Self-employment project

Self-employment project

JAKARTA (JP): The government, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) have signed an agreement on a program for integrated self- employment and micro-enterprise development.

The project document was signed here by Pribadi Poedjajadi, the Secretary General of the Department of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Development, Jan Kamp, the Resident Representative of the UNDP and Herman van der Laan, Director of ILO.

The project is essentially set to help alleviate poverty in Indonesia and will include five workshops to review the success of its introduction.(04)

Polysindo's profit up

SEMARANG, Central Java (JP): PT Polysindo Eka Perkasa, a textile manufacturer listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, increased its after-tax profit by 4.9 percent to Rp 105.1 billion (US$50.04 million) last year.

M. Sinivasan, the company's president, told newsmen here yesterday after an annual shareholders meeting that Polysindo's net revenue swelled by 12.3 percent to Rp 671.4 billion.

He also said that the company's fixed assets grew by 20.1 percent to Rp 421.2 billion while its total assets escalated by 41.3 percent to Rp 1.3 trillion.

Sinivasan also mentioned that the company is planning to expand its production capacity and will diversify its business to upstream industries in the chemical sector. (04/wah)

RP to abolish barter trade

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines plans to phase out informal trade between its southern islands and nearby Malaysia and Indonesia within two years because of smuggling and new economic thrusts, President Fidel Ramos said here yesterday.

Ramos told a news conference following a scandal over alleged bribery of Philippine Navy officers by smugglers using the "barter trade" as a cover that this mode of commerce "is anachronistic already in this day and age."

Filipino Moslem seafarers in Mindanao and nearby islands have traded with Malaysia and Indonesia for centuries using barter, or exchange of goods, although in recent years they have simply used cash.

This blossomed to commercial proportions after being legitimized by former president Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s, and is now a major source of smuggled items, from candy to appliances and motorbikes and, in a few instances, used cars.

Ramos said barter trade will first be strictly limited to a Moslem autonomous region comprising four provinces, and phased out "within the next couple of years."

New growth area proposed

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines is preparing a proposal for the establishment of a regional growth area comprising the northern portion of its main island Luzon, southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and possibly Okinawa, an official said here yesterday.

Economic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito said "we are working out the necessary action needed to replicate" the newly formed East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA), which links the country's south with Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

The envisioned growth area would include the Philippine provinces of Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, the Cagayan Valley, Batanes, the Subic Bay freeport, Xiamen and Guangzhou in China and Taiwan and Hong Kong, he said.

The creation of this area would increase cooperation in such areas as transport and shipping, fisheries, tourism, agriculture, energy exploration and environmental protection, Habito added.

He said the new growth area would involve links with provinces of other countries "rather than a national relationship."

Asian pay rise expected

WASHINGTON (AFP): Asian workers can expect moderate pay raises of between five and six percent above inflation in 1994 after steeper pay hikes over the past several years, a consulting firm said yesterday.

Pay raises above inflation will be six percent in Thailand and five percent for Taiwan and South Korea, about four percent for Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia, according to The Wyatt Company study.

Indonesia can expect hikes of 3.6 percent while Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand project raises of between 1.2 and two percent with Australia bringing up the rear with pay increases of just 0.4 percent.

"Slowed economic growth and increased popularity of pay-for- performance programs help explain this trend," said Paula DeLisle, a compensation consultant in Wyatt's Hong Kong office.

"In Hong Kong, major employers continue to encourage single- digit increases as concerns grow that the country will price itself out of the international market," she added.

U.S. supports APEC

SYDNEY (AFP): The United States intends to work very closely with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, US ambassador to Australia Edward Perkins has said here.

He told the Foreign Correspondents' Association that regional economic policies were "very important" to Washington in Asia- Pacific.

The 17-member APEC was "probably one of the best forums that we have in this region for promoting fast-growing trade activity," Perkins said Tuesday.

He said the United States intends to "work very closely with APEC and more especially with (the current chairman) Indonesia."

"We want to see APEC make rapid ... progress for facilitating regional trade and development and investment," Perkins added.

He said this could not be done overnight, but all the APEC members had agreed "to work towards consensus."

Japan firms to recover

TOKYO (AFP): Japanese companies are likely to achieve full recovery in the next fiscal year, starting April 1, 1995, after edging up in the current year, a research institute said yesterday.

The Nikko Research Center Ltd. said that pre-tax profits of Japanese companies were expected to rise 6.8 percent in the current fiscal year, and jump 28.6 percent in the following financial year.

The research institute, which is affiliated with Nikko Securities Co. Ltd., said the forecast was based on a recent upturn in shipments of consumer goods.

It also said consumer spending was also expected to recover following continued adjustment of inventories.

The institute surveyed 100 listed companies in its study.

G-7 meeting on April 24

TOKYO (AFP): The Group of Seven (G-7) industrialized nations is expected to hold a meeting of financial ministers and central bankers in Washington on April 24, the Kyodo News Service said yesterday.

The news agency, quoting Japanese international financial sources, said the main topics at the meeting would be coordination of world economic growth and assistance to Russia.

The sources said Bank of Japan Governor Yasushi Mieno was to attend the meeting, but Japan's Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii might be absent from it, depending on parliament's schedule.