SingTel to link Asia, Mid-East, Europe

SingTel to link Asia, Mid-East, Europe

SINGAPORE: Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) said
Wednesday it had joined 12 other carriers to plan and initiate
the construction of a new submarine cable linking Asia, the
Middle East and Western Europe.

The proposed network will provide much needed bandwidth as
existing cables along the same route are becoming increasingly
saturated, SingTel said in a statement.

"Though the current market situation might not seem conducive
to embark on this project, this is the opportune time... to plan
and build a network to ease the expected bandwidth bottleneck
between Asia and Europe," SingTel's global business vice
president, Lim Shyong, said.

Details on price and configuration would not be available
until negotiations with suppliers were completed, a spokesman
told AFP. -- AFP

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Corporatebrief-Merpati-Philippine
Merpati to fly to Philippine weekly
JP/14/brief

Merpati to fly to Philippine weekly

DAVAO, Philippines: Indonesia's Merpati Nusantara Airlines
will begin weekly flights between Davao in the southern
Philippines and Indonesia's Manado, the Indonesian vice-consul
said here Wednesday.

Vice Consul Johannes Manginsela said the inaugural flight
would arrive in Davao on Sept. 12 and will fly the route every
Thursday thereafter, using a 75-seat Fokker-28 jet.

This would complement a weekly flight between the two cities
by Bouraq Airlines of Indonesia and will hopefully boost economic
ties between the two countries, Manginsela said.

A Philippine airline previously flew the same route but later
stopped because it could not get enough passengers. -- AFP

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Corporatebrief-Mitsui-Executives
Executives of Mitsui step down
JP/14/brief

Executives of Mitsui step down

TOKYO: Two top executives of major trading house Mitsui and
Co. Ltd. resigned Wednesday over bribery allegations in overseas
public works projects in the latest of a series of scandals
plaguing Japanese corporations.

Mitsui president Shinjiro Shimizu and chairman Shigeji Ueshima
will be officially replaced by vice president Nobuo Ohashi as
chair and senior managing director Shoei Utsuda as president on
Sept. 30.

Their decision to step down was approved at an extraordinary
board meeting early Wednesday, a company spokesman said.

"I decided to resign as president to take responsibility and
renew our management system," Shimuzu told a news conference at
Mitsui's headquarters in central Tokyo. -- AFP

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Corporatebrief-Audi-U.S.
Audi wants to double sales in U.S.
JP/14/brief

Audi wants to double sales in U.S.

FRANKFURT: Audi, the top-of-the-range car maker belonging to
Volkswagen, aims to double its sales in the United States within
two or three years by strengthening its sales network there, Audi
chairman Martin Winterkorn said in a newspaper interview on
Wednesday.

Audi planned to increase by 20-30 percent the number of its
U.S. dealers, which currently stands at 300, Winterkorn told the
Financial Times Deutschland.

The car maker is to take market share from competitors
Mercedes and BMW, which are much more established in the U.S.
than Audi is, the newspaper said.

"We expect to sell 90,000 cars in the U.S. this year,"
compared with 83,300 in 2001, Winterkorn said. -- AFP