Okada fights back and sues Wynn over USD800 M share

Transcription

14
Wednesday
March 2012
74th day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar
21st day of the 2nd lunar month
13ºC / 19ºC
80 / 95 %
Administrator Kowie Geldenhuys • Director Paulo Coutinho • Number 1538
Okada fights back
and sues Wynn over
USD800 M share
Page 2
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powered by CTM
MACAU $5.00 • HK $7.50
®
Wednesday 14 March 2012
World briefs
UK
British police investigating
phone hacking have rearrested Rebekah Brooks, a
former editor of the News of
the World tabloid and onetime aide to media mogul
Rupert Murdoch, reports said
yesterday. More on p13.
CHINA
Fifteen people are dead after
a bus flipped and fell into a
ravine in southwest China.
Xinhua News Agency says the
bus carrying 21 people was
traveling on a mountain road
in Sichuan province’s Aba
prefecture when it overturned
and fell into the ravine at
around noon yesterday. Six
people injured in the accident
were taken to a hospital.
— Part of a high-speed
railway line that had already
undergone test runs collapsed
in central China due to
subsidence following heavy
rains, state media report,
jolting railroad shares and
reviving worries over safety.
PHILIPPINES
A court yesterday ordered
the husband of former
President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo arrested on charges
that he received millions of
dollars in bribes — part of a
wide-ranging prosecution of
alleged corruption during her
presidency. More on p9.
JAPAN
A look at the local Filipino helper community
Macau’s Mary Poppins
Almost 300 bids
for green fund
MSAR CPPCC
deputies come home
Page 3
Page 5
1
Pages, 10, 11
Japan said yesterday it had
won approval from Beijing
to buy Chinese government
bonds for the first time, in
a move aimed at binding
Asia’s two biggest economies
and traditional rivals closer
together. More on p8.
VIETNAM
q&A
Sio Chi Wai, lawmaker
Hengqin a
real chance
economic
diversification
Page 20
Vietnam will send six Buddhist
monks to the disputed Spratly
islands, a senior monk said
yesterday, ahead of the
anniversary of a bloody battle with
China over the hotly-contested
archipelago. More on p9.
SYRIA
Syrian troops yesterday
pressed an assault on rebel
strongholds near the Turkish
border, as peace envoy Kofi
Annan awaited a response
from the regime on UN-Arab
League proposals to end the
bloody conflict. More on p12.
More on last page
macauTimes
Deutsche
Wynn
sued
by
Okada
over
USD800
Bank
million share redemption discount
raises
macau daily 澳門每日時報
®
its estimate
for casino
growth
Wynn Macau Ltd. led gains in Hong
Kong-listed gambling stocks after
Deutsche Bank raised its estimate for
casino revenue growth in Macau to 25
percent this year on spending by wealthy
Chinese tourists. Wynn Macau rose as
much as 10.7 percent to HKD 23.80 after
Karen Tang, a Hong Kong-based analyst
for Deutsche Bank, raised her rating on
the stock to buy from hold. That’s the
biggest intraday jump since Oct. 27.
Revenue at the world’s largest gambling hub may rise as spending by VIP
or high-stakes gamblers who can bet as
much as USD 250,000 a hand picks up,
Tang said. Chinese visitors have fueled
growth. “We turn from mild to very bullish,” after a trip to Macau, Tang, who
previously forecast a 20 percent jump
in Macau casino gambling revenue this
year, wrote in a note dated March 12.
“We think the market will be surprised
by the recovery of VIP demand in the
next few months.”
Billionaire Stanley Ho’s SJM Holdings
Ltd., the world’s biggest casino operator
by revenue, gained as much as 6.7 percent to HKD 16.28, the biggest intraday
climb in six weeks. SJM’s 2011 revenue of
USD 9.7 billion topped Las Vegas Sands
Corp.’s USD 9.4 billion and Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s USD 8.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Casino gambling revenue in Macau last
year climbed 42 percent to 268 billion patacas (USD 34 billion), and grew 28 percent to 49 billion patacas in the first two
months of 2012, according to the city’s
Gaming Inspection & Coordination Bureau. Sands China Ltd. climbed as much
as 8 percent in Hong Kong trading, MGM
China Holdings Ltd. jumped as much as
6.4 percent and Galaxy Entertainment
Group Ltd. rose as much as 5.6 percent.
Wynn Macau traded yesterday at HKD
23.65, up by 10 percent, as of 2:59 p.m.
in Hong Kong. Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. climbed as much as 1.5 percent
before declining 0.6 percent to HKD 34.
Bloomberg
by Edvard Pettersson
and Shunichi Ozasa
J
apanese billionaire Kazuo Okada, saying Wynn Resorts Ltd. is run by Chairman Steve Wynn as a “personal fiefdom,”
is challenging the redemption of his own 20
percent stake in the company at an USD 800
million discount. Aruze USA, through which
Okada invested in Wynn Resorts, disputes
that any redemption occurred because Wynn
is legally barred from redeeming the securities, lawyers for Okada and the holding company said in a counterclaim filed in federal
court in Las Vegas.
Okada’s shares, which Wynn Resorts last
month said it had redeemed at a 30 percent
discount because Okada was “unsuitable,” were
never subject to the redemption provision in the
company’s articles of incorporation, according
to the filing. Okada agreed to purchase Wynn
Resorts stock before the redemption provision
became effective, according to the filing. “Wynn
Resorts, for all its accomplishments, is not a
corporation in any ordinary sense,” Okada’s
lawyers said. “Rather, Wynn Resorts’ flamboyant chairman, Mr. Wynn, has run Wynn Resorts as a personal fiefdom, packing the board
with friends who do his personal bidding, and
paying key executives exorbitant amounts for
their unwavering fealty.”
Okada’s filing is the latest in an escalating clash
between founder and Chief Executive Officer
Steve Wynn and Okada, the man who helped
bankroll Wynn Resorts starting 12 years ago.
Wynn Resorts accused Okada of making improper payments to Philippines gaming officials
leading the board to declare Okada and certain
affiliates “unsuitable persons” for the company.
Okada accuses Wynn Resorts of breach of contract and its chairman of racketeering, among
other allegations. He seeks a court order voiding the redemption of his shares, and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Paul Kranhold, a spokesman for Wynn, didn’t
immediately return a call Monday seeking comment on Okada’s filing. Wynn Resorts forcibly
redeemed the stake held by Okada and his Tokyo-based Universal Entertainment Corp. at a
30 percent discount to its then market price, the
casino operator said in a statement last month.
Wynn has called for a special meeting of shareholders to remove Okada as a director of Wynn.
Wynn filed its complaint against Okada Feb.
19, alleging that Okada is developing two casinos
and three hotels in Manila and that he seeks to
lure “high-limit, VIP gamblers” from China in direct competition with Wynn’s casino in Macau.
Construction on the Manila Bay casino resort
started Jan. 26, Wynn said in its complaint.
Federal Court
Wynn’s lawsuit was filed in Nevada state
court and removed to federal court in Las Ve-
“Wynn Resorts’ flamboyant chairman, Mr. Wynn, has run
Wynn Resorts as a personal fiefdom, packing the board
with friends who do his personal bidding, and paying key
executives exorbitant amounts for their unwavering fealty.”
Okada’s lawyers
gas where Okada filed his answer and counterclaims. In his filing Okada says that Steve Wynn
knew about his Philippines project as far back
as 2007 and didn’t voice any concerns about it.
The Las Vegas-based casino company has accused Okada of giving more than USD110,000
in payments and gifts to Philippines officials,
including chief gambling regulator Cristino
Naguiat. Okada, the former vice chairman at
Wynn Resorts, had filed a petition in state court
in Clark County, Nevada, in January for access
to financial records. Okada opposed the company’s HK$1 billion ($129 million) pledge in July
2011 to the University of Macau Development
Foundation.
In Monday’s filing, Okada’s lawyer said “it
was unclear how the University of Macau
would use the funds.” “Mr. Okada wondered
why a wealthy university that sits on government land and largely caters to non-Macau
residents might need or want such a large donation,” according to the filing. “Mr. Okada,
who is himself a significant philanthropist,
wondered whether such a donation actually
benefits the people who live in Macau.” Nevada state court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez at
a hearing March 8 in Las Vegas said Okada
should get two additional pages regarding
the University of Macau donation. The judge
rejected a request to order Wynn to produce
additional papers from before the company went public or documents regarding an
amended stockholder agreement that resulted from Steve Wynn’s divorce. Okada said
that the divorce cut Wynn’s stake in Wynn
Resorts in half, making Okada the largest single shareholder. The case is Wynn Resorts v.
Kazuo Okada, 12-00400, U.S. District Court,
District of Nevada (Las Vegas.)
Bloomberg
Melco said to target April syndication of USD1.25 billion loan
Times
®
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd., a venture between Australian billionaire
James Packer and a son of
gambling tycoon Stanley
Ho, is targeting to syndi-
cate a loan of about USD
1.25 billion next month,
according to two people familiar with the matter. The
company is considering a
five-year tenor for the fa-
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cility, said the people, who
asked not to be identified
because the details are private. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.,
Bank of America Corp.,
Bank of China Ltd., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank
AG and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.
are among lenders in the
senior bank group, two oth-
er people familiar with the
matter said on Feb. 8. Proceeds will be used to fund
Melco Crown’s Studio City
resort project in Macau.
The company last bor-
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2
Times macau
Almost 300 bids
for green fund
by Vítor Quintã
T
he
Environmental
Protection and Energy
Conservation
Fund (FPACE) has already
received almost 300 applications from companies
looking for financial backing to buy green technology
products and equipment.
And so far about 100 bids
have been approved, Daniel Hung Hon Kit, a senior
technician at the Environmental Protection Bureau
(DSPA), told journalists
yesterday. He did not mention the number of rejected
applications but stressed
that most are still being assessed.
The evaluation committee of the MOP 200 million
fund usually spends about
10 days in a rough examination of the request for financial support before conducting a more thorough
review. A final decision
takes, on average, less than
two months, Hung said.
Renowned
bookstore
Seng Kwong, in downtown
Taipa, is one of the companies already assisted by
FPACE as the 61-year-old
shop has just had all light
bulbs replaced with LED
lamps. The fund financed
80 percent of the amount
required to replace the 400
light bulbs, which according to the plan’s rules cannot exceed MOP 500,000.
The replacement cost less
than MOP 80,000, with
each LED lamp costing
around MOP 240.
The government backing
allows Seng Kwong to have
a return on its investment
in about one year, the bookstore general manager Tai
Ieng told journalists yesterday. Otherwise the company would have to wait
“perhaps four years” to get
its money’s worth.
Tai stressed that even without the fund Seng Kwong
would still have taken this
step. “LED light bulbs can
last up to three years while
the others sometimes already blow after half a year,”
Tai said.
Lighting rush
The store director also
emphasized that the move
was “not just about saving
a penny. It was also about
giving a good example for
the whole of society.”
“With the help of the fund
it was worth it,” he added.
The FPACE was created
last June, along with an initial financial support plan
targeting local businesses
and associations. The government will inject funds
annually to ensure that
MOP 200 million is available.
The policy targets commercial companies and associations, aimed at covering expenses related to the
purchase or replacement of
environmentally-friendly
products or other equipment aimed to boost energy
efficiency or water saving.
Beneficiaries can only receive financial support once
each year.
According to DSPA, in its
first year of operation, the
fund would mostly focus
on atmospheric pollution.
It would aim to reduce gas
emissions, such as through
the installation of kitchen
fume extractors with electrostatic filters and filters
for diesel vehicles.
In June 2011, the DSPA
vice-director Vai Hoi Ieong
said the bureau was thinking about using the fund to
encourage drivers to buy
ecological vehicles.
But yesterday the bureau
revealed that most of the
applications received since
the plan was launched last
September were for the
purchase of lighting. Fume
extractors was second on
the list, followed by watersaving equipment and induction cookers.
Energy-efficient lighting,
heating, ventilation and air
conditioning systems are
one of the investment areas with more potential in
Macau, the US Department
of Commerce said in a commercial guide for companies
released last week.
Yesterday, DSPA promised
that “the scope, target companies, operation and results
of FPACE will be reviewed in
the future”. But the bureau
did not say when this review
would be launched.
MIECF wants more
local firms this year
With the Environmental Protection and Energy Conservation Fund as one of the highlights, the government
wants to attract more local companies for the 2012
Macau International Environmental Cooperation Exhibition and Forum (MIECF), later this month.
For instance the organizers – Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute and Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) – will once again subsidize up to
60 percent of the participation expenses of local small
and medium enterprises.
The goal is “to promote technology exchange and cooperation between the local environmental industry,
the Pan-Pearl River Delta region and international
markets as well,” DSPA said.
There is no available data on how many local companies joined the 2011 MIECF but in the 2010 edition
there were 92 Macau firms, up from just 59 in the previous year.
The fifth edition of MIECF will be held between March
29 and 31 at Venetian Macau. It will be the first edition
after it received the Approved Event status issued by the
Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI).
New techniques for Delta Bridge
The
Hong
Kong-Zhuhai-Macau
Bridge (Delta Bridge) will use a new
form of pillar in its construction, to
be used for the first time in China.
According to Mainland media China
News, the technique to be employed is
called a “compound steel pipe pillar”,
which has the advantages of saving
costs while providing extra support to
the main body of the construction. The
report said it would be the first time
this material and skill were employed
in China.
The report also quoted Zhuhai municipal sources as saying that successful testing had been conducted on the
pillars, paving the way for its practical use in the construction. The bridge
stretching three cities will total almost
50 kilometers in length, becoming the
longest sea bridge in the world.
Zhuhai Communist Party Secretary
Li Jia said last week in Beijing, that
he expected the whole project to be
finished by 2016. Currently, workers
are constructing the reclamation island, where the Macau-Zhuhai section
of the bridge will set its foot on. The
report says after laying the foundation
for the man-made island in April, the
construction will enter the most difficult stage, which is the building of a
cross-harbor tunnel.
3
®
Kin Wa gas leak
due to pipe
unclogging
The gas leak that led to the death of an Indonesian
domestic helper in the suspected gas leaks incident
in Kin Wa building last week was likely due to pipe
unclogging. Authorities have triggered a taskforce
to investigate the incident but yesterday pledged
that the Areia Preta building was safe for residents.
In addition, they said a legal opinion was needed
before deciding whether to classify the case as a
workplace accident, which would make the maid
entitled to insurance claims.
The highly toxic hydrogen sulphide that lead to
the poising was caused by “a chemical reaction after the use of substances to unclog pipes,” the director of the Lands, Public Works and Transport
Bureau said. But “the normal substances used by
most families are not able to cause an incident of
this scale”, Jaime Carion conceded. An interdepartmental taskforce will try to find out what happened, with the help of an academic institution,
namely by surveying the other building units.
“I hope we can issue a final report very soon. (…)
We will give that institution a short period to find
out the truth,” he told journalists during a press
conference. But the official is confident it was “an
isolated incident” and that living in Kin Wa building poses no danger. The water supply network was
not affected by the leak either, the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) president, Raymond
Tam Vai Man, added. “IACM staff visited the building and ensured that there is no problem with the
water or sewage system.”
The incident resulted in the hospitalization of
four persons, including the 43 year-old Indonesian
maid, Mursiyah, who died Monday evening, as the
only fatality in the case. She came from Surabaya,
Indonesia’s second-largest city.
The death of the worker falls in a grey area and
authorities are still waiting for a legal opinion on
whether it should be classified as workplace accident, Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) deputy director Chan Keng Leong said. If the incident is considered a workplace accident then the family of
the maid will receive compensation. The employer
had bought insurance for the Indonesian, Chan revealed.
The official’s remarks are in clear contrast with
the initial statements of DSAL director Shuen
Ka Hung, who on Sunday said the incident was a
home accident instead. The remark drew criticism
from unions and scholars. The Macau Federation
of Trade Unions said all accidents involving workers in the workplace within working hours should
be classified as vocational accidents and victims
should be entitled to insurance claims.
Social works scholar Ho Wing Yin, from the Polytechnic Institute, meanwhile, held that these grey
areas must be clearly addressed in order to protect
the interests of the thousands of domestic helpers
in Macau. With the help of the employer, the maid’s
family has arriving in Macau to handle the funeral
and other issues. DSAL has already sent staff to assist the family, Chan said.
Lawmaker Au Kam San accused the authorities
of shunning responsibility, while fellow lawmaker
Kwan Tsui Hang urged the government to set up a
mechanism for dealing with gas leaks.
Also yesterday, Tam revealed that the investigation over a gas explosion in a ZAPE restaurant that
left 13 people injured last July has been concluded
and that the restaurant owner was fined. He did
not reveal the amount of the fine.
S.C. / V.Q
macau Times
®
LRT link to Delta bridge
good for Cotai casinos
T
he possible inclusion of a line between
the Pearl River Delta
bridge border crossing and
Taipa in the second phase
of the Light Rapid Transit
(LRT) system would benefit
the Cotai casinos, analysts
said. The construction works
for the LRT first route began
last month but authorities
are already planning for the
second phase, which will
include a link between the
Border Gate and the Barra
district that would close the
circuit in the Macau peninsula. Also planned are two
stations in the reclaimed
plot A and the island that
will host the Hong KongZhuhai-Macau bridge border crossing, both rising to
the peninsula’s northeast.
But the Transportation Infrastructure Office (GIT) is
also considering whether or
not to introduce a new line
linking the island to Taipa,
in connection with a fourth
crossing point between the
two sides, which could be a
this spur line as a positive
for operators with significant
Cotai exposure,” according to the report quoted by
Macau Business newsletter.
Sands China, Galaxy Entertainment and Melco Crown
Entertainment are the three
operators with a foothold in
the area.
The other three companies
– Wynn Macau, Sociedade
de Jogos de Macau (SJM)
and MGM China – have
each applied for plots in Cotai and last month the Lands
and Public Works Bureau
(DSSOPT) director Jaime
Carion said two of the three
land grant applications
could be approved by the
end of 2012.
tunnel. “We believe the proposed add-on would connect
the drop-off point of the
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau
bridge directly to Taipa/
Cotai, bypassing the numerous station stops [in the first
phase line] on the Macau
peninsula,” Union Gaming
Research analysts wrote in
an industry research report
released on Monday.
Without a new line, visitors coming from the bridge
would have to pass through
11 stations, stretching from
the peninsula to Taipa
through the Sai Van bridge
before reaching the first Cotai casino. “We would view
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4
2016 launch
One year ago, Union Gaming Research stressed that
most casino customers have
“an (ingrained) preference
for rail travel, as well as a
tolerance for longer journeys
(relative to air travel) in ex-
change for saving money on
transportation costs”.
“Mass market casino customers might ‘cheap out’ on
transportation costs (…) but
then hit the casino floors firing on all cylinders with perhand wagers in excess of the
cost of the trip,” the analysts
wrote.
“Although not addressed,
we would anticipate this
spur line to open sometime
after phase one opens in
2016,” Union Gaming Research wrote. The analysts
are less optimistic that the
government, which pledged
to have the LRT first phase
up and running by 2015.
The construction works
for the initial LRT route in
downtown Taipa should be
ready around May 2015.
The two-kilometer project, which will include five
stations – Ocean Gardens,
Macau Jockey Club, Macau
Stadium and one between
the old Taipa village and
the Galaxy Macau resort –,
will cost MOP 489 million.
The open tender for the LRT
route in the Macau peninsula will be launched during
the first half of this year. The
construction works will start
before the end of 2012, authorities pledged.
In addition the government
is also planning for a possible
extension of the LRT system
to Seac Pai Van, in Coloane,
and to Hengqin Island, in
connection with the future
Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Mass Rapid Transit. A
study commissioned by GIT
claims the LRT system will
boost Macau’s economy and
help society earn a further
MOP 15.8 to 16.4 billion in
the first 10 years of operation alone.
Authorities believe the LRT
will become Macau’s main
collective transportation system and reduce commuting
time by 63 percent. The government also expects the use
of private vehicles to drop,
cutting both greenhouse gas
emissions and energy consumption by 20 percent.
Times macau
Macau CPPCC deputies
come home
M
acau’s deputies to the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC) yesterday
concluded their trip to Beijing, stressing
Beijing’s attention and support to Macau’s
development on all fronts.
The delegation returned to Macau last
night. At a brief press meeting outside the
arrival hall of the Macau International
Airport, Ho Ten Iat said they had actively
voiced Macau people’s concerns in the CPPCC meeting and had received solid feedback from Beijing. She raised the central
government’s decision to support the city
in its strive to become a world tourism and
leisure hub by integrating the work into the
12th Five Year Plan.
“It’s the mission our country assigned us,
and we will cooperate closely to achieve
it,” she said, adding that “the central government’s support is important but Macau
people also have to make their efforts.”
Another deputy Chung Siu Kit raised the
example of the import of domestic helpers
from mainland China as an example of the
central government’s support for Macau, by
paying close attention to Macau’s needs and
addressing their concerns.
The deputies raised a number of social and
economic issues during the CPPCC sessions,
including closer cooperation in the Hengqin development zone and collective efforts
to develop tourism and creative industries,
with a view to diversifying the economy.
But no proposals were made in regard to
the political development in Macau.
At the closing ceremony, CPPCC president
Jia Qinglin urged the Macau deputies to
continue to contribute to the implementation of the principles of “one country two
systems” and “the rule of Macau by Macau
people”. He also expected the deputies to
play an important role in the economic, social and political developments of the territory.
The Chinese National People’s Congress
(NPC), to be closed today, conducted its last
day of session yesterday. Three Macau de-
putes, including Leong Iok Wa, Lau Cheok
Va and Chui Sai Peng, jointly raised a proposal by requesting the central government
to provide more guidance and support for
the Chinese medicine zone to be built on
Hengqin, in order to build an international
base for Chinese medicine manufacturing
and trading, by integrating the sources in
Guangdong related to Chinese medicine research and development.
They urged Guangdong and Macau to set
up a task force dedicated to this initiative
by actively following up the concrete progress of this project, and formulating an international set of standards for production
of Chinese medicine. S.C.
®
Ao Man Long back
to court in April
The disgraced ex-secretary for Transport and
Public Works, Ao Man Long, will be back in the
Court of Final Appeal (TUI) on April 16 to face a
third trial for corruption charges, Portuguese-language Radio Macau reported yesterday. Ao was
arrested on December 2006 and later sentenced
– in two separate trials – to an aggregate jail term
of 28-and-a-half years for passive corruption and
money laundering. The maximum jail term according to local law is 30 years. This third trial is
likely linked to four cases that the Commission
Against Corruption (CCAC) sent to the Public
Prosecutor’s Office in October 2009. At the times
the commission said the cases involved Ao, his
relatives and several businessmen, while hinting
that they could lead to corruption and money
laundering charges. At the beginning of Ao’s second trial, in February 2009, the head of TUI, Sam
Hou Fai, had already warned the former secretary that he would have to face at least one more
trial. Ao was the first secretary for Transport and
Public Works after the handover and he was reappointed in 2004. According to the verdicts of his
first two trials, he committed the crimes of passive corruption and money laundering between
2002 and 2006. When he was arrested, CCAC
allegedly found that he owned money and assets
worth about MOP 800 million, even though his
salary would have totalled just MOP 14 million.
But so far the authorities only announced the recovery of HKD 350 million. Ao was the first highlevel MSAR official to be tried and sentenced for
corruption but the case also involved several executives from private companies. Just last month
two former directors of the local operator of solid
waste management, CSR, were each sentenced to
three years and three months’ imprisonment in
Hong Kong for bribing Ao in return for cleaning
contracts.Ao’s third trial will also be held at TUI.
Ao will be unable to appeal from the top court’s
decision, a fact that was criticised by the International Association of Lawyers.
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china Times
®
“The world is drinking more
and it is drinking better”
Special envoy in Hong Kong
O
n the presentation of the Vinexpo Asia-Pacific
2012 survey in Hong Kong
yesterday, Vinexpo Chief
Executive Robert Beynat
predicted that “wine and
spirits consumers are becoming more discerning,
opting for pricier bottles.”
The Vinexpo Asia-Pacific
will be held in Hong Kong
from May 29 - 31 as “Hong
Kong has emerged as
Asia’s wine drinking capital as well as regional hub
for the trade,” said Dominique Heriard Dubreuil, the
Chairman of Vinexpo, that
was created in Bordeaux
in 1981.
A Vinexpo study on wine
and spirit consumption
traces a five-year forecast
up to 2015. As Mr Beynat
explained, “previous consumption forecasts have
proved highly accurate.”
Part of the results of the
study is that China has
joined the world’s top 10
wine markets while expecting to become the sixth
largest wine-producer by
2015. Right now, the main
producer countries are
France, Italy and Spain.
The study found China’s
wine consumption, including Hong Kong, grew
by 33.4 percent in just
one year from 2009 and
2010. The study also predicts that Asia – defined as
China, Hong Kong, Japan,
South Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Singapore,
the Philippines and Malaysia – will account for
more than half of growth
in worldwide wine consumption from 2011-2015.
Over the same period, the
makers of “Current Trends
in the International Wine
and Spirits Market and
Outlook to 2014” expect
a limited growth of 0.41
percent in Europe, which
represents 62 percent
of world wine consumption. USA’s consumption
is expected to increase
by 10 percent. In China,
red wine accounts for 91
percent of total consumption, but trends indicate
that white wine consumption will grow. At the same
time, China remains the
largest consumer of spirits in the world, as well as
the second-largest market
for cognac after the USA.
Though not producing any
wine, Hong Kong’s average
adult consumption of five
liters a year is the highest
in Asia. Here, French wine
is the most popular one,
followed by USA and Australian wine.
The total global wine consumption reached 31.68
billion bottles in 2010 and
a growth of 6.17 percent is
predicted. By now, Italy is
number one on the list of
the top 10 consumers and
China occupies the sixth
position. But according
Ad
6
to the study forecast it’s
the USA that will become
the world’s leading wine
market, ahead of Italy and
France. Among exporters, France leads the wine
market in terms of value,
and Italy in volume. Italian wine exports increased
by 30 percent between
2006 to 2010. When it
comes to spirits, which is
defined by more than 50
percent of alcohol, more
than 60 percent of them
consumed worldwide are
locally made. Vodka is the
most popular international one.
The survey covers 28
producing countries and
114 consuming markets.
Macau’s wine market is not
included; according to Mr.
Beyant the wine consumption there is comparable to
the one of Hong Kong. He
concluded his speech with
the optimistic prediction
that “quality will increase
everywhere.”
V.S.
Times china
Myanmar
soldiers
shot dead
China
farmer:
Beijing
®
ap photo
Hostesses holds hotel signboards to guide delegates after the closing ceremony of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative
Conference outside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People
PRC leadership politics
delay major reforms
by Christopher Bodeen
and Joe McDonald, Beijing
A
s China faces growing calls for major
reforms to prevent its slowing economy
from derailing and keep its living standards rising, the response from Chinese leaders
appears to be: “Not yet.”
In speeches, news conferences and meetings
in the past 11 days during the annual session
of the national legislature, Cabinet ministers
have promised only gradual steps to help entrepreneurs and curtail the state companies that
crowd out private business.
The response seems far below the challenge
that even some senior Chinese leaders say the
country faces: an urgent need to build a productive, self-sustaining economy or risk seeing
growth stall, trapping China at middle income
levels. The World Bank, Chinese economists
and the government’s own researchers have
urged a drastic restructuring to curb the dominance of state industries, overhaul a wasteful
banking system and promote consumer spending to reduce reliance on slowing exports.
“Given the amount of pressure from the weak
external environment and internal pressure to
rebalance, they don’t have much choice,” Societe Generale economist Wei Yao said.
“They don’t have room to delay much more,”
Wei said.
Behind the foot-dragging lies politics.
The Communist Party leadership is in the
midst of a transition to a younger generation
of leaders, and there was little talk during the
past week’s ceremonial events of any political
reforms that might erode the party’s monopoly
on power.
But it also remained unclear how committed
new leaders are to economic reform, whether
they can agree on its future course and, if they
do, whether they will summon the will to overcome vested interests from party factions to local leaders who get patronage by cosseting state
industries.
It’s China’s version of the gridlock that hits
Washington every four years as parties gear up
for presidential elections.
Chinese leaders are not elected, but their political calendar — with once-a-decade handovers
of power instituted in the 1990s to avoid Sovietstyle stagnation — leads to similar distraction.
Vice President Xi Jinping is in line to become
the top leader but the leadership has many
other posts. As politicians move up, spots open
at key ministries and important provinces. Factions are distracted by the haggling.
Even after the transition is complete in early
2012, analysts say, major reforms could take
still longer.
“Anyone with any political capital will spend it
on positioning themselves rather than arguing
for some disruptive change in policy that could
make enemies,” said Patrick Chovanec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University’s School
of Economics and Management in Beijing.
Xi, former party boss of the export-driven
coastal province of Zhejiang, is known for
nurturing private business, a possible plus for
reform. Other possible leadership candidates
have ties to banks and state industries that
might hamper reforms.
That means policy is drifting and the government is continuing unsustainable strategies
such as relying on investment to drive growth,
possibly making the transition to a consumerled economy more difficult, Chovanec said.
“There is a real risk of a hard landing,” he
said.
Already, the ruling party faces public anger
and frequent protests throughout China over
strains ranging from joblessness and seizures
of farmland for redevelopment to chronic corruption and a yawning wealth gap between a
tiny elite and the poor majority.
Communist leaders have pledged repeatedly
to rebalance their governnment-dominated
economy by reducing reliance on exports and
investment, boosting consumer spending and
helping entrepreneurs who create new jobs and
wealth.
But government-backed companies still control industries from oil to steel to telecoms and
receive the bulk of loans from banks, most of
which are state-owned too.
The World Bank and a Cabinet think tank, in
a high-profile report, called for far-reaching reforms to promote free-market competition and
reduce the dominance of these state-owned
national champions. The report — issued just
ahead of the legislative session — seemed timed
to influence the agenda for the impending leadership transition and landed in the midst of a
debate among Chinese scholars and media
about the need for reform.
“China’s economy has reached its limits un-
7
der this outdated model of development,” the
prominent business magazine Caixin said in
an editorial this month. “Whether or not the
country can engineer a new path of growth and
avoid the middle-income trap will depend on
its determination to transform itself.”
Premier Wen Jiabao, the top economic official, repeated promises of change in a nationally televised speech at the opening of the largely
ceremonial National People’s Congress. Wen
and other leaders pledged tax cuts for businesses and more social spending.
Wen gave no commitments, though, to basic
changes many say are critical to any transformation. High on that list is restructuring the
banking system so that households no longer
receive low government-set deposit rates, in
effect subsidizing cheap loans to state companies.
“Wen’s report was very disappointing, very
short on policies that will be adopted to achieve
the rebalancing goals,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, a
researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, in an email.
Beijing should find it easier than debt-burdened European countries to carry out reforms
because economic growth is still strong, analysts say. The rapid expansion has eased as Beijing tightened lending and imposed investment
curbs to cool overheating, but the government
set a 7.5 percent growth target for this year.
The World Bank compared the scale of change
required to China’s radical overhaul of state industry in the late 1990s, which wiped out millions of jobs but set the stage for a decade of
rapid growth.
The changes in the 1990s were aimed at making state industry, one segment of the economy,
competitive and profitable, while the latest reform proposals are aimed at making the overall
economy more efficient, which their advocates
say requires scaling back the dominance of
those government companies.
The commerce minister, Chen Deming, said
last week that the World Bank recommendations “could be incorporated into a master
plan.” But he made clear the political limits to
diminishing Beijing’s role in the economy.
“China’s basic economic system in which public ownership is dominant is unshakable,” he
told reporters. “This is written into the supreme
law, the constitution.”
AP
China said yesterday it had lodged
an official complaint with Myanmar
after two soldiers illegally crossed the
border into southwest China and shot
dead a local resident earlier this year.
It was the first time Beijing has commented on the January 12 incident
along the China-Myanmar border in
Yunnan province.
Chinese state-run media had made
no previous mention of the shooting
and it was not clear why Beijing -- a
key ally and major investor in Myanmar -- had remained tight-lipped
about the incident until now.
“The Chinese side lodged solemn
representations with the Myanmar
side asking it to find out the truth,
punish the perpetrators and compensate the bereaved families,” foreign
ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told
a regular briefing.
“The Myanmar side said it paid attention to the representations and is
stepping up investigations.”
Kachin News, a Thailand-based
website which has close contact with
ethnic minority rebels in the area,
reported in January that an ethnic
Kachin farmer had been shot dead in
China.
Lahpai Zau Lawn, 53, “was shot at
close range in the abdomen and twice
in the head”, the report said, citing the
man’s relatives who live in a village on
the Chinese side of the border.
The report said the incident may
have been a reprisal after two Myanmar soldiers who crossed the border
into China in December in search of
food were detained by local villagers
and handed to Chinese authorities.
A spokesman for the Myanmar Embassy in Beijing was not immediately
available for comment.
Beijing’s official confirmation of the
shooting came after the China Daily
said yesterday state-owned China
Power Investment Corp was pushing
Myanmar to restart construction of
a $3.6 billion dam in the Southeast
Asian nation.
In September Myanmar President
Thein Sein ordered a halt to the controversial Myitsone hydropower project, electricity from which is destined
for China, following strong public opposition.
Environmentalists have warned the
project would inundate an area about
the size of Singapore, submerging
dozens of villages, displacing at least
10,000 people and irreversibly damaging one of the world’s most biodiverse areas.
AFP
asia-pacific Times
®
Tokyo says cleared to buy
Chinese government bonds
by Kyoko Hasegawa
J
apan said yesterday it
had won approval from
Beijing to buy Chinese
government bonds for the
first time, in a move aimed
at binding Asia’s two biggest
economies and traditional
rivals closer together.
China does not allow investors to freely purchase its
debt, requiring official approval instead. But analysts
said it appeared to be the
first time a major economy
had bought government
bonds directly from Beijing.
The green light for Tokyo
points to a new closeness on
the economic front at least,
although the two countries
remain at odds on a host
of historical and territorial
questions.
Japan was cleared to buy
Chinese government bond
issues worth $10.3 billion,
Finance Minister Jun Azumi
said in Tokyo.
“I think this is an appropriate amount for the initial
Tokyo says cleared to buy Chinese government bonds
purpose of strengthening
bilateral economic ties,” he
said.
The announcement came
the same day Japan confirmed it may bring a case
against China at the World
Trade Organization over restrictions on rare earth exports, as part of a reportedly
joint complaint with the US
and European Union.
China is the world’s largest
producer of rare earths -- 17
elements critical to manufacturing a range of hightech products from iPods
to missiles -- and its moves
to dictate production and
exports have raised a global
outcry.
“We are carefully considering the matter,” said Chief
Cabinet Secretary Osamu
Fujimura, the Japanese government’s top spokesman,
referring to the trade complaint.
Japan and China had initially agreed to the bonds
purchase in December, subject to regulatory approval,
as part of a wider deal aimed
at stabilising Asian financial
markets amid global economic turmoil, Azumi said.
Ad
8
Under the deal, Beijing
gave the nod for Tokyo to
buy 65 billion yuan ($10.3
billion) in Chinese public
debt, but completing the
purchase “will take several
months” because of administrative requirements, he
said.
China has already been
investing in Japanese government debt in an apparent bid to diversify some of
its currency reserves -- the
world’s biggest -- into yen
amid concerns about Europe’s debt crisis and prospects for the US dollar.
The December deal, following talks between the
Japanese and Chinese premiers in Beijing, aimed to
include “supporting sound
development of the yen-denominated and the yuan-denominated bond markets”.
But no further details of
the Japanese purchase were
given at the time.
The Asian economic powers also agreed to promote
the use of their currencies
in bilateral transactions -such as yuan-denominated
foreign direct investment
by Japanese companies in
China -- to reduce foreign
exchange risks.
Despite frequent spats over
animosities from Japan’s
1930s invasion of China and
lingering territorial claims,
China is Japan’s largest
trading partner. But about
60 percent of their mutual
trade is denominated in US
dollars.
Alaistair Chan, China economist with Moody’s Australia, said the bond purchase
had strong symbolic value
as Beijing seeks to encourage international use of the
yuan currency.
“The approval is another
small step in the opening of
China’s financial markets,”
he said.
“Although it does not
mean much at this stage,
given the small allocation -$10.3 billion -- and the fact
that China is able to fund all
its debts domestically, hav-
ing Japan purchase Chinese
debt is a big signal of approval for China.
“It shows that its debt is
secure and safe and a reliable investment.”
Akio Takahara, professor
of Chinese politics at the
University of Tokyo, agreed
that the bond purchase was
“symbolically important, in
a sense that Japan showed
its willingness to support
Chinese economic growth”.
“But I don’t think the size
of the purchase will expand
very quickly to match Japan’s heavy purchase of US
government bonds, as the
Chinese yuan has not yet
acquired the position of an
international currency,” he
said.
“And of course, there are
risks in the future of the Chinese economy,” he added,
with recent data pointing to
a slowdown in China’s economic growth in 2012 from
the blistering pace of recent
years.
AFP
Times asia-pacific
Arroyo husband’s arrest
ordered in bribery case
by Hrvoje Hranjski, Manila
A
court yesterday ordered the husband
of former President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
arrested on charges that he
received millions of dollars
in bribes — part of a wideranging prosecution of alleged corruption during her
presidency.
Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, who was seen as a
backroom operator during his wife’s troubled nine
years in office, posted bail
later yesterday to avoid detention. He had been indicted on the bribery charges in
December.
He is accused of accepting money to push through
a $330 million government
contract with Chinese telecommunication company
ZTE Corp. to set up a nationwide broadband network in 2007. The contract
was originally priced at
$130 million.
His wife approved the
deal but later backtracked
under public pressure and
a congressional investigation that found the contract
vastly overpriced.
Mike Arroyo has denied
wrongdoing and says the
graft charges are flawed because the former president
canceled the deal.
His wife, who left office
in 2010, faces the same
charges as her husband,
and more. She has pleaded
innocent to electoral fraud
charges, but is in detention
at a military hospital as she
awaits trial.
A former elections chief,
Benjamin Abalos, and exTransportation Secretary
Leandro Mendoza also were
charged over the ZTE contract and ordered arrested
Tuesday. They previously
testified in a Senate hearing and denied receiving
millions of dollars in kickbacks.
Mendoza posted bail, while
Abalos is under arrest on the
same electoral fraud charge
as the former president.
Former Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri
had testified that Abalos offered him a bribe to approve
the ZTE contract. Jose de
Venecia III, a losing bidder
with connections to the Arroyos’ inner circle, testified
that the ex-president’s husband was promised a $70
million commission.
Arroyo had prevented top
officials, including Neri,
from continuing to testify
in the congressional probe.
Under her successor, President Benigno Aquino III,
the Philippines’ ombudsman investigated and filed
charges at the anti-graft
court, which issued the arrest warrants. If convicted,
they face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The issue was never properly investigated because Arroyo had barred top officials,
including Neri, from disclosing further details that might
have implicated her.
Aquino blames his prede-
cessor for corruption and
says he wants to clean up
the government, starting
with the prosecution of the
Arroyos and their allies.
The former first couple accuse Aquino of pursuing a
political vendetta.
The ZTE case has tested
the Philippines’ relations
with China, which Arroyo
aggressively pursued. Aquino appears more lukewarm
to Beijing amid a resurgence in territorial tensions
over disputed islands in the
South China Sea.
When the scandal broke,
ZTE denied paying any
kickbacks and there were
concerns that the contract’s
cancellation would adversely affect China’s investments
in the Philippines. Aquino’s
administration has also put
on hold another flagship
China’s investment, a railway project in the northern
Philippines, on suspicion it
was overpriced because of
kickbacks.
AP
®
ap photo
The husband of former President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, gestures after
posting bail at the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan
following an order for his arrest in suburban Quezon
City, north of Manila
Ad
9
feature Times
®
A look at the local Filipino he
Macau’s Mary
F
or people who visit
Macau for the first
time one of the eyecatching
characteristics
of the place is certainly its
large Filipino community.
With nearly 14.000 registered workers, Filipinos
represent the second largest
group of non-resident workers in Macau after mainland
Chinese. It also becomes
abundantly clear that these
people are mostly found
working in lower paid jobs.
The Philippine consulate
states on its website that
“the most compelling advantages the Philippines has
over any other Asian country” is the fact that Filipinos
are “competent and highlyeducated”, “with education
as priority, a literacy rate of
94.6% and every year, (and)
350,000 tertiary level graduates enriching the professional pool”. However, more
than half of the Filipinos
(in fact, Filipinas) in Macau
work as domestic helpers,
or, “household service workers” as the Philippine Consulate prefers to call them.
Vietnamese and Indonesian
women follow as the second
and third largest groups of
non-resident workers in the
area of domestic helpers in
Macau.
The second biggest working
sector of Filipinos in Macau
is in hotels, restaurants and
similar places, where they,
among all non-Chinese
non-resident workers also
form the majority. Cecilia
Ho, a lecturer of the social
work program at the Macau
Polytechnic Institute, once
called the phenomenon the
“kind of modern slave” and
remarked that “these people
have no labour protection at
all.” She also mentioned that
there is the need for this foreign labour “because local
people won’t engage in this
kind of job. If they have a
Macau identity card in most
cases they will prefer working in casinos.”
What’s behind this job,
called “domestic helper”,
that is mostly carried out by
Filipinas in Macau? Faced
with a poor performing
economy in the 1970s, the
President of the Philippines,
Ferdinand Marcos implemented the Labor Code of
1974, beginning the Philippines’ export of labour in the
form of Overseas Filipino
Workers. The Philippine
government promoted and
encouraged labour export
as a way to combat rising
unemployment rates and to
finance its coffers with overseas workers’ remittances
home. In the following years,
the economy of the Philippines became increasingly
dependent on labour export, and in 1978, recruiting
agencies for labour export
were privatized, making it
a cornerstone of the Philippine national development
strategy.
Whereas, in the contemporary Western world, comparatively few households can
afford live-in domestic help,
employing rather periodic
cleaners if at all, in Macau
domestic helpers, who often live in their employer’s
house, represent the second
most common occupation
among the imported labour.
Therefore, the Internet has
many web pages advertising agencies that provide
domestic helpers to Macau
citizens. Some families may
employ more than one person for the cleaning and
taking care of children, but
very often, the same person
under the name of domestic
helper handles both jobs.
Nannies were present in the
households of the European
colonial empires throughout
the world. The most famous
nanny in the Western world
10
is probably Mary Poppins. A
beautiful young woman, she
is practically perfect in every
way. But how does it look for
the Macau nannies? Do they
also enjoy such a “magical
reputation”?
The website macauexpat.
com contains a lot of chatter
about the service that apparently everybody enjoys
in Macau. Thus, one woman
explains that the best thing
to do in Macau is to have
kids as “life here is so easy
with a nanny.” She continues with the argument that
“you can take your nanny
on holiday with you”, so that
the potential mothers don’t
need to worry about stopping party life or not enjoying their holidays. On the
same site someone posted:
“Can I get a part time nanny in Macau without visa? I
need help! Mine sucks”.
Other topics discussed in
the expat forum are entitled
“Helper stole from me!” or
“Pay helper during summer
vacation?” and the question
about the best way to fire a
helper is commented by one
user “we told her on the last
day as we didn’t want her
coming into the house after
she knew she was being let
go.”
“Hardworking”
and “flexible”
At the same time, the
website nanny-agency.com
contains a long list of Filipinas looking for a nanny
job in Macau. Almost all of
them describe themselves
as “hardworking” and “flexible”. Be that as it may, for
the many Filipinas fulfilling
this task seems to be a good
option. Such is the case for
Luisa who has been living
in Macau for 7 months. An
elementary school teacher
in the Philippines, she was
trying to find a similar job,
but the visa deadline did not
allow her sufficient time to
do so. So, she is now work-
ing as a nanny taking care of
two kids. Her duties involve
feeding the kids, bringing
them to and from school, as
well as helping them to complete their homework. “They
ask me for some help for
English and Mathematics,”
she says.
Though she would have
preferred to find a job in a
hotel, Luisa is quite satisfied with her work, now. “My
employer is quite nice,” she
states. The contrary was the
case when she worked as a
nanny in Hong Kong. “They
were not good to me. They
were too strict,” she says. “I
think the treatment in Hong
Kong of the helpers is very
different from the one in
Macau. They treat the helpers as a slave. They don’t
give you a proper time of
rest. When I worked in Hong
Kong, I just had 4 hours of
rest. I woke up at 4 o’clock
in the morning and went to
bed at midnight. Here, I go
to bed at 9pm and wake up
Times
®
feature
elper community
Poppins
at 7:30am,” she explains,
before starting to talk about
her own daughter. “She is big
already,” says Luisa about
the 11-year-old girl who is
now living with her sister.
She tells Macau Daily Times
that she sends some money
back home, although adding
that she wants to save some.
“I don’t want to stay here for
the rest of my life. I want to
live with my family.”
Lynn from Indonesia says
“Macau “is only to work.”
She wants to go back to Indonesia some day but came
to Macau because she is divorced and needs to earn
money. Asked what she
has to do at her employer’s
house, she answers: “Everything! Cleaning, cooking,
washing, ironing. Taking
care of the baby, cooking
for baby, for my boss. Every
day.” But she doesn’t complain, “my boss is very good
boss,” she says. Sometimes
she travels with the family.
Maria from the Philippines
has been working for the
same family for five years.
In the beginning, they didn’t
have children, but now they
have a one year and five
months old child, who Maria takes care of. “When I go
out, the baby cries,” she says.
In spite of the much heavier
burden, Maria is facing now,
her salary has not been increased by much. Therefore,
she wants to search for work
in another country, explaining that this salary is not
enough for her family. So, in
addition to her full time job
she has also accepted a parttime job as a cleaner. Asked
what she misses while she
is in Macau, Maria immediately mentions, “my family, brothers, kids, sister, the
place, the food.” “But I need
to sacrifice,” she adds.
Erika came to Macau
eight months ago. Before,
she was working as a nurse
in the Philippines. Here,
she takes care of the baby
of a Chinese couple. Erika
complains about the MOP
4,000 she had to pay to an
agency in order to get the
job, but says it was easy
to find it. She went to an
agency and got employed
the very next day. Although
she says, “the couple is very
good to me”, she explains:
“It’s sometimes very difficult, because you don’t
sleep at night. I’m the one
taking care of the baby for
whole day and the whole
night. It’s so hard. I have a
lack of sleep.”
One of her bad experiences
on the job is that Erika cannot communicate with the
mother of the employer,
who often seems to be angry.
Erika finds taking care of a
baby very difficult and would
prefer to work with elderly
people. To the mother of the
child, who sometimes wonders why her baby is not so
comfortable with her as with
the nanny, Erika had to explain: “You must take care of
the kid, so he will like you.”
Juana has been working
as a domestic helper for six
months. Asked if her three
kids also live here with her,
she exclaims: “Noo! Only
telephone!” Thus, in her
free time, she does “computer, facebook, skype” and
sometimes looks for sales in
stores. Amanda works taking
care of two kids – a newborn
aged one month and a three
year old– as well as cleans
the house of her employers. She likes her employer.
“They are very nice to me, so
nothing to worry. But they
give me a very small salary.
MOP 2,700.” She shows a
picture of her own three kids
that go to school in the Philippines, adding that she may
have to find another job.
Working for the same
family for four years in a
“very big house,” Amparo
has her own room and
bathroom. She cooks for
the whole family, but
takes her meal in a separate place. “The first time,
I wanted to eat together
with them, but the kid,
he didn’t like me,” she
explains. Now, the child
likes her but Amparo is too
ashamed to take the initiative and the family doesn’t
ask her to eat with them.
She says the main problems in her job are misunderstandings. Once her employer told her “don’t eat
this, you ask me first.” Then
she cried. Now they have
solved the problem. Amparo
says, “First, you don’t know
their attitude and they don’t
know you.” Amparo herself
has two kids and pays her
sister-in-law to take care of
them. She says, “Of course,
I want to be with my family,
but we need financial support.” In December, she is
going to take a one month
vacation. “But I need to
come back, because my kids
want to study,” she says.
All of the interviewed
women are so-called “stayin”, which means that they
live in the house of their
employers and have one
day off each week. They like
the families they are working for, but almost all of
the women complain about
earning a very small salary,
earning between MOP 2,500
and 3,500. All of them have
their own kids and not all
receive a financial support
from the husband. It seems
that often the children don’t
stay with their father, when
they are very young. Sadly,
many of the women interviewed who work as nannies
knew exactly the ages and
birthdays of the children in
their charge, but sometimes
mixed up their own children’s ages.
Cecilia Ho calls attention
to some of the disadvantages
the workers are subject to, including the “six-month waiting period”. “These workers
don’t have much bargaining
power. Employers can fire
them all in a sudden just because they don’t like them.
The workers can’t voice out
but have to tolerate, as they
don’t want to go back for
six months and then come
back.” If the women still decide to come to Macau, scarifying their family life and
are quite satisfied in spite of
their little income it can only
mean that their conditions
in the Philippines are much
worse.
VS
Picture taken at intramuros, in downtown
Manila, showing the
precarious living
conditions that affect
many Filipinos. The
poverty makes them
migrate to Macau and
elsewhere
renato marques
11
world Times
®
Syrian forces pound rebels,
Annan awaits Assad reply
S
yrian troops yesterday pressed an assault
on rebel strongholds
near the Turkish border,
as peace envoy Kofi Annan
awaited a response from the
regime on UN-Arab League
proposals to end the bloody
conflict.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said Syrian forces
used heavy machineguns to
rake the town of El-Baraa in
the Jabal al-Zawiya region,
a rebel bastion in the northwestern Idlib province.
The Observatory said
armed rebels had hit back
before dawn with an attack
on a military checkpoint
in the town of Maaret alNuman in which at least
10 Syrian soldiers were
killed.
In Khan Sheikhun, another
rebel bastion in Idlib, gunmen attacked heavy military
vehicles, damaging two of
them and seizing others, the
Observatory said.
It also reported clashes in
Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria, in
Footage of several men lying dead with their hands tied behind their backs in the
restive central city of Homs following their murder
Aleppo, to the north, and in
Daraa in the south.
The army has since March
9 mounted an offensive in
the mountainous region near
the Turkish border in a bid
to seize control of the city of
Idlib and other towns where
the rebels are based.
Dozens of people have been
killed since last week in onoff army shelling of Idlib,
which is now partly con-
trolled by the regime, and
in violence across the province.
On the political front, diplomats in New York said
President Bashar al-Assad
has until Tuesday to give
a response to peace proposals made by UN-Arab
League envoy Kofi Annan,
who held two rounds of
talks with the Syrian leader
over the weekend.
Ad
12
“I am expecting to hear
from Syrian authorities today since I left some concrete proposals for them to
consider,” Annan told reporters in Ankara following
talks with the Syrian opposition. “Once I receive their
answer we will know how to
react.”
Annan at the weekend said
after meeting with Assad in
Damascus that he had made
“concrete proposals” on
ending the killing in Syria
and securing humanitarian
access to protest cities.
Despite intense international pressure to end the
bloodshed and growing
clamour for foreign intervention, Assad’s regime has
pushed on with its brutal
crackdown on a year-long
revolt that has killed more
than 8,500 people, the majority civilians, according to
activists.
On Monday, the opposition
denounced the “massacre”
of 47 women and children
in the flashpoint central city
of Homs. The regime, however, blamed the killings on
“armed terrorist gangs”.
At a UN Security Council
ministerial meeting, Western governments stepped
up their pleas to Russia and
China to end their blockage
of action over the Syrian government’s assault on protest
cities such as Homs.
But Russia showed little
sign that it would change its
stance, with Foreign Minis-
ter Sergei Lavrov slamming
“risky recipes” which he said
could increase conflict in the
Middle East.
The grisly murders in
Homs, Syria’s third-largest
city, came less than two
weeks after regime troops
stormed its rebel Baba Amr
neighbourhood, following a
month-long bombardment
in which activists say 700
people were killed.
Activist Hadi Abdallah told
AFP the bodies of 26 children and 21 women, some
with their throats slit and
others bearing stab wounds,
were found after the “massacre” in the Karm el-Zaytoun
and Al-Adawiyeh districts of
Homs.
News of the killings
prompted hundreds of families to flee the city, with
some heading to neighbouring Lebanon and Turkey.
Syrian state television said
the murders were the work
of “terrorists” aiming to grab
the propaganda spotlight
ahead of the meeting of major powers in New York.
Times
®
world
Ex-Murdoch aide Brooks
re-arrested in hacking probe: reports
by Alice Ritchie, London
B
ritish police investigating phone hacking have re-arrested
Rebekah Brooks, a former
editor of the News of the
World tabloid and one-time
aide to media mogul Rupert
Murdoch, reports said yesterday.
The 43-year-old and her
husband were among six
people held on suspicion of
perverting the course of justice following dawn raids by
officers investigating hacking at the now-closed newspaper, several media reports
said.
Brooks was arrested for the
first time last July on suspicion of phone hacking and
bribing public officials, just
three days after she resigned
as head of the News of the
World’s publisher, Murdoch’s News International.
She has always denied any
wrongdoing.
Police confirmed the arrests of a 43-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man,
both from Oxfordshire, west
of London, adding that they
were being questioned at
separate police stations.
Brooks lives in Oxfordshire
with her racehorse trainer
husband Charlie Brooks, a
close friend of Prime Minister David Cameron.
News International did not
immediately make any comment on the arrests, nor did
Brooks’ personal spokesman.
Murdoch shut down the
News of the World in July last
year after evidence emerged
of widespread phone hacking at the tabloid, but his remaining British newspapers
continue to be dogged by
allegations they covered up
the practice.
Last month, documents
emerged suggesting that
News of the World executives actively sought from
the end of November 2009 to
delete emails which could be
used in legal action against
the tabloid.
In a statement, Scotland
Yard said one woman and
five men aged between 38
and 49 were arrested in coordinated dawn raids on
Tuesday across the south of
England by officers investigating phone hacking.
“All six -- five men and one
woman -- were arrested on
suspicion of conspiracy to
pervert the course of justice,” it said.
A total of 22 people have
been arrested under the
hacking probe, while a further 23 have been held over
the alleged bribery of public
officials, including 11 current or former journalists at
Murdoch’s best-selling Sun
daily.
Nobody has yet been
charged in the two police
investigations, although the
News of the World’s royal
editor Clive Goodman and
a private investigator were
jailed for phone hacking
following a separate police
probe in 2006.
The arrest of Brooks and
her husband will be embarrassing for the British prime
minister, who has tried to
play down his ties to the
couple.
Cameron’s relationship
with them came into the
spotlight earlier this month
after it emerged that Cameron had ridden a retired
police horse loaned to
Brooks by Scotland Yard
before he took office in
May 2010.
Cameron and Charlie
Brooks both attended the
elite Eton school and the
prime minister’s constituency home is only a few
miles away from the Brooks’
house.
The prime minister, who
left yesterday for a visit to
Washington, has also been
drawn into the hacking scandal through Andy Coulson,
another former News of the
World editor who worked as
his media chief until January 2011.
Coulson was arrested on
allegations of phone hacking and bribery last year,
although he denies any
wrongdoing.
AFP
A file picture taken on July 10, 2011, shows Rebekah
Brooks (R) former Chief Executive of News International
and Rupert Murdoch Chairman of News Corporation in
London
Ad
13
Infotainment Times
What’s On
®
Cinema
Cineteatro
Room 1
A Simple Life
2:30/4:450/7:15/9:30pm
Starring: Andy Lau, Deannie Yip
Director: Ann Hui
Language: Chinese (English and Chinese subtitles)
Duration: 118 min
Miao Artisans ply Skills in Lou Kau Mansion
Time: 12pm-7pm (Tuesdays to Fridays)
10am-7pm (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays)
Until: April 1,2012
Venue: Lou Kau Mansion, No. 7, Travessa da Sé
Admission: Free
Telephone Enquires: (853) 8399 6699
The Stage of Joy
Time: 9am-7pm daily (Open on public holidays)
Until: April 8,2012
Venue: Pavilion, Lou Lim Ieoc Garden, No. 10, Est. de
Adolfo Loureiro
Admission: Free
Telephone Enquiries: (853) 8988 4100
This Day in History
Room 2
2:15/4:45/7:15/9:45pm
John Carter (3D)
2:30/4:30/7:30/9:30pm
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Mark Strong
Director:Andrew Stanton
Language: English (Chinese subtitles)
Duration: 132 min
Room 3
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
2:30/4:30/7:30/9:30pm
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Violante Placido
Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Duration: 95 min
Macau Tower
8 March-28 March
John Carter (3D)
2:30/4:30/7:30/9:30pm
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Mark Strong
Director:Andrew Stanton
Duration: 132 min
Drunken Dragon Festival Inscribed
on UNESCO List
Time: 10am-6pm (No admission after 5:30 pm, closed on
Mondays)
Until: April 15,2012
Admission: MOP15 (Free on 15th every month)
Venue: Macau Museum, Macau Museum Square No. 112
Spotify launches in Germany
Swedish streaming music service Spotify says it is launching operations in Germany.
Spotify says it is going live in Germany today with its service, which
gives users access to music on computers for free as long as they
listen to a few 15-second ads.
The company also offers a computer-only version that strips out the
ads for €4.99 (USD6.55) a month, or a service that can be used on
mobile devices including iPhones and Android-powered devices for
€9.99 a month.
The service has previously been available in 12 countries, including the
U.S., U.K., France and Spain. It has 10 million active users, including 3
million of whom who pay for its service.
Canal Macau
Time: 10am-7pm (No admission after 6:30 pm; closed on
Mondays)
Until: June 28,2012
Venue: Macau Museum of Art, Av. Xian Xing Hai, NAPE
Admission: MOP5 (Free on Sundays and public holidays)
Former Home of Revolutionary Leader
Ye Ting Now Open to Public
Time: 10am-6pm (Open on public holidays)
Address: 76, Rua Almirante Costa Cabral
Admission: Free
A celebratory 101-gun salute has been fired in Monaco after Princess
Grace - formerly film star Grace Kelly - gave birth to a son. In spite of
elaborate arrangements made for announcing the birth, the world learnt
about the baby’s arrival when a woman at a palace window shouted to
waiting journalists: “It’s a boy, it’s a boy”.
The 8lb 11oz baby who was born at just before 1100 local time is to be
named Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre.
He will be known as Prince Albert.
The baby takes automatic precedence over his one-year-old sister,
Princess Caroline.
The young princess appeared on a palace balcony in the arms of her
father, Prince Rainier III, shortly after her brother was born.
Prince Rainier later broadcast an address to the nation announcing the
Crown Prince’s birth.
Speaking to journalists, the princess’ mother, Margaret Kelly said both
her daughter and the baby were doing well.
“It is a bonny, bonny prince,” Mrs Kelly said.
Flags and flowers have been put up all over the principality and tomorrow has been declared a public holiday.
It is also expected that Prince Rainier will pardon all six prisoners in
Monaco’s jail.
The new baby makes doubly sure control of Monaco will not pass to its
neighbour France after the death of Prince Rainier.
A treaty between the two countries in 1918 stipulated if there was ever
no heir to Monaco’s throne the principality would become subject to
French laws.
Prince Rainier, 35, has ruled Monaco since 1949.
He succeeded his grandfather to become the country’s 31st ruler.
Offbeat
TV
The Mosts of Macau: Photographs
of Local Specialities
1958: ‘Bonny’ Prince Albert
of Monaco born
13:00
TDM News (Repeted)
13:30
News at 24H (RTPi) Delayed Broadcast
14:45
RTPi Live
18:20
Lost Sr.4
19:00
TDM Interview (Repeated)
19:30
Soap Opera
20:30
Main News, Financial & Weather Report
21:00
Montra do Lilau
21:30
Brothers and Sisters
22:15
Soap Opera
23:00
TDM News
23:30
Champions League Highlights
23:45
Documentary Serie
00:40
Main News, Financial Report & Weather Report (Repeated)
01:10
RTPi Live
14
Times Infotainment
Sport
®
Weather
China
Min
Max
-1
-11
0
-2
3
2
8
10
6
4
5
4
5
19
12
15
13
-2
10
1
14
13
15
15
23
16
14
14
16
21
17
17
Asia-Pacific
Min
Max
Seoul
Tokyo
Manila
Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh City
Bangkok
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
New Delhi
Mumbai
Karachi
Jakarta
B.S. Begawan
Sydney
Melbourne
Brisbane
2
2
25
16
24
26
24
24
11
19
16
24
25
18
18
19
7
9
33
24
35
36
33
31
30
32
31
32
32
26
31
27
Min
Max
Beijing
Harbin
Tianjin
Urumqi
Xi’an
Lhasa
Chengdu
Chongqing
Kunming
Nanjing
Shanghai
Wuhan
Hangzhou
Taipei
Guangzhou
Hong Kong
World
Moscow
Frankfurt
Paris
London
New York
-2
5
5
6
10
1
15
17
18
19
The Born Loser by Chip Sansom
Condition
clear
cloudy/clear
cloudy/clear
sleet/snow
cloudy/overcast
overcast/snow
cloudy/drizzle
cloudy/overcast
clear
clear/cloudy
clear/cloudy
cloudy/overcast
clear/overcast
drizzle
overcast
drizzle/fog
Condition
rain
cloudy
cloudy
overcast
bright
cloudy
showers
thunderstorms
fine
fine
fine
rain
showers
cloudy
cloudy
showers
Easy
Easy +
Medium
Hard
Condition
flurry
overcast/cloudy
clear
overcast/cloudy
overcast/cloudy
Across
Your Stars
Aries
Crosswords
Sudoku
Taurus
Cancer
Gemini
March 21-April 19
April 20-May 20
May 21-June 21
June 22-July 22
You’re meeting up with new people today
— maybe from quite a distance — and are
almost certainly making a good impression.
Don’t over-think it. Just be yourself and let
it happen!
Someone close to you is currently at odds
with you — but the phase shouldn’t last
much longer. It all comes down to timing,
really, and you each think you’re right. Don’t
let it hold you back.
Communication is one of your specialties,
and right now, you can keep up with
the craziest torrents of email, texts or
interviews. It’s a good time to get ahead of
any stories moving out there about you.
You don’t like to feel suspicious all the time,
but right now, you may find that you can’t
help but wonder about someone. Follow
up on your worries, but try not to go off the
deep end!
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
July 23-August 22
August 23-September 22
September 23-October 22
October 23 - November 21
You soak up new information and concepts
today with much greater ease — not that you
are usually dumb, of course! Now is the time
to apply yourself to anything that has been
eluding you for a while.
Financial problems might be plaguing you
— or just worries about the future — and
now is the time to tackle them directly. The
faster you can clear all this up, the better
off you will feel.
Your business acumen is strong now, so it’s
a great time for launching new endeavors
or negotiating with others. Compromise
comes naturally to you, but try to take care
of yourself first and foremost.
Walk away from every conflict today — even
if it means losing out on something big. You
can always make up the ground you lose, but
it may be much harder if you also have to
recover from the ugly fight that could come.
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces
November 22-December 21
December 22-January 19
January 20-February 18
February 19-March 20
You can take pleasure in life’s smallest
moments today — and also momentous
events! Your mood should be light for much
of the day, so if you need to handle anything
serious, you may want to put it off.
What can you count on, deep down? It’s the
regular business that should capture your
attention today — any distractions just have
to wait. Your energy is actually still building,
if you can believe it!
Do your own thing today, no matter the cost.
Your need to abide by your own rules is
stronger than almost anything else right now,
and it should pay off for you in a big way.
Go for it!
You need to deal with someone who is not
as they appear — without letting on that
you’re on to them. If you can’t figure out
who it is, you need to spend time alone with
your intuition.
1- Beer buy; 5- Org.; 10- Thick slice; 14- Literary work; 15- Birth-related;
16- Circle at bottom, point at top; 17- Mixture that has been homogenized;
19- Feminine suffix; 20- Sun Devils’ sch.; 21- From the U.S.; 22- Armed
guard; 24- Kathmandu resident; 26- Taylor of “Mystic Pizza”; 27- Largest
ocean; 33- Disconcert; 36- Charged; 37- ___ kwon do; 38- Network of
nerves; 39- Standard for comparison; 40- Metallica drummer Ulrich; 41___ Schwarz; 42- More delicate; 43- Quotes; 44- The act of superseding;
47- Interpret; 48- Contrive; 52- Sterile; 55- Enervates; 57- “Treasure
Island” monogram; 58- Black-and-white treat; 59- Inflammation of the
skin; 62- Actor Epps; 63- Chopper topper; 64- Pro or con; 65- Cookbook
amts.; 66- Brewer’s need; 67- Hammer end;
Down
1- “Over There” composer; 2- Strike ___; 3- Add together; 4- That, in Tijuana;
5- Weak; 6- All there; 7- Celestial body; 8- Bran source; 9- Pertaining to an
office; 10- Attractive route; 11- Protracted; 12- Actress Heche; 13- Ale, e.g.;
18- Australian cockatoo; 23- Bunches; 25- Basilica area; 26- Passenger
ships; 28- Decreased?; 29- Loses color; 30- Coup d’___; 31- Bern’s river; 32Capone’s nemesis; 33- Pound sounds;
Yesterday’s solution
34- Boyfriend; 35- At the apex of; 39Hostility toward men; 40- Waterfall; 42At liberty; 43- Seashore; 45- Mistakes;
46- Disclose; 49- Bandleader Shaw;
50- Move effortlessly; 51- Ruhr city;
52- Rubber overshoe; 53- Upper
limbs, weapons; 54- Gather, harvest;
55- Mex. miss; 56- Author Oz; 60- Fairhiring abbr.; 61- AOL, e.g.;
Crossword puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com
Emergency calls 999
Fire department 28 572 222
PJ (Open line) 993
PJ (Picket) 28 557 775
PSP 28 573 333
Customs 28 559 944
S. Januário Hospital 28 313 731
Kiang Wu Hospital 28 371 333
Commission Against Corruption
(CCAC) 28326 300
IACM 28 387 333
Tourism 28 882 184
Airport 59 888 88
Taxi (Yellow) 28 519 519
Taxi (Black) 28 939 939
Utilities
Water Supply – Report 1990 992
Telephone – Report 1000
Electricity – Report 28 339 922
Macau Daily Times 28 716 081
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Times business
Sport
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Higher oil prices start
to pinch Asian consumers
ap photo
by Alex Kennedy, Singapore
S
urging oil prices are
starting to pinch the
pocketbooks of Asian
consumers and could quicken
inflation and slow economic
activity in a region that has
led global growth in recent
years.
The jump in crude — the U.S.
benchmark is trading near a
ten-month high of $107 a barrel from $75 in October — has
sent fuel prices higher across
Asia, where only Malaysia is
a net oil exporter among the
major economies. In Singapore, for instance, a liter of
92-octane gasoline at ExxonMobil stations has risen 6
percent this year to 2.15 Singapore dollars a liter ($6.48 a
gallon).
Higher oil prices have already made Asian policymakers think twice about cutting
lending rates and implementing other stimulus measures
designed to boost economic
growth as shockwaves from
Europe’s debt crisis spread.
If crude gets much higher, it
could force central bankers to
raise rates, sacrificing growth
to tame inflation.
The backbone of Asia’s
economy has traditionally
been exports to the U.S. and
Europe but a growing middle
class and a boom in purchasing power in recent years in
countries such China and Indonesia have made Asian con-
An attendant refuels a vehicle at a gas station in Singapore
sumer demand increasingly
vital to the global economy.
“I spend most of my day
on the road driving clients
around to see properties,”
said 27-year-old Singapore
real estate agent Timothy
Chen, who switched last week
to a less expensive, lower-octane gasoline to help stem his
rising fuel bill. “It’s frustrating because I’m paying more
for petrol but I’m not making
more money.”
Some in the region, such as
Singapore and Hong Kong,
import all of their crude and
are particularly exposed to
higher energy prices, which
boost transport and production costs, and therefore the
cost of most goods. The cost
of crude has spiked recently
amid investor optimism that
an improving U.S. economy
will boost demand and fears
that rising tensions over Iran’s
nuclear program could lead to
global supply disruptions.
“Rising oil prices appear
more like a tax on global
growth, eating into spending
power in the U.S. and Europe,
and hitting many Asian econ-
omies at a time when they are
slowing,” said Gerard Lyons,
chief economist at Standard
Chartered Bank. “The impact of oil prices on the global
economy can never be underestimated. Rising oil prices
are usually the biggest threat
to continued global growth.”
Asia’s strong trade and government surpluses have so far
helped it absorb higher global
oil prices without a significant
impact on the region’s inflation and economic growth.
The International Monetary
Fund is forecasting gross do-
mestic product in Asia will
expand 6.7 percent this year
from 6.3 percent last year.
However, GDP forecasts
won’t take the sting out of
higher fuel costs, especially
for the region’s poor.
Hanoi motorbike taxi driver
Nguyen Van Hung, 42, said he
had to raise his fare by 1,000
dong (5 cents) per kilometer
after the government boosted
gasoline prices by 10 percent
to a record high earlier this
month.
“My customers just walked
away when I told them I had
to raise the fare,” said Hung,
who earns about $5 a day
and supports a family of four.
“They said they could not afford that much.”
Even if the most recent data
suggest inflation remains
largely in check, Asia may still
be hurt by the recent surge
in oil prices since it can take
months or years for higher
energy costs and tighter monetary policies to work their
way through an economy,
said Sean Darby, chief global
equity strategist with Jefferies
in Hong Kong.
“Well after the oil shock occurs, the economy will still be
impacted,” Darby said.
South Korea, Taiwan and
Thailand are the biggest net
crude importers relative to
the size of their economies
while India — with trade and
government deficits and an
inflation rate at 6.6 percent in
In its latest statement on a simmering dispute over the iPad brand
name, Apple Inc. said yesterday that
Proview Electronics’ insistence that
it still owns the mainland China iPad
trademarks is misleading and unfair.
Proview Electronics insisted on the
terms of the 2009 purchase of the
iPad brand name with the understanding that the mainland Chineseregistered trademarks were included
in the worldwide rights to use the
name, Apple spokeswoman Carolyn
Wu said in reading the statement.
“Proview is misleading Chinese
courts and customers with claims
that the iPad trademarks cannot be
transferred, or that mistakes were
made in handling the transaction,”
the statement said.
“We respect Chinese laws and regulations, and as a company that generates a lot of intellectual property we
would never knowingly abuse someone else’s trademarks,” it said.
Financially ailing Proview and
Apple are sparring in courts in
China and the U.S. over the issue,
while the Chinese maker of computer screens and LED lights is
seeking to have iPad sales and exports blocked.
Asked about Apple’s statement,
Proview lawyer Xie Xianghui in turn
accused Apple of seeking to “mislead
the courts, the public and media.”
“It is wrong for Apple to do this,”
Xie said.
Apple says that in 2009 a company
acting on its behalf first approached
Shenzhen Proview Technology,
which held the two mainland Chinese trademarks. Proview insisted
on selling the trademarks through its
Taiwan affiliate, to avoid having to
pay its creditors, the Apple statement
contends.
The 2009 deal, according to Apple,
included worldwide rights to the
iPad name — in total 10 iPad trademarks — for 35,000 British pounds
($55,000).
“Proview didn’t want to pay its debts
in 2009 when it sold the iPad trademarks, and because they still owe a
Sharon Chen in Singapore
and Tran Van Minh in Hanoi,
Vietnam contributed.
AP
ap photo
Apple says Proview iPad
trademark demands unfair
by Elaine Kurtenbach,
Business Writer, Shanghai
January — is in a weak position to absorb higher energy
costs, analysts said.
Another worry is that higher
oil prices will force countries
that subsidize consumer fuel
costs — such as India, Indonesia and Thailand — to spend
more on crude and less on
other public expenditure that
could help economic growth.
China raised gasoline prices
3.3 percent last month to
equal a record high of 9,380
yuan per liter ($4 a gallon),
but China has in the past
been able to absorb increases.
Since 2003, gasoline prices
have nearly tripled while the
country has averaged growth
of about 10 percent a year.
“Asia has shown in recent
years that high prices are
not a barrier to the region’s
continued rapid economic
growth,” said Daniel Martin,
Asia economist with Capital
Economics in Singapore.
But if prices jump because
of a supply disruption from
a violent conflict over Iran’s
nuclear program while the
global economy slows, the
impact on Asia would be
worse than, say, a scenario
in which prices rise more
gradually because Europe
has stabilized and the global
economy and oil demand are
growing faster.
lot of people a lot of money, they are
now unfairly trying to get more from
Apple for a trademark we already
paid for,” the statement said.
Proview’s lawyer Xie questioned
that allegation, given the small sums
involved.
“It does not make sense for Proview
to ask Apple to sign with Proview
Taiwan to avoid paying this small
17
amount of money to the creditors,”
he said.
A ruling is still pending from a court
in southern China’s Guangdong
province over Apple’s appeal of a ruling against it in the city of Shenzhen,
where Proview is based.
Proview has been urging Apple to
settle out of court, presumably for
far more than the 2009 deal, in ex-
change for ending the dispute.
Proview’s mainstream computer
monitor business fell on hard times in
2008 and the company is liquidating
assets as it goes through a restructuring. Company staff say its main product is now LED street lights.
Researcher Fu Ting contributed to this
report.
AP
BUSINESS Times
®
US brings new trade case against China
ap photo
By Julie Pace, Washington
T
he Obama administration is bringing a
new trade case against
China that seeks to pressure
the rising economic power to
end its export restrictions on
key materials used to manufacture hybrid car batteries,
flat-screen televisions and
other high-tech goods.
The new trade initiative
announced yesterday is another effort aimed at leveling the playing field for U.S.
companies.
Senior Obama administration officials say the U.S. will
ask the World Trade Organization to facilitate talks with
China over its curtailment of
exports of rare earth minerals. The U.S. is bringing the
case to the WTO along with
the European Union and Japan, the officials said.
The fresh action is part of
President Barack Obama’s
broader effort to crack down
on what his administration
sees as unfair trading practices by China that have put
American companies at a
competitive disadvantage.
Obama was to announce the
WTO action from the White
House yesterday, according to the officials, who requested anonymity in order
to speak ahead of the president.
China has a stranglehold
on the global supply of 17
rare earth minerals that are
essential for making hightech goods, including hybrid
cars, weapons, flat-screen
TVs, mobile phones, mercury-vapor lights, smartphones
and camera lenses. The materials also are used in the
manufacture of tiny motors,
such as those used to raise
and lower car windows and
in consumer electronics.
China has reduced its export quotas of these rare
earth minerals over the past
several years to cope with
growing demand at home,
though Chinese officials also
site environmental concerns
Ad
18
as the reason for the restrictions. U.S. industry officials
suggest it is an unfair trade
practice, against rules established by the WTO, a group
that includes China as a
member.
The senior administration
officials said Beijing’s export
restrictions give Chinese
companies a competitive advantage by providing them
access to more of these rare
materials at a cheaper price,
while forcing U.S. companies to manage with a smaller, more costly supply.
Rare earth minerals are
scattered throughout the
Earth’s crust, but only in
small quantities, making
them hard to mine. However, rich deposits of these
rare earth oxides are in China, giving it command of the
market.
The U.S. has just one rare
earth mining company, the
Colorado-based Molycorp
Inc. There are also working
mines in Australia, and a
proposed one in Malaysia.
With the U.S economy
slowly inching its way out of
recession, Obama has sought
to bring a renewed focus to
Chinese policies that could
hinder U.S. growth.
Obama used an executive
order last month to create
a new trade enforcement
agency — the Interagency
Trade Enforcement Center —
to move aggressively against
China and other nations. In
announcing the new agency,
Obama said it would bring
“the full resources of the
federal government to bear”
in order to level the playing
field for U.S. workers.
Under the terms of the
WTO complaint, China has
10 days to respond and must
hold talks with the U.S., EU
and Japan within 60 days.
If an agreement cannot be
reached within that time
frame, the U.S. and its partners could request a formal
WTO panel to investigate
Chinese practices.
The WTO, the only global
international organization
dealing with the rules of
trade between nations, has
sided with the U.S. in previous trade disputes with
China.
In 2009, the Obama administration imposed a
three-year tariff, starting at
35 percent, on U.S. imports
of low-grade Chinese tires.
The tariff was approved after
imports of those tires rose
threefold to about 46 million tires between 2004 and
2008. Last year the WTO rejected an appeal from China
and found that the United
States acted consistently
with its obligations in imposing the duties.
Writer Tom Raum contributed to
this report.
AP
Times sports
Sport
®
ap photo
NBA
Parker returns, leads Spurs
past Wizards 112-97
ap photo
San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker of France shoots a three-point basket over
Washington Wizards guard John Wall during the first half of an NBA basketball game
A
fter learning before
the game that his
primary backup was
retiring, Tony Parker made
sure the San Antonio Spurs
got plenty of production from
the point guard position in the
NBA yesterday. Parker scored
31 points in his return from a
one-game absence to lead the
Spurs to a 112-97 victory over
the Washington Wizards.
Parker, who missed Friday’s loss to the Los Angeles
Clippers with a strained right
quadriceps, hit 13 of 18 shots
and had seven assists.
The Spurs extended their
winning streak over the Wizards to 12.
The Spurs went 8-1 on a road
trip before the All-Star break,
but they have been able to beat
only struggling Eastern Conference teams on their current
seven-game homestand. The
Spurs lost to Chicago, Denver
and the Clippers but have now
beaten Charlotte, New York
and the Wizards.
“I think we did a great job
moving the ball,” Parker said.
“We took advantage of their
defense and got wide-open
shots for everyone.”
Before the game, veteran
Spurs point guard T.J. Ford
abruptly retired following the
latest scare to his surgically repaired spine, which sidelined
him for the entire 2004-05
season.
While the Spurs could miss
Ford as the season progresses, the team has often played
without him as various injuries limited him to only 14
games. Parker has had no
trouble picking up the slack,
as he showed on Monday in a
game in which Manu Ginobili
played just 20 minutes.
“He’s playing great,” teamate
Tiago Splitter said of Parker.
“Since the beginning of the
season, he’s playing like an
All-Star. That’s great for us,
having a guy like that. Not just
scoring, but moving the ball
on assists.”
San Antonio, in fact, had assists on 23 of its 28 field goals
in the first half and scored 44
points in the paint. After trailing by as many as 18 points in
the second quarter, Washington cut it to nine in the fourth
but could get no closer.
Parker repeatedly exploited
the defense in the first half and,
with the Wizards closing, had
10 points in the fourth quarter.
“With Parker, we had our
hands full,” Wizards coach
Randy Wittman said. “He’s
playing as well as anybody in
the league. He’s a tough cover,
I understand that. But, in the
first half, we just allowed him
to get to the rim time after
time after time after time.” AP
Actress threatens legal action
after fixing report
An Indian actress embroiled in an
English newspaper report alleging
rampant match-fixing in cricket is considering her legal options, including a
defamation action.
“I am really hurt and considering legal action against the paper for using
my picture,” Bollywood actress Nupur
Mehta was quoted as saying by The
Times of India yesterday.
Mehta’s blurred photo was used by
London’s The Sunday Times in a controversial match-fixing story which alleged illegal bookmakers were going to
great lengths, including using actresses, to lure cricketers into fixing games.
The Sunday Times said it had filmed
evidence of bookmakers from the Indian subcontinent boasting about being
able to fix the results of international
matches and that last year’s World
Cup semifinal between India and Pakistan at Mohali had been targeted. The
International Cricket Council has said
reports it was investigating the IndiaPakistan semifinal were “baseless and
misleading.”
The Board of Control for Cricket in
India and former players have treated
the reports with caution.
“Newspapers can publish anything.
Unless we get something concrete from
an (investigating) agency or the International Cricket Council, I don’t think
it will be appropriate to react to it,”
BCCI vice president Rajiv Shukla told
reporters in New Delhi.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly
dismissed suggestions that India could
have benefited from the fixing claims.
“I don’t know how they have got the
information but let me tell you that In-
dia are world champions and nobody
can take that away from us,” Ganguly
was quoted as saying. “I need to know
the exact details of the allegations but
please don’t take away what India did
in the competition.”
Spin bowling great Bishan Singh Bedi
demanded that the bookmakers be
hauled up for fabricating such claims
but said the ICC and the BCCI needed
to be cautious.
“We have heard so many things about
the Commonwealth Games and various other political upheavals. How can
cricket be an exception? Cricket is not
the only sport which reflects the time
you live in, and this is not the only expose. Neither the ICC nor the BCCI can
dismiss this particular expose very easily,” the former India captain told the
Times Now news channel.
AP
19
Peterson
ready to ‘die in the
ring’ to keep titles
Boxing
Lamont Peterson says he is “ready to die in the ring”
when he defends his WBA and IBF light-welterweight titles against British challenger Amir Khan in Las Vegas on
May 19 in a rematch of their hotly disputed fight last year.
Khan lost both belts in a split-decision loss to the American on Dec. 10, but complained about the referee’s decision to deduct him two points for pushing and the presence of an unauthorized man at ringside seen distracting
an official.
Peterson says Khan’s complaints took the shine off his
victory and his opponent “has to accept he’s not the champ
anymore.”
The American says “the reason I decided to take the rematch wasn’t because I wanted to prove myself again to
anyone.”
Namibia
upsets Ireland in
World T20 qualifying
Cricket
Namibia held its nerve to upset Ireland by four runs in
World Twenty20 cricket qualifying in Dubai yesterday.
Louis Van der Westhuizen spearheaded Namibia by scoring 34 in a handy total of 160-8. He then captured 2-37 to
restrict Ireland, which at No. 2 is seeded five places higher
than the Namibians, to 156-9 in a Group B match.
Ireland slumped to 65-5 in the 11th over before Gary
Wilson (49) and John Mooney (38) added 71 off 44 balls.
Westhuizen removed Wilson in the 18th over and Mooney
was run out in the last over with Ireland failing to score 18
to win off the last six balls.
“Everything needs to improve from tomorrow as we are
not where we need to be in every aspect of our game for
this event,” Ireland coach Phil Simmons said.
Van der Westhuizen had provided Namibia a brisk start
while Raymond Van Schoor (31), Sarel Burger (21) and
Craig Williams (19) made useful contributions.
Spanish clubs
owe USD982 million
million in taxes
Soccer
Spanish football clubs owe the government €752 million
(USD982 million) in unpaid back taxes, according to figures released yesterday.
The United Left party says figures provided by the government show an increase of nearly €150 million ($195
million) in unpaid taxes over the past four years, with topflight clubs making up nearly half a billion euros ($653
million) of the overall figure. At least six top division clubs
are already in bankruptcy protection.
The numbers were released after the United Left, a communist party led coalition, submitted a written request to
parliament for the information
®
advertisement
World briefs
‘Suge’ Knight
new
date in
Vegas
case
Keanulawyer
Reevesgets
gives
Master
Class
in HK
A lawyer for rap music mogul Marion
“Suge” Knight is working on a plea deal
with a Las Vegas city prosecutor on unpaid
tickets that led to Knight’s arrest last month
on traffic warrants. The 46-year-old former
Death Row Records executive didn’t appear
Monday in Las Vegas Municipal Court while
attorney Richard Schonfeld got a new court
date March 19. Knight was arrested Feb. 8
in Las Vegas on warrants issued after
police say he failed to appear on tickets
issued in November 2008.
Knight also was accused of possessing
less than one ounce of a controlled substance on a report that marijuana was
found in the car. No charge was immediately filed in the marijuana case. That’s
scheduled for June in another court.
PAKISTAN
advertisement
q&A Sio Chi Wai, president of MDSSC, lawmaker
Opinion
LEGALMINDS
Hengqin a real chance
economic diversification
by Luís Mesquita de Melo
Partner at MdME Lawyers
The Gaming (Sub)
Concessions’ Risk
Law 16/2001, published in Macau’s Official Gazette on
September 24, 2001, was the first step of the Macau gaming
market’s liberalization process that reshaped the Special
Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China into
the world’s biggest gambling hub.
Eleven years into the Macau new gaming regime, we
have three gaming concessionaires and three gaming subconcessionaires, whose concession grants shall expire between
March 31, 2020 and June 26, 2022.
One key question that has been raised on a number of recent
occasions by investors, gaming operators and analysts is what
will happen when the Macau gaming concessions and the
associated gaming sub-concessions expire?
What we know at this stage:
– That Macau’s official policy (reiterated by the current Chief
Executive on various occasions) is that Macau should seek
to diversify its economy into non-gaming industries such as
conventions and exhibitions, leisure and entertainment and
creative industries.
– That Beijing exerts significant influence over Macau’s
gaming policy and the central government has clearly indicated
that Macau must control its casino growth.
– That the current Chief Executive will not be in office in
2020.
– That if we consider the new projects planned for the Cotai
Strip (MGM, Melco, Wynn and SJM) will come online around
2015/2016, the normal repayment period of 8/9 years in
financings for this type of developments will go beyond the
concessions/sub-concessions expiry dates.
– It is true that the Chief Executive has the prerogative
of extending the concessions/sub-concessions’ term for a
maximum of five years. However, this possibility can only be
exercised after the concession/sub-concession term is fulfilled,
which does not allow us to ascertain at this point what will
happen then.
What we don’t know:
– What will be the PRC’s central government’s approach
to gaming policies, traveling visa requirements, currency
and capital flows, considering that each of these factors may
have, on its own, a huge impact on the gaming sector in
Macau, affecting the market circumstances under which the
concessions and sub-concessions will be renegotiated.
– What will be the next Chief Executive’s position regarding
the gaming industry and how the institutional relationship
between the MSAR and China’s central government will
influence the policy making process in Macau, considering the
ongoing debate on the reform of the political system.
– Also important and difficult to predict at this stage is
how the Macau market will be affected by the new gaming
developments around Asia, including Singapore, Vietnam,
Philippines, Cambodia, Korea, probably Taiwan and eventually
Japan. Nor do we know the state of the Chinese economy in
2020, namely in the Guangdong province, which economic
performance has been proved to have a direct correlation with
the gaming numbers in Macau as its most direct and immediate
source of play.
– Finally, we do not know what will be the outcome of some
regulatory challenges (ongoing investigations in relation to the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, gaming licensing and listing
rules compliance) affecting some of the gaming operators in a
heavily regulated industry.
Under the current circumstances, we do not believe that any
of the existing gaming concessions and/or sub-concessions are
at risk of not being renewed. However, the renegotiation process
will open a window of opportunity for the Macau Government to
revisit some of the legal and contractual issues, which we hope
the Gov’t uses to implement a clear and transparent legal path
for the continuity of the gaming business well before 2020.
I READ THE
I
n an exclusive interview with MDTimes,
the President of Macau
Development
Strategies
Studies Centre and Legislative Assembly member Sio
Chi Wai said the Hengqin
development zone a stone’s
throw away from Coloane,
will provide a genuine opportunity for Macau to diversify its economy heavily
reliant on gaming industry.
The following is a summary
of the interview.
Macau Daily Times What do you think of
Hengqin’s potential in
Macau’s
long-lasting
but yet-to-succeed initiative of economic diversification?
Sio Chi Wai - Macau has
a clear and correct orientation for its economic diversification, and that is
to build itself as a world
tourism and leisure hub.
We already have successfully laid the foundations
for this objective, our tourism industry is very welldeveloped, we’ve got the
most unique tourist attractions, world heritage sites
and historic architectures,
as well as the history as
“China’s southern door to
the world”, where the eastern and western cultures
merged perfectly. But we
have serious limitations,
and they are our space and
human resources. Macau is
too small in its size as everybody knows. We have been
thinking about the ways to
expand the scope of its attractions outside our current domain, and Hengqin,
which is triple Macau in its
size, provides us with the
space we much needed to
build those things we don’t
have and which are essential for leisure tourism,
such as wet land parks and
theme parks, as well as new
resorts and hotels closer to
nature.
®
BECAUSE
MDT - The gaming
operators are also expanding to Hengqin?
SCW - But they are not
allowed to run casinos
there, so there is no worry
they will botch the economic diversification. Of
course they may operate
non-gaming business in
Hengqin. These businessmen are well aware of the
commercial opportunities
there, and well aware of the
mainland Chinese market.
They have been operating
successfully and it’s very
natural for those currently
based on Macau to eye the
neighbouring market and
look for new investment
chances. But we should not
label them with the “gaming” tag and think of all
their business as gaming.
MDT - How about the
potentials in other areas?
SCW - There is the new
campus of University of
Macau, to be completed in
2012, and then there will
be zones for Chinese medicine industry, for high-tech
industries, as well as conventions and exhibitions.
Even the small and medium sized companies will
find new chances there, in
retail and other business.
One more important point
is that the area will provide
a very precious connection
for regional co-operation,
and for Macau to further
integrate itself into the
Chinese economic entity
which opens up a new era
for our younger generation
to expand their career path.
Hengqin is a spring board
for them to jump into the
huge Chinese market.
MDT -How about the
progress on the whole
project?
SCW - I expect the main
road network to be finished
in one or two years, and
American drone-fired missiles
hit a vehicle traveling on the
Pakistan side of the Afghan
border yesterday, killing
six suspected militants,
Pakistani intelligence officials
said. The attack took place
the Birmal district of South
Waziristan, the officials said,
speaking on condition of
anonymity because they were
not authorized to talk to the
media. Islamabad criticizes
the drone strikes publicly
but the government is widely
believed to have supported
the covert CIA-run program.
That cooperation is believed
to have come under strain as
the U.S.-Pakistani relationship
has deteriorated over the last
year.
BANGLADESH
then the management policies will be formulated. I expect the area will be opened
24 hours to Zhuhai.
MDT - What do you
think about the changes proposed for the
crossing point at Barrier Gate?
SCW - Political leaders are
mentioning different kinds
of options, including a new
crossing check point, or extension of opening hours
at Barrier Gate. But to set
up a new border crossing is
not a simple thing Macau
can do by itself. It concerns
Zhuhai and other Guangdong cities. People have
mentioned many spots as
possible options, including
a sea port as new crossing.
I have no objection to the
choice of position, but we
have to think of the feasibility. You don’t just set
up an immigration check
point, how about immigration officials and customs
officers? Macau is very limited in human resources.
The real concern for new
border crossing is a shortage of manpower, which is
always a problem here, and
you can’t import immigration and customs officers
like restaurant waiters. So
it might be more viable to
do them step-by-step, like
extending a few hours, and
employing more advanced
technologies to speed up
document checking at the
present crossing points.
S.C.
A ferry packed with about
200 people capsized in a
river in southern Bangladesh
yesterday, killing 30 people
and leaving dozens more
missing, authorities said.
Local police chief Mohammad
Shahabuddin Khan said about
35 people were rescued
after the ferry sank on the
Meghna River after colliding
with a cargo boat early in the
morning. Divers have since
recovered 30 bodies from
inside the sunken ferry, he
said. The death toll is likely to
rise as more bodies are feared
trapped inside.
YEMEN
Five Al-Qaeda militants were
killed in an air strike on their
car in Yemen’s Bayda province
yesterday after deadly unrest
there, and with the air force
blasting jihadist positions
in nearby Abyan, security
officials said. “A fighter jet
raided a car carrying five AlQaeda militants,” said the
official. “All five were killed.”
TIBET
A teenage Tibetan monk set
himself on fire in protest on
the 53rd anniversary of the
failed Tibetan uprising against
Chinese rule, an overseas
activist group says.
USA
Aiming to level the playing
field for U.S. companies,
the Obama administration
will bring a new trade case
against China that seeks to
pressure the rising economic
power to end its export
restrictions on key materials
used to manufacture hybrid
car batteries, flat-screen
televisions and other high-tech
goods. More on p18.
AFGANISTAN
The soldier accused of killing
16 Afghan civilians, most of
them children, and burning
their bodies was trained as a
sniper and recently suffered
a head injury in Iraq, U.S.
officials say.
“The times they are a-changin’.
(Thanks, Bob!)
20

Okada fights back and sues Wynn over USD800 M share

Transcription

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