APEC forum gets members<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating has
\nappointed the managing director of Pacific Dunlop, Philip Brass,
\nand the managing director of Nutri-Metics International, Imelda
\nRoche, as Australia's representatives to the Asia Pacific
\nEconomic Cooperation (APEC) business forum.<\/p>\n
The Australian embassy said here yesterday that Brass will
\nrepresent large businesses and Roche small businesses.<\/p>\n
The decision to establish the business forum, with
\nrepresentatives from each member economy of APEC was made at the
\nAPEC leadership meeting in Seattle last year.<\/p>\n
The forum will play a vital role in providing leaders with a
\nbusiness view of constraints to the further development of trade
\nand investment in the region and ways in which APEC can help in
\novercoming them.(10)<\/p>\n
Bundesbank cuts rate<\/p>\n
FRANKFURT (AFP): The Bundesbank provided repurchase funds to
\nthe banking system at 5.47 percent yesterday in a move
\nrepresenting a reduction of 11 basis points from the lowest rate
\nset a week ago.<\/p>\n
The bank said that it had provided a total of 55.1 billion
\nmarks (US$32.4 billion) for 13 days and that the lowest rate
\narranged was 5.47 percent.<\/p>\n
The bank also provided 2.3 billion marks for one day.
\nThe funds replaced an expiring facility of 55.1 billion marks and
\nrepresented a net injection of 2.3 billion marks.<\/p>\n
Most of the funds for 13 days were provided at 5.47-5.49
\npercent compared with a range of 5.59-5.61 percent last week.<\/p>\n
The bank satisfied all requests made at 5.47 percent which was
\nthe lowest rate accepted. Banks had requested a total of 77
\nbillion marks.<\/p>\n
The one-day arrangement was made mainly at 5.50-5.51 percent.
\nThe bank satisfied all requests at 5.47 percent which was the
\nlowest rate accepted. Banks had requested a total of 14.9 billion
\nmarks.<\/p>\n
RP gold exports up 32.6%<\/p>\n
MANILA (AFP): Philippine gold exports surged 32.6 percent in
\nvolume to 1.505 tons in the first two months of 1994 due to an
\nincrease in world demand and improved international prices, the
\nofficial National Statistics Office (NSO) said here yesterday.<\/p>\n
Export earnings from gold contained in copper ores rose 65.98
\npercent to US$14.83 million during the same period, it added.<\/p>\n
Belgium lowers rates<\/p>\n
BRUSSELS (AFP): The Belgian central bank cut several of its
\ninterest rates by 0.10 points yesterday, reducing the central
\nrate to 5.60 percent from 5.70 percent.<\/p>\n
The rate for advances within a pre-set limit was reduced to
\n7.10 percent from 7.20 percent.<\/p>\n
The rate for other creditor situations fell to 4.60 percent
\nfrom 4.70 percent on an ordinary basis and to 3.60 percent from
\n3.70 percent for excess amounts.<\/p>\n
The rate for advances beyond pre-set limits was held at 10.0
\npercent as was the discount rate at 4.75 percent.<\/p>\n
The bank last reduced its rates on April 20. Since December 7
\nthe central rate, charged to financial institutions handling the
\npublic debt, has been cut from 7.50 percent to 5.60 percent.<\/p>\n
Japan industrial output falls<\/p>\n
TOKYO (AFP): Japan's industrial production in the year to
\nMarch shrank 4.1 percent from the previous year for the third
\nconsecutive annual decline, the international trade and industry
\nministry said yesterday.<\/p>\n
The decline in the index of mining and manufacturing followed
\na 6.3 percent drop in the year to March 1993 and a 0.7 percent
\ndecline in the year to March 1992, the ministry said.<\/p>\n
Production shipments in the year to March this year fell 3.7
\npercent from the previous year. Production inventories dropped
\n3.2 percent, while the ratio of inventories to shipments was up
\n1.2 percent.<\/p>\n
In March alone, industrial production rose four percent from
\nFebruary but fell 3.1 percent from a year earlier, marking two
\nyears and six months of uninterrupted year-on-year declines.<\/p>\n
E. Asia sets sample<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AFP): Countries undergoing economic reform should
\nfollow East Asia's example and ensure they do not deviate from
\ntheir goals, World Bank President Lewis Preston said here
\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
Economic reforms are bearing fruit in a number of developing
\ncountries, and they can expect average growth of five percent a
\nyear in the next decade, up from 3.5 percent in the 1980s,
\nPreston told the International Monetary Fund\/World Bank
\ndevelopment committee.<\/p>\n
This forecast depends on sustained recovery and low inflation
\nin the industrial countries, but also on developing countries
\nmaintaining the momentum of reform, Preston said.<\/p>\n
"The East Asian nations, in particular, have demonstrated what
\ncan be achieved by persevering with the right policy
\nfundamentals," he said.<\/p>\n
Hyundai to build aircraft<\/p>\n
SEOUL (AFP): South Korea's Hyundai Group said it has
\nestablished a joint venture with Russia's Yak Co. to build
\npassenger aircraft for export.<\/p>\n
Hyundai official said the group's affiliate, Hyundai
\nTechnology and Development Co., held 51 percent of the joint
\nventure and Yak the remaining 49 percent.<\/p>\n
They said Yak would provide design and manufacturing
\ntechnology while Hyundai would handle financing and sales.<\/p>\n
The joint venture is based in Moscow, but details such as the
\nlocation of its factory were not given.<\/p>\n
The venture's start-up capital was set at US$620,000.<\/p>\n
It will build 150-seat YAK 42H and smaller YAK 40H planes.<\/p>\n
The joint venture is part of Hyundai's long-term program to
\nmanufacture aircraft independently, and officials said the
\nconglomerate wants to build an aircraft factory here with the
\nhelp of Russian engineers.<\/p>\n
Hyundai engineers will be dispatched soon to oversee Yak's
\npromised technology transfer, they said.<\/p>\n
Mexico gets investment<\/p>\n
MEXICO CITY (Reuter): Mexico Trade Minister Jaime Serra Puche
\nsaid foreign investors poured US$5.2 billion into Mexico in the
\nfirst quarter of 1994.<\/p>\n
"This quarter (ending March 31), which is to say in one-
\nfourth of the year, we have received $5.2 billion in foreign
\ninvestment," Serra told reporters after a speech here.<\/p>\n
He did not say how much of that money was direct investment
\nand how much was investment in stocks and other financial
\ninstruments.<\/p>\n
In all of 1993, foreign investment in Mexico was $15.6
\nbillion, Serra said.<\/p>\n
Mexico has been plagued by political violence since the
\nbeginning of the year, including a peasant rebellion in the
\nsouthern state of Chiapas and the assassination of ruling party
\npresidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.<\/p>\n
The violence and the uncertainty it has caused has resulted in
\na fall in the Mexican bolsa and the peso, both of which are well
\ndown in 1994 because of investor wariness.<\/p>\n
Qatar to harness gas<\/p>\n
DOHA (AFP): Qatar launched a project yesterday to harness
\ngiant offshore gas deposits in its North Field, set to become the
\nsmall Gulf sheikhdom's main source of revenue.<\/p>\n
Construction work will start on a US$1.4 billion gas
\nliquefaction plant at Ras Laffan, in the northeast, officials
\nsaid. It will have a capacity of four million tons annually.<\/p>\n
The North Field contains 5,000 billion cubic metres (17,500
\nbillion cubic feet) of gas reserves.<\/p>\n
The plant, owned by Qatar-Gas, is part of a 3.5 billion-dollar
\npetrochemical complex due to be completed by 1997, experts said.<\/p>\n
The complex will include an offshore gas treatment plant to be
\nlinked to the Ras Laffan plant and gas storage tanks via an 80-
\nkilometer (48 mile) underwater pipeline, Qatar-Gas chairman Jaber
\nal-Marri said.<\/p>\n
The state-run Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC) owns
\n65 percent of Qatar-Gas, while 10 percent is owned by Total of
\nFrance and 10 percent by Mobil of the United States, with the
\nremaining 15 percent equally divided between the Japanese
\ncompanies Marubeni and Mitsui.<\/p>\n
KL bans foreign labor<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia has extended by two months a ban
\nimposed in January on the recruitment of unskilled foreign
\nworkers pending a study on their link with social and health
\nproblems, local newspapers reported yesterday.<\/p>\n
The decision was taken by the cabinet committee on foreign
\nworkers, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on
\nTuesday, said Deputy Home Minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob.<\/p>\n
The freeze, announced on Jan. 8, does not affect skilled
\nworkers, professionals or domestic maids, he said.<\/p>\n
"The committee is awaiting a detailed report from the police,
\nimmigration and health authorities on the question of security,
\nsocial ills and health implications before reviewing the
\nsituation," Megat Junid was quoted saying in local news reports.<\/p>\n
The government had said in January the freeze was to allow the
\nauthorities to flush out some 200,000 illegal immigrants, mainly
\nfrom neighboring Indonesia and the Philippines, who might be
\nillegally hired to work on labor-hungry plantations and
\nconstruction sites.<\/p>\n
GM joins Toyota network<\/p>\n
TOKYO (AFP): Three auto parts companies affiliated with
\nGeneral Motors Corp. (GM) joined yesterday the Toyota Motor Corp.
\nauto parts association, making GM the first of the Detroit "Big
\nThree" to achieve this status, it is announced yesterday.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Kanto Kyohokai, an association of 66
\ncompanies providing Toyota with auto parts, confirmed a Nikkei
\nreport that GM had been admitted.<\/p>\n
GM's move will enable the American group to further penetrate
\nthe Japanese auto market, where US makers enjoy a minimal share.<\/p>\n
While other US independent car parts companies are already
\nmembers of the association, GM has been waiting for an invitation
\nsince late 1992, the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Through its participation in the Toyota's network, the GM
\naffiliates will benefit from Toyota's cooperation in quality
\ncontrol and cost reduction.<\/p>\n
Toyota also plans to import 20,000 automobiles from GM to help
\nease ongoing trade tension between Japan and the United States,
\nits spokesman said.<\/p>",
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