposes.
Mike Moore, a former Labour prime minister who has headed the World Trade Organisation, is to be New Zealand's next ambassador to the United States.
The Transportation Ministry is set to issue a ministerial decree that will declare five international airports in the country subject to the ASEAN open sky agreement.
The Chinese central bank surprised the markets last week by raising the interest rate slightly on its three-month bills from 1.3280% to 1.3684%. This is the first rate increase since August and signaled an effort by Beijing to reduce asset-price inflation after a record surge in credit.
An Islamic group seeking to offer New Zealand businesses a "globally recognised" halal certification is being criticised by the NZ Federation of Islamic Associations, which says the Southeast Asian organisation does not have the resources to do inspections here.
Asean is attempting to redefine the collaborative marketing of the region as a tourism destination with support from the United States.
Vietnam attracted US$21.48 billion in foreign direct investment in 2009, the Foreign Investment Department for Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment said on Sunday.
Vietnam will soon raise the ceiling on foreign ownership in local businesses from 30 percent to 49 percent, says deputy chairman of the State Securities Commission (SSC) Nguyen Doan Hung during a workshop sponsored by Euromoney and the Ministry of Finance.
Strategic advisory firm, Tholons has included Ho Chi Minh City in its annual report of Top 6 Established Global Outsourcing Cities for Software Testing for the second year in a row.
Thailand is a market of 66.4 million and was until recently one of New Zealand’s fastest growing export destinations. Two New Zealand companies, with the country firmly in their sights, passed on their insights to Mike Booker.
The first thing you will remember on your drive out of Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport might also be the last thing you see as you leave the city - the motorcycles.
With Vietnam dealing with the slowing effects of the global economic crisis, it is not all bad news as it maintains its post as one of the top destinations of foreign direct investment in the region according to the Asean Business Council.
Resins manufacturer Nuplex says its Asian businesses are showing strong earnings growth with increasing demand and lower costs a key factor.
China and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have pledged to improve agricultural cooperation to help improve economic development and to prevent a food crisis.
John Key says the signing of a free trade deal with Malaysia is another vital move towards a "step change" for the New Zealand economy.
SINGAPORE - Singapore's economy has surged for a second straight quarter in the July-to-September period as manufacturing leads the city-state out of recession.
Economists are revising their growth forecasts upwards for the coming year – and also bringing forward their predictions of when the Reserve Bank will begin lifting interest rates.
Malaysia's timber exports are expected to dip 13 per cent to RM20 billion this year from RM23 billion in 2008 due to the global economic slowdown.
Consumers are less optimistic about Indonesia’s economy as the government plans to raise the prices for electricity and the use of toll roads, a central bank survey reveals.
Rupiah rapid gains against the greenback, despite concerns over negative impacts on trade balance and debt payments, is acceptable while in line with fundamentals, the Finance Minister says.
With their recent free trade agreement already showing signs of success, India and Thailand are poised to further expand their FTA pact beyond goods to new areas of services and investments with focus on further consolidating their economic ties.
Auto sales in Vietnam surged 104 percent in September from a year earlier after a 31 percent increase in August, an industry report said on Wednesday.
The State Bank of Vietnam will probably increase its key rate by 400 basis points to 11 percent by the end of 2010, HSBC said in a report Tuesday.
Globalisation has produced more wealth in the past 60 years than the rest of history put together.
Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. A recession, even a depression, means de-globalisation and that will cost millions of people hope and opportunity.
Following an accelerated third quarter, the International Monetary Fund said its latest growth estimate for Vietnam may be revised upward.
The timing couldn't be better for the release of a telling report from the World Trade Organisation about the explosion of protectionist measures implemented by its members since the beginning of the global economic crisis a year ago.
The Ministry of Finance has issued a new circular announcing that those working at Vietnamese economic zones (EZs) are qualified for a 50 percent tax reduction of their annual income tax.
The European Union (EU) and Asean will set up a trade centre in Thailand to boost trade between the blocs.
INDONESIA’S police chief, General Bambang Hendarso Danuri, can probably be forgiven his air of triumphalism in confirming on Friday September 18th that officers had killed Noordin Mohammed Top, the most wanted terrorist in Indonesia, and perhaps in South-East Asia.
AUTUMN in Thailand is coup season. Three years ago the prime minister at the time, Thaksin Shinawatra, flew to New York for the United Nations General Assembly as rumours circulated in Bangkok of a plot against him.
Palm oil prices will rise as a shortage in the world's cheapest edible oil is harder to remedy than the current shortage of soyabeans, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland Asia Securities (Singapore) Pte Ltd (RBS) said.
The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination - and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year.
It will now be easier for Vietnamese businesses to import more goods from Japan when the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA) takes effect in October.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is inviting submissions on possible negotiations on services and government procurement under the Thailand - New Zealand Closer Economic Partnership Agreement.
The closing date for submissions is 30 September 2009.
COUNTRIES generally hit the headlines only when the news is bad. In Indonesia it has often been spectacularly bad. A decade ago there were fears that the country might disintegrate in a welter of violence, piracy and mass migration...
The visit of the Secretary-General of ASEAN to New Zealand from 6 to 11 September 2009 has laid the ground for enhanced dialogue relations with New Zealand.
Vietnamese companies are encouraged to invest in Laos to boost its socio-economic development, said President Nguyen Minh Triet during an investment promotion conference on Laos in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday...
Like a number of its Asian neighbours, the Philippines has begun to rebound from the economic downturn. In the three months to June, year-on-year real GDP growth recovered to 1.5% from 0.6% in the first quarter...
Ambassador James Kember, who concluded his posting to Viet Nam on 26 August, has been awarded Vietnam’s medal “For Peace and Friendship among Nations” in recognition of his contributions to the promotion of friendship and cooperation between....
Thailand plans to sell off large stakes in two small banks with the incentive that foreign investors could gain management control.
The government acquired the stakes in Siam City Bank and ACL Bank in the aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
A potential ban on New Zealand $100 million in beef exports to Indonesia from October 1 has been postponed until next year.
Indonesian officials say there are "strong indications" a key wanted fugitive was behind Friday's deadly attacks on two hotels in Jakarta.
The Jakarta Post Indonesia’s healthy economic growth and market resilience will sustain the damaging impact of blasts that ripped through the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels on Friday, analysts said…
The Jakarta Post
Three separate explosions – two of them bombing and another possibly triggered by a short circuit – rocked and shocked the capital Friday morning, killing nine people …
Economist Intelligence Unity
Singapore's export-oriented economy, one of the most exposed to the global downturn, rebounded in spectacular fashion in the second quarter, according to a preliminary government estimate...
|