BANGKOK: Indonesia said it still hoped to hammer out a counter
BANGKOK: Indonesia said it still hoped to hammer out a counter
trade deal to buy rice from Thailand, despite failing to reach an
agreement at a meeting in Bangkok on Tuesday.
"We are discussing counter trade. We are trying to finalize
the products which... Thailand might be able to buy from
Indonesia," Indonesian Trade and Industry Minister Rini Soewandi
told Reuters.
"It is still under discussion, hopefully within the next few
weeks we can finalize it," she added.
Thai Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik, who also held talks
with his Indonesian counterpart on Tuesday, declined to comment.
The talks follow a recent request by Jakarta to set up a
counter trade arrangement with Indonesia to buy up to 500,000
tons of Thai rice in exchange of products including train wagons
and airplanes. -- Reuters
Iraq eyes OPEC secretary general post
BAGHDAD: Iraq will nominate a candidate for the post of OPEC
secretary general to succeed Ali Rodriguez when he steps down in
June, Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rashid said in remarks published
Tuesday.
"Iraq will look into the situation in light of the departure
of the incumbent secretary general Ali Rodriguez and will
nominate a candidate for the post," he told visiting Indonesian
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro on
Monday, quoted in newspapers.
Rodriguez has been nominated to head the state-owned PDVSA oil
company in his native Venezuela, but he will stay on at least
until the cartel's next ministerial meeting on June 26.
Rodriguez beat Iraqi and Saudi candidates to be named
secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries in November 2000, and assumed the post in January the
following year. -- AFP
Japanese consumer confidence rebounds
TOKYO: Japanese consumer confidence rebounded in March,
logging its biggest gain in three years after sliding steadily
since September, suggesting a patchy export-driven economic
recovery was finally reaching consumers.
The Cabinet Office said in a quarterly survey of 5,040
households that the consumer sentiment index rose 1.5 points to
38.4 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 36.9 in December.
"The index suggests that consumer sentiment is improving,"
Yoshihiko Senoh, director of the Cabinet Office's department of
business statistics, told a news conference. "Therefore, we
cannot deny that severe economic conditions are changing."
The sentiment figure is calculated by averaging five component
indices which include views on living conditions, income, prices,
jobs and willingness to spend on durable goods. -- Reuters
ADB mulls issue of local currency bonds
MANILA: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday it
may start issuing local currency bonds in the Philippines,
Thailand and India to minimize currency risk when it provides
project funding.
"We have been in discussion with the three countries on a
framework in which we can issue local currency bonds and put the
proceeds to use in private sector projects in need of local
currency," ADB assistant treasurer Juanito Limandribata told
Reuters in an interview.
The ADB traditionally extends U.S. dollar, yen and euro-
denominated loans for project financing. Issuing local currency
bonds could help cushion the effects of exchange rate volatility.
Limandribata said the ADB would not limit the proposal to the
Philippines, Thailand and India, but these three had been chosen
initially "because of the projects they have in the pipeline". --
Reuters