In brief

Business Asia, Oct 25, 1999

* Tokyo -- The Tokyo Electric Power Co in January 2000 will join a forestation project in Australia being developed by Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd and Mitsubishi Corp, company officials said. The utility will invest about 350 million yen (US$3.29 million) in the equally owned venture, taking a 30 per cent stake in the company set up in Melbourne in 1995.

* Hanoi -- Four South Korean corporations, Hyundai, Kepco, Hanjung and LG, have won a bid to design and install a new power-generating facility at the Ba Ria power plant in Vietnam's Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. The US$50.2 million plant, funded with a loan from South Korea's Economic Development Co-operation Fund, will produce 59,100MW when it comes on line in the fourth quarter of 2001.

-- Asia Pulse

* Sydney -- With Indonesian wheat buyers' threats still ringing in Australian exporters' ears, local producers have turned their focus on a more immediate problem -- a mice plague in New South Wales.

A widespread baiting campaign is expected to bring the mice under control, although farmers will not take this as certain until the plague is eradicated.

-- Reuters

* Sydney -- The New South Wales business chamber, Australian Business Ltd, plans to spend A$4 million to promote its members' use of e-commerce technologies. Part of the drive will be to highlight its own system called Tradehub -- a wholly-owned subsidiary of ABL which operates a fledgling business-to-business electronic trading platform.

* Sydney -- The Australian building industry is expected to slump in 2000-01 before bottoming out with a marginal decline the following year, according to forecaster BIS Shrapnel. The industry was expected to post 2 per cent growth in the current financial year, driven mainly by residential activity ahead of the introduction of a 10 per cent goods and services tax (GST) in July next year, BIS Shrapnel said in a report. However, an expected sharp economic slowdown should see activity fall 17 per cent in 2000-01, bottoming out in 2001-02 with a marginal 1 per cent decline, it said.

-- Reuters