;DPA;

;DPA;
ANPAf..r..
Money-Singapore-Investments
JP/16/Money

S'pore investing
strongly in Asia

SINGAPORE : Singapore's investments overseas slipped a
marginal 0.5 percent to US$159 billion in 2002, with nearly half
in Asia, Department of Statistics (DOS) data showed on Friday.

China, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia were the top
destinations for Singapore's investments in 2002, the most recent
period in which complete statistics were available.

"The emergence of China and investors' familiarity with Asian
markets could be reasons," the DOS said.

It cited a reduced level of holdings in money deposits abroad
by branches of foreign banks in Singapore for the slight dip from
the previous year.

Twenty-eight per cent of the investment abroad was in the
British Virgin Islands and Bermuda, where several tax havens are
located, followed by the United States.

Investment in the U.S. was mostly through financial services
and mainly in the form of investment holding companies.

Direct investments, portfolio investments and other foreign
assets make up those abroad, the DOS said.

Financial services and manufacturing remained the two most
popular activities for Singapore-based investors.

In Indonesia, direct investment took the form of financial
services, transport, communications as well as manufacturing.

The data does not include recent purchases by Temasek, the
government's investment arm, which has been buying stakes in
banks and telecommunications firms in India and South Korea,
among other countries.

Temasek announced earlier this week plans to diversify into
Asia and developed economies. -- dpa

;AFP;
ANPAf..r..
Money-Singapore-finance
Former prime minister Goh formally appointed central bank chief
JP/16/Money

Goh appointed as
central bank boss

SINGAPORE: Former prime minister Goh Chok Tong has been
formally appointed chairman of the Monetary Authority of
Singapore (MAS), the city-state's central bank announced on
Friday.

Goh, who ruled Singapore for 14 years until he stepped down
last week, will take over from Lee Hsien Loong, 52, who succeeded
him as prime minister and remains the finance minister.

An economist by training, the 63-year-old Goh has also been
appointed senior minister, the government's second-highest post
formerly held by the new prime minister's father Lee Kuan Yew,
now an adviser to the cabinet.

The elder Lee, who turns 81 next year, was given the title
minister mentor, the third highest post in terms of protocol.

Goh is a former civil servant and later business executive who
played a key role in turning homegrown Neptune Orient Lines into
one of the world's top 10 container shipping lines.

Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed deputy
central bank chairman.

The MAS said last month that it posted a net profit of 5S$
billion (US$2.9 billion) for its 2004 fiscal year, up sharply
from S$623.42 million in 2003.

It said the profit jump was due to higher returns on its
foreign investments as a result of more buoyant global financial
markets.-- AFP

;AFP;
ANPAf..r..
Money-China-agriculture
JP/16/Money

Chinese post deficit
in farming trade

BEIJING: China recorded its first-ever agricultural trade
deficit in the first half of the year, casting doubts on its
ability to remain a self-sufficient food producer, state press
reported on Friday.

The deficit came in at US$3.73 billion, the Ministry of
Agriculture was cited as saying by the China Daily.

Agricultural officials said maintaining food surpluses China
has enjoyed for years would likely no longer be possible due to
the country's opening to foreign competition under its World
Trade Organization (WTO) obligations.

Over the eight years to 2003, China averaged an agriculture
trade surplus of $4.3 billion a year, the report said.

Although China exported $10.62 billion of farm produce in the
first half of 2004, an increase of nearly 11 percent from a year
ago, imports soared even more.

They were up 62.5 percent year-on-year to a record $14.35
billion, the government figures show.

"The deficit is glaring but not surprising given the country's
commitments following WTO entry, the implementation of tariff
rate quotas and competition in the global market," said Han
Yijun, a researcher with the ministry's Research Center for Rural
Economy.

The report said a fall off in wheat exports had affected the
headline figure.

China was a net exporter of wheat in the first half of last
year, but it imported 2.727 million tones of wheat by the end of
June this year.

Compared with the same six-month period last year, China
imported 1.8 times more grains, or 4.115 million tones, from
January to June this year.

The deficit was largely a result of the sharp increases in
imports of grain, edible oil and cotton, the report quoted Cheng
Guoqiang, researcher with the State Council Development Research
Center, as saying.

Since 1998, China's grain production has dropped by 15.7
percent to reach a low of 431 million tones last year as many
farmers have found it unprofitable to till the land, according to
official Chinese statistics.-- AFP

;REUTERS;
ANPAf..r..
CHINA-BANKS-PORNOGRAPHY
China banks probe online transactions for Web porn
JP/16/Money

Banks to closely probe
Web porn transactions

BEIJING: China's banks are scrutinizing online transactions
for links to pornographic Web sites as the country cracks down on
Internet sex, Xinhua's online service said.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) had asked banks
to strengthen monitoring of their daily business and report
anything abnormal, including suspicious domain names and bank
card numbers, Xinhuanet said in a report seen on Friday.

"Some pornographic Web sites have used the banks' online
transaction service as a means to charge clients, negatively
influencing their reputations and business," the CBRC was quoted
as saying in a circular.

"Once a Web site is found to be involved in pornographic
business, banks should immediately cut off its capital."

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had checked all
355 of its affiliated Web sites to ensure that they possess
certificates for online business and have promised not to engage
in "indecent activities".

The China Construction Bank designated a liaison person in
each of its branches responsible for reporting updated
information about affiliated Web sites.

A nationwide crackdown on pornographic Web sites kicked off in
mid-July to rein in what the central government perceives as the
harmful influences of the Internet in a country where usage has
exploded in recent years.

Police have closed down more than 700 pornographic Web sites
so far and arrested 329 suspects.

China's communist rulers have gradually relaxed the
puritanical rule they imposed when they swept to power in 1949
but sporadically try to crack down on the sex industry.-- Reuters

;REUTERS
ANPAf..r..
MONEY-ECONOMY-POVERTY
U.S. poverty likely rose in 2003, income gap wider
JP/16/Money

U.S. poverty likely
up in 2003: Report

WASHINGTON: More Americans likely slid into poverty in 2003
and the gap between the rich and poor widened, economists said on
Thursday in a report that could fuel Democrat criticism of
President George W. Bush.

While the nation's official poverty rate will not be released
until next week, the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy
Research estimated 700,000 Americans were added to the ranks of
the poor last year, based on early numbers.

That takes the number of poor in the United States to about
36.4 million, from 35.7 million in 2002.

The poverty line is set at an annual income of $9,573 or less
for an individual, or US$18,660 for a family of four with two
children, according to the Census Bureau.

Using Census Bureau data for the first half of 2003, economist
Heather Boushey said the percentage of the U.S. population living
in poverty rose to 12.8 percent, up from 12.7 percent in the
first half of 2002.

Children were even more likely to be poor, the study showed,
with poverty rising to 18.8 percent of children in 2003 from 18.6
percent in 2002.

The poverty rate tends to track the overall economy, rising
during a recession and falling in boom times. It has increased
each year since 2000, sparking criticism from Democrats that
Bush's economic policies are skewed to benefit the rich.

But Bush's economic team has argued he inherited the 2001
recession from former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and
that three rounds of tax cuts have since spurred the economy's
recovery and kick-started job growth.

The official poverty rate is set for release on Aug. 26.
Boushey said it will likely be slightly different than her
calculation because it will include a full 12 months of data and
is taken from a separate but similar Census survey.

In past years, there has been only a slight gap between six
months of one survey and a full year of the second.

The study also showed the median household income rose 3.6
percent to $48,216 in the first half of 2003 from the same period
in 2002 -- though when inflation is taken into account, incomes
rose a smaller 1.1 percent.

Together with the rising poverty rate, the increase in the
median household income suggests the gap between rich and poor is
widening, Boushey said.

"Families above the average are seeing an increase (in
income), but the families at the bottom are seeing a drop," she
told journalists.

The report also found the number of Americans with health care
coverage likely fell in 2003 for the third year in a row, as
unemployment grew and employers cut back on health benefits.
-- Reuters

;DPA;
ANPAf..r..
Money-Singapore-Outsourcing
China leads Asia-Pacific region in outsourcing human resource jobs
JP/16/Money

China leads region
in outsourcing jobs

SINGAPORE : China, the recipient of many outsourcing jobs,
leads the Asia-Pacific region in outsourcing human resource
functions, two surveys showed on Friday.

Two in three of the companies queried in China are outsourcing
at least some of their human resource jobs, according to the
findings of consultancy firm Hewitt Associates.

Only 39 per cent of the firms surveyed in the rest of the
region are farming out such work.

The China survey covered 51 foreign-owned companies. The
second survey included 524 firms across the Asia-Pacific region.

Human resource "sourcing is still a relatively new phenomenon
in the region, although it is more common in India, the
Philippines, Malaysia and Australia", Hewitt's report said.

"Vendors in these countries have grown significantly in recent
years, acting as back office administrators primarily for
American and European clients," it added.

Payroll processing, benefits administration and training and
development are the human resource functions most often
considered for outsourcing in the region.

Cultural factors and historical developments explain why
outsourcing is more prevalent in China.

The practice there grew out of long-standing government
requirements that mandated foreign-invested entities to hand-
deliver employee records to the local social insurance office,
Hewitt said.

State-owned companies were set up to handle the record-keeping
process.

These agencies now face growing competition from private firms
also offering additional services, the report said.-- dpa