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.