SLA awards four Sungei Tengah land parcels to 3 companies

SLA awards four Sungei Tengah land parcels to 3 companies

By Valarie Tan

SINGAPORE : The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has awarded four land parcels at Sungei Tengah for agricultural use to three companies.

These companies were the top bidders for each of the sites.

Environmental Landscape has been awarded the biggest plot of land of three hectares at S$1.12 million. The company also won the bid for the second largest site at S$963,360.

Public-listed Qian Hu Corporation won a parcel by bidding the highest amount for the smallest lot - S$967,135 for an area of some two hectares.

Dragonwana Aquarium Trading was awarded the third largest plot of land at S$530,000.

The four sites are on 20-year leases.

Besides traditional farming like vegetables and fish production, each land parcel can be developed for commercial purposes such as retail, food and beverage, as well as rustic and spa facilities.

The tender at Sungei Tengah follows the successful sale of three similar sites at Lim Chu Kang last year.

SLA plans to release more of such land at a steady rate to meet market demand and, at the same time, enable the existing market to grow before facing new competition arising from new sites.

Sites at Lim Chu Kang fetched between S$300,000 and S$500,000 each.
Source : Channel NewsAsia - 24 Nov 2007

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Hoteliers spend big to spruce up for booming industry

Hoteliers spend big to spruce up for booming industry

SINGAPORE: The hospitality industry is expecting a huge boost next year as Singapore stages its first-ever Formula One Grand Prix.

In the lead-up, hotels are sprucing up to draw in guests.

These hotels include Four Seasons Hotel, which is spending up to S$12 million to refurbish its rooms.

The Four Seasons in Singapore is planning to capture ‘timeless elegance’ with a new look to be completed just in time for Singapore’s next big wave of tourism.

The hotel has once again called on the talent of Hersh Bender to create the look that has attracted their predominantly finance-based corporate clientele over the last 14 years.

Ignacio Gomez-Tobar, Regional Vice President and General Manager, Four Seasons Hotel, said: “Specifically, what we do here is that we are about to embark on a very major renovation of all the guest rooms starting from the beginning of March 2008 and by the end of July, we would have done every single guest room.”

According to Mr Gomez-Tobar, the hotel will be “stripping” its 225 rooms right down to the concrete and starting all over again.

It also means that it will not be able to operate on full inventory for nearly six months.

But Four Seasons believes that overall, revenue for 2008 will still climb by 10 percent.

Revenue for the hotel has increased by 15 percent this year, compared to last year. Four Seasons also plans to raise room rates by up to 15 percent next year.

Other hotels which had a revamp recently include Meritus Mandarin and Phoenix Hotel.
Source : Channel NewsAsia - 24 Nov 2007

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Singapore October inflation hits 16-year high of 3.6%

Singapore October inflation hits 16-year high of 3.6%

Figure surprises economists, who say Govt may do more to cool economy

By Bryan Lee

CONSUMER prices rose at their fastest pace in 16 years last month as food, housing and transport costs all accelerated their rate of increase.
Inflation hit 3.6 per cent, resuming an upward trend after September’s 2.7 per cent breather.

Yesterday’s figure caught out virtually every economist in town - ‘I almost fell off my chair,’ said DBS Bank’s Irvin Seah - and sent them scrambling to raise forecasts.

Last month’s number beat all estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. ‘We thought we had a high forecast at 3 per cent as the market was at 2.8 per cent,’ said HSBC’s Robert Prior-Wandesforde.

Analysts said the Government may do more to cool the red-hot economy, but the pain of rising living costs will be felt for some time as these measures do not have an immediate effect.

‘This is way beyond market analyst expectations,’ said Mr Seah. ‘We knew inflation would go up. We just didn’t know it would come so quickly.’

Monthly inflation figures going forward are likely to track last month’s figure, as prices seldom fluctuate sharply unless there is a significant change in the economic environment. For instance, noodle prices that were raised last month are unlikely to come down any time soon.

Yesterday’s Department of Statistics figure follows Monday’s new inflation figure from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

It forecast inflation to hit 3.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent next year, up from an earlier estimate of 2 per cent to 3 per cent. The figure is expected to be 2 per cent this year.

Inflation is rising across Asia as oil and food prices increase. China, for instance, reported that prices last month rose the fastest in a decade.

In Singapore, a 2 percentage point hike in the goods and services tax in July is bumping up prices even more.

Food costs, which make up the biggest part of the consumer price index, surged as dairy products, eggs, meat and poultry became more expensive. Eating out was 3.2 per cent more costly, too.

Transport and communication, the next big item, rose as spiralling oil prices lifted petrol costs for cars and buses.

High energy prices have also sent electricity rates up twice since July. This and higher rentals bumped up housing inflation to 2.3 per cent.

Health-care costs, which make up just 5 per cent of the index, were up 6.2 per cent.

Mr Prior-Wandesforde said the Government may consider more cooling measures after recent initiatives to dampen the housing market and delay several major construction projects.

If inflation does hit 5 per cent early next year, as suggested recently by Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang, the MAS may move to let the Sing dollar strengthen even faster, as it did last month. A stronger local currency can help counter price rises in imported goods.

But these measures take time to kick in, said Mr Seah. He suggested that the Government provide more help to low-income families in next February’s Budget.

But Mr Prior-Wandesforde said help may not come as wage growth may be strong enough to enable the poor to cope with the price rises.

For people like freelance publisher Chiam Choon Yong, it is belt-tightening time. The 44-year-old father of four has been hit by increases in petrol costs - up about 10 per cent to $500 a month - and utility rates - up from $140 a month to $160.

‘We just have to be more economical and stay away from things like seafood and exotic fruits,’ he said.
Source : Straits Times - 24 Nov 2007

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Low-cost Singapore - KL flights from Feb 1

Low-cost Singapore - KL flights from Feb 1

By Karamjit Kaur, Aviation Correspondent

AIR travellers who have long complained about pricey fares on the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route will finally get some relief.
From Feb 1, at least one low-cost carrier from each side will be allowed to operate two daily flights - a total of four extra services a day.

All restrictions on the lucrative sector will be lifted on Dec 1, 2008, to allow airlines on both sides of the Causeway to fly as often as they want between the two points.

The liberalisation of one of Asia’s most restricted air routes is in line with an Asean initiative to free up air links between capital cities of the 10-member bloc by December next year.

The decision to partially free up the Singapore-KL sector was announced by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) yesterday, at the end of two days of bilateral talks here.

MOT said in a statement: ‘This is a positive development in our aviation relations as low-cost carriers will operate on this sector for the first time.’

Transport officials on both sides will meet again in January to discuss how air links between Singapore and other Malaysian cities can be further liberalised.

The Singapore-Malaysia air services pact was last expanded in 1980. A separate commercial deal between the two national carriers, which currently dominate the Singapore-KL sector, allows them to set fares, plan schedules and split revenues equally.

Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) operate about 85 per cent of the over 200 flights a week, charging about $400 for a return flight that lasts 45 minutes each way.

The remainder goes to a handful of other carriers that fly via Singapore to Kuala Lumpur under ‘fifth freedom’ rights, which allow foreign airlines to pick up passengers in transit, as negotiated by their respective countries. These include Japan Airlines and Air Mauritius.

In less tightly-regulated markets like the Singapore-Bangkok one, for example, travellers pay about $200 for an all-inclusive return fare.

Pressure had mounted in the past few years in Singapore and Malaysia for more competition, and low-cost carriers promised cuts to Singapore-KL fares by more than half.

But a breakthrough only came earlier this month, when Malaysia proposed to Singapore that low-cost carriers be allowed to operate a limited number of services.

Malaysian Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy proposed this to his Singapore counterpart Raymond Lim when they met on the sidelines of the 13th Asean Transport Ministers Meeting here.

Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia are the contenders as far as the Singapore rights are concerned.

Singapore’s Air Traffic Rights Committee will evaluate applications submitted to it.

The committee, headed by MOT’s permanent secretary, includes senior representatives from various government agencies.

Making a pitch for her airline, Jetstar chief executive officer Chong Phit Lian said: ‘Our extensive network, and our links with sister carriers in Australia, allow us to offer our passengers not just a point-to-point service but a whole range of options and choices.’ Jetstar is 49 per cent owned by Australia’s Qantas.

Singapore’s Tiger Airways is raring to go too. Group chief executive officer Tony Davis told The Straits Times recently that even if the airline got just one or two flights a day, it would be a good start. Early access would allow it to gear up for full market liberalisation, he said.

Source : Straits Times - 24 Nov 2007

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Singapore Inflation rises with policy posers in tow

Singapore Inflation rises with policy posers in tow

Analysts expect swift counter-measures as monthly numbers climb to a 16-year high
By ANNA TEO
(SINGAPORE) The need for further policy action to stem price pressures - sooner rather than later - has grown with an unexpected surge in October’s inflation rate to 3.6 per cent, economists say.

The market consensus estimate was 2.8 per cent. ‘We thought we had a high inflation forecast for October at 3 per cent,’ said HSBC Bank economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde.

In fact, the latest rise in the consumer price index (CPI) has leapt well beyond these estimates. Climbing from a 2.7 per cent third-quarter average (itself a sharp jump from the first six months’ 0.8 per cent pace), it was driven by rising food and oil prices, and is the highest monthly inflation rate since August 1991.

‘I don’t think it’s a one-off (spike) to be ignored,’ said Chetan Ahya, chief economist for South-east Asia and India at Morgan Stanley Asia. ‘The risks of more policy reaction have increased with this latest data. One more month with figures like these may mean that the government needs to move quickly.’ The urgency will be apparent if crude oil prices touch US$120 a barrel, he added.

Most economists believe there will be further monetary tightening via a steeper appreciation of the Singapore dollar at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s next half-yearly policy review in April 2008.

The question, Mr Ahya said, is whether MAS needs to act sooner than April, following its move last month to allow the Sing dollar to rise at a slightly faster pace to help curb imported inflation.

At a media briefing on the Q3 economic data on Monday, MAS deputy managing director Ong Chong Tee said there were no plans for any inter-meeting monetary policy review. The current policy stance of allowing the local currency to strengthen gradually and modestly remains appropriate, he said, though economists have asked, in the light of rising price pressures, if the nudge-up was enough. Yesterday, when contacted, a senior MAS official would not comment.

But Morgan Stanley’s Mr Ahya reckons that managing current inflationary pressures calls for the use of not just monetary tools.

While the exchange rate can be employed to deal with ‘tradeable’ inflation in food, transport and other oil-related items, the bigger cost pressures now stem from demand-induced resource constraints in an economy that has been growing above its potential pace, he said.

There is basically a need to slow demand and economic growth, he reiterated.

For the year to October, consumer inflation averaged 1.6 per cent. The 2007 year-round pace is now estimated at about 2 per cent. Next year, it may well hit 5 per cent in Q1 before easing.

Inflation rates of 4-5 per cent would be high against the muted figures of the last two decades. But inflation in Singapore actually ran past 8 per cent in 1980 and 1981, and averaged over 20 per cent during the 1973 and 1974 oil crises.

While MAS has maintained that, even amid the recent CPI uptrend, underlying inflation has remained steady, Mr Ahya said that, with the persistent climb in the headline figure, core inflation will inevitably and eventually pick up too.

Said HSBC’s Mr Prior-Wandesforde: ‘Even if inflation is set to fall in the second half of next year, the worry will be that wage growth will rise higher still, leading to second-round effects on underlying inflation.’ He believes the government will consider additional cooling measures.

‘While denying that the economy is overheating, the government has clearly shown its concerns for the future via the various measures to cool the housing market as well as the delay to several construction projects, an increase in immigration and a contraction in real government spending,’ he noted.

And while there is little Singapore can do about rising energy and food commodity prices, cost pressures from a booming economy also reflect strong consumer confidence, in his view.

‘The fact that retailers have been able to push through virtually all the GST rise and sustain it smacks of strong confidence in the consumer,’ Mr Prior-Wandesforde said. Even with rising inflation, he believes the robust wage growth will be reflected in stronger consumer spending.

‘Notwithstanding concerns about the US economy and a wobbly equity market recently, Christmas should be a good one for retailers,’ he said.
Source : Business Times - 24 Nov 2007

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