ASIAWATCH - Brief Article

Business Asia, April 14, 2000

Latest news from the region

* China

China plans to begin construction of a high-speed train between 2001 and 2005. Germany, France and Japan are all wing for the project, which the Financial Times estimates is worth US$15 billion.

* India

India's department of telecommunications, which provides fixed-line phone services countrywide, plans to start a mobile phone service by March 2001 to boost profit as its monopoly nears an end.

* Japan

Japanese employees will receive a record low increase in monthly wages this fiscal year, the Nihon Keizai reported, citing its own survey of 459 companies. Monthly pay will rise 5916 yen (US$56), or 1.9 per cent, the first time pay has risen less than 2 per cent since the survey began in 1977.

* Malaysia

Malaysia is sticking to its fixed exchange rate, but analysts say the time is ripe for the central bank to adjust the 19-month-old currency peg. Bank Negara said the ringgit was undervalued by between 6 and 8 per cent, but it saw no compelling reasons to adjust or scrap the peg. Analysts had expected the central bank to take advantage of the release of its 1999 annual report and repeg the ringgit at a stronger rate.

* Philippines

Ayala Land Inc, the nation's largest property developer, plans to build a 50 billion peso (US$1.2 billion) industrial park in Cebu, the nation's second largest city, BusinessWorld reported, citing Philippine Economic Zone Authority Lilia De Lima.

* Singapore

Jobs in Singapore are seen increasing in the second quarter as almost two-thirds of more than 400 employers polled said they planned to hire new workers, the Singapore Business Times said, citing a recent Morgan Stanley & Banks' Job Index Survey.