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Serangoon / Hougang HDB Flat for Sales - 12.01.2008
TYPE : [2]Rm [3]Rm [4]Rm [5]Rm [EA]Ex Apt [EM]Ex Mais [6]Rm
TNR=Tenure, DT=District, BDRM=Bedroom, AREA=Built-In, STR=Storey, Price $K=In Thousand
Price are subject to changes , please call (+65) 91002985 for lastest update
Type — 3N
District — 19
Estate — HOUGANG, BLK 110 #02
Area — 753
Age –
Bedroom — 2
Psf — 276
PRICE$ — 208000
Type — 3N
District — 19
Estate — HOUGANG, BLK 110 #06
Area — 0
Age –
Bedroom — 2
Psf — null
PRICE$ — 0
Type — 4N
District — 19
Estate — HOUGANG, BLK 243 #02
Area — 989
Age –
Bedroom — 3
Psf — 0
PRICE$ — 0
Type — 4N
District — 19
Estate — SERANGOON, BLK 118 #10
Area — 0
Age –
Bedroom — 3
Psf — null
PRICE$ — 300000
Type — 5
District — 19
Estate — HOUGANG, BLK 953 #08
Area — 1334
Age — 7+
Bedroom — 3
Psf — 0
PRICE$ — 0
Type — 5A
District — 19
Estate — LOR AH SOO, BLK 140 #06
Area — 1408
Age — 21
Bedroom — 3
Psf — 256
PRICE$ — 360000
Type — 5I
District — 19
Estate — HOUGANG, BLK 460 #02
Area — 1323
Age — 8
Bedroom — 3
Psf — 355
PRICE$ — 470000
Type — 5I
District — 19
Estate — HOUGANG, BLK 964 #06
Area — 1301
Age –
Bedroom — 3
Psf — 277
PRICE$ — 360000
Type — 5I
District — 19
Estate — SERANGOON, BLK 121 #05
Area — 1323
Age –
Bedroom — 3
Psf — 0
PRICE$ — 0
Type — 5I
District — 19
Estate — SERANGOON, BLK 552 #15
Area — 1280
Age — 10
Bedroom — 3
Psf — 322
PRICE$ — 412000
Type — EA
District — 19
Estate — SERANGOON, BLK 543 #08
Area — 1516
Age –
Bedroom — 4
Psf — 0
PRICE$ — 0
Type — EM
District — 19
Estate — HOUGANG, BLK 357 #04
Area — 1592
Age –
Bedroom — 3
Psf — 0
PRICE$ — 0
Type — EM
District — 19
Estate — HOUGANG, BLK 407 #06
Area — 1592
Age — 23
Bedroom — 4
Psf — 283
PRICE$ — 450000
Type — EM
District — 19
Estate — SERANGOON, BLK 526 #06
Area — 0
Age — 15+
Bedroom — 3
Psf — null
PRICE$ — 500000
Singapore Real Estate - Buy , Sell , Rent ,invest Singapore Property
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MINDY YONG
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http://www.hotvictory.com
Fed chief adopts Greenspan tone to appease financial markets - WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - FEDERAL Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke borrowed a page from Mr Alan Greenspan’s crisis playbook when he promised emphatically to cut interest rates further if the weak United States economy needs the help.
The response from Wall Street on Thursday shows that the former Princeton economics professor is improving but still has a few things to learn before he can match Mr Greenspan’s magic in wowing financial markets.
Still, the effort rated at least a ‘B+’, while Mr Bernanke’s previous attempts to handle the first major crisis in his two-year tenure at the Fed got far lower grades.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reacted to the last Fed rate cut on Dec 11 by plunging 294.26 points - not exactly the response Mr Bernanke was seeking as a way to instil confidence that he was up to the task of combating America’s worst credit crunch since the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s.
The problem has been that Mr Bernanke and his Fed colleagues have appeared to be providing rate relief in a grudging fashion, disappointing investors who want a full-throated pledge that the central bank is prepared to do whatever is needed to keep the US from falling into a recession.
In a Washington speech on Thursday, Mr Bernanke was more forceful.
‘We stand ready to take substantive additional action as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks.’
That was more like it, investors said, pushing the Dow average up by 117.78 points. It was welcome relief for a market that has been plunging in the new year, as investors have had to digest one bad piece of news after another indicating that the US is moving dangerously close to a recession.
The most ominous signal on that score came last week, when the government reported that unemployment last month shot up to 5 per cent from 4.7 per cent in November. That was the biggest one-month gain in the jobless rate since October 2001, a time of massive layoffs in the travel industry following the September terrorist attacks.
The worry is that a two-year slump in housing, which shows no signs of easing, has now started to spread to other sectors of the US economy, especially the financial services industry. Various industry leaders have declared multibillion-dollar losses because of bad bets on securities backed by sub-prime mortgages, where defaults are soaring.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Source : Straits Times - 12 Jan 2008
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Mindy Yong
(+65)91002985
Fed ready to act boldly to lift growth: Bernanke - Washington
He admits risks are rising, so decisive interest rate cuts may be needed
ECONOMIC HEALTH: The Fed is not forecasting a recession but is expecting slow growth, says Mr Bernanke. — PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - FEDERAL Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday acknowledged that the United States economy faces increased risks and indicated that the central bank is ready to cut interest rates aggressively to support growth.
He cited several factors - including higher oil prices, lower stock prices and falling home values - that he said were bound to hurt consumer spending this year.
‘In light of recent changes in the outlook for and the risks to growth, additional policy easing might be necessary,’ he said at an event sponsored by two finance groups.
‘We stand ready to take substantive additional action as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks,’ he added.
Analysts welcomed Mr Bernanke’s forthright acknowledgment of the dangers faced by the US economy, which some fear might already have slipped into recession.
His comments come in the wake of criticism from some quarters that the Fed has not been forceful enough in showing support for the economy.
‘I think he’s come to terms with the fact that while inflation might be a concern down the road, he has to take care of the train that’s coming at him right now - which is the fear of a recession,’ said Mr Angel Mata, the managing director of listed equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets.
Mr Bernanke cautioned that conditions could change quickly.
That meant the Fed ‘must remain exceptionally alert and flexible - prepared to act in a decisive and timely manner and, in particular, to counter any adverse dynamics that might threaten economic or financial stability’.
US stock markets surged after Mr Bernanke’s comments, then retreated before closing higher on a report that Bank of America was in talks to buy mortgage lender Countrywide Financial. The deal was confirmed late last night at US$4 billion.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 117.78 points to end at 12,853.09, while the Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 13.97 points at 2,488.52.
Bond prices closed mostly lower as investors moved money to stocks, giving up earlier gains that had been fuelled by hopes the Fed would soon lower benchmark overnight rates by a hefty half-percentage point to 3.75 per cent. Its next policy meeting is scheduled for Jan 29-30.
Mr Bernanke suggested policymakers had become more worried about sustaining growth than about battling inflation. He said inflation expectations were ‘reasonably well-anchored’ and pledged to monitor those expectations closely.
‘Incoming information has suggested that the baseline outlook for real activity in 2008 has worsened and the downside risks to growth have become more pronounced,’ he said.
He cited ‘considerable evidence that banks have become more restrictive in their lending’ to consumers and businesses.
When asked about the possibility of a recession, he said the economy would probably dodge one.
‘The Fed is not currently forecasting recession…we are forecasting slow growth,’ he said.
REUTERS
Source : Straits Times - 12 Jan 2008
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Mindy Yong
(+65)91002985
Merrill may disclose further loss of $21b - New York
It needs capital but another sale to a foreign government may raise eyebrows
STORMY WEATHER AHEAD: Merrill may shed non-core assets such as its US$4 billion (S$5.7 billion) stake in Bloomberg. — PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK - MERRILL Lynch, which has already sold a US$5.6 billion (S$8.02 billion) stake to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, is expected to suffer US$15 billion (S$21.48 billion) in mortgage-related losses, almost double its original estimate. That has prompted the firm to seek more capital from outside investors.
Wall Street estimates had put the losses at US$12 billion. Merrill, the nation’s largest brokerage, is expected to disclose the huge write-down when it reports earnings next week, say people briefed on its plans.
To shore up its finances, Merrill is now in talks with investors in the United States, Asia and the Middle East, including private equity firms, to raise about US$4 billion, these people said.
This development underscores the rising toll the mortgage crisis is taking on many once-proud US banks.
In recent months, Merrill and other firms have grabbed financial lifelines tossed out by wealthy foreign governments. Further investments by sovereign wealth funds could prompt scrutiny by Congress.
The latest moves at Merrill come as chairman and chief executive John Thain, who took the helm last month, struggles to bolster the firm’s capital, burnish its reputation and avoid the toxic internal battles that have scarred the firm in the past.
Mr Thain, who won plaudits as head of the New York Stock Exchange, has wasted little time. Right after he took over, Merrill promptly sold a US$5.6 billion stake to Temasek and Davis Selected Advisers, a money management firm based in Arizona.
During a meeting in London last month, Mr Thain told anxious employees that Merrill expected further losses to follow the US$8.4 billion write-down in the third quarter.
He said the firm would require additional capital and noted that the fourth quarter would be a ‘very bad’ one, those attending recalled.
He has made it clear that Merrill will not sell its 49 per cent stake in BlackRock, the global money management firm. But he has said Merrill is considering selling non-core assets such as its stake in financial news and information agency Bloomberg.
In a research report, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Brad Hintz said that stake was worth about US$4 billion.
Mr Thain also said at the London meeting that Merrill’s management style needed to change. Recalling his days as co-president at Goldman Sachs, he said he wanted employees to build consensus.
Among other things, that means Merrill will now pay fewer bonuses based on individual performance; instead, it will focus on team performance.
This week, many employees received bonuses that included a greater proportion of stock than in the past.
Merrill is hardly alone in seeking capital from overseas. US financial institutions have raised more than US$29 billion from foreign governments and related investment entities, according to market research firm Dealogic.
In recent months, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp has invested US$9.7 billion in UBS, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has snapped up a US$7.5 billion stake in Citigroup and China Investment Corp has poured US$5 billion into Morgan Stanley.
If yet another foreign government takes a big stake in Merrill, the US Congress might ratchet up its scrutiny of sovereign wealth funds, which have ballooned due to rising oil prices and booming emerging markets.
NEW YORK TIMES
Source : Straits Times - 12 Jan 2008
Singapore Property - Buy , Sell , Rent , Invest
Mindy Yong
(+65)91002985
‘Stay interested in the world, take on a challenge’
This is Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s advice on ageing the best way one can. Yesterday, he shared some personal insights into how he himself deals with ageing. Here is the transcript of his remarks.
SHARING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES: MM Lee fields questions from the floor after relating personal lessons he learnt on the issue of ageing, on the 2nd day of the Silver Industry Conference and Exhibition at Suntec. — PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
MY CONCERN today is, what is it I can tell you which can add to your knowledge about ageing and what ageing societies can do.
You know more about this subject than I do. A lot of it is out in the media, Internet and books. So I thought the best way would be to take a personal standpoint and tell you how I approach this question of ageing.
If I cast my mind back, I can see turning points in my physical and mental health. You know, when you’re young, I didn’t bother, I assumed good health was God-given and would always be there. When I was about - ‘57 that was - I was about 34, we were competing in elections, and I was really fond of drinking beer and smoking.
And after the election campaign, in Victoria Memorial Hall - we had won the election, the City Council election - I couldn’t thank the voters because I had lost my voice. I’d been smoking furiously.
I’d take a packet of 10 to deceive myself, but I’d run through the packet just sitting on the stage, watching the crowd, getting the feeling, the mood before I speak. In other words, there were three speeches a night. Three speeches a night, 30 cigarettes, a lot of beer after that, and the voice was gone.
I remember I had a case in Kuching, Sarawak. So I took the flight and I felt awful. I had to make up my mind whether I was going to be an effective campaigner and a lawyer, in which case I cannot destroy my voice, and I can’t go on. So I stopped smoking. It was a tremendous deprivation because I was addicted to it. And I used to wake up dreaming…the nightmare was I resumed smoking.
But I made a choice and said, if I continue this, I will not be able to do my job. I didn’t know anything about cancer of the throat or oesophagus or the lungs, etc. But it turned out it had many other deleterious effects.
Strangely enough after that, I became very allergic, hyper-allergic to smoking, so much so that I would plead with my Cabinet ministers not to smoke in the Cabinet room. You want to smoke, please go out, because I am allergic.
Then one day I was at the home of my colleague, Mr Rajaratnam, meeting foreign correspondents including some from the London Times and they took a picture of me and I had a big belly like that (puts his hands in front of his belly), a beer belly. I felt no, no, this will not do.
So I started playing more golf, hit hundreds of balls on the practice tee. But this didn’t go down. There was only one way it could go down: consume less, burn up more.
Another turning point came when -this was 1976, after the general election - I was feeling tired. I was breathing deeply at the Istana, on the lawns. My daughter, who at that time just graduating as a doctor, said: ‘What are you trying to do?’ I said: ‘I feel an effort to breathe in more oxygen.’ She said: ‘Don’t play golf. Run. Aerobics.’
So she gave me a book, quite a famous book and, then, very current in America on how you score aerobic points swimming, running, whatever it is, cycling. I looked at it sceptically. I wasn’t very keen on running. I was keen on golf. So I said, ‘Let’s try’.
So in-between golf shots while playing on my own, sometimes nine holes at the Istana, I would try and walk fast between shots. Then I began to run between shots. And I felt better. After a while, I said: ‘Okay, after my golf, I run.’ And after a few years, I said: ‘Golf takes so long. The running takes 15 minutes. Let’s cut out the golf and let’s run.’
I think the most important thing in ageing is you got to understand yourself. And the knowledge now is all there. When I was growing up, the knowledge wasn’t there. I had to get the knowledge from friends, from doctors.
But perhaps the most important bit of knowledge that the doctor gave me was one day, when I said: ‘Look, I’m feeling slower and sluggish.’ So he gave me a medical encyclopaedia and he turned the pages to ageing. I read it up and it was illuminating. A lot of it was difficult jargon but I just skimmed through to get the gist of it.
As you grow, you reach 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and then, thereafter, you are on a gradual slope down physically. Mentally, you carry on and on and on until I don’t know what age, but mathematicians will tell you that they know their best output is when they’re in their 20s and 30s when your mental energy is powerful and you haven’t lost many neurons. That’s what they tell me.
So, as you acquire more knowledge, you then craft a programme for yourself to maximise what you have. It’s just common sense. I never planned to live till 85 or 84. I just didn’t think about it. I said: ‘Well, my mother died when she was 74, she had a stroke. My father died when he was 94.’
But I saw him, and he lived a long life, well, maybe it was his DNA. But more than that, he swam every day and he kept himself busy. He was working for the Shell company. He was in charge, he was a superintendent of an oil depot. When he retired, he started becoming a salesman. So people used to tell me: ‘Your father is selling watches at BP de Silva.’
My father was then living with me. But it kept him busy. He had that routine: He meets people, he sells watches, he buys and sells all kinds of semi-precious stones, he circulates coins. And he keeps going.
But at 87, 88, he fell, going down the steps from his room to the dining room, broke his arm, three months incapacitated. Thereafter, he couldn’t go back to swimming.
Then he became wheelchair-bound. Then it became a problem because my house was constructed that way. So my brother - who’s a doctor and had a flat (one-level) house - took him in. And he lived on till 94. But towards the end, he had gradual loss of mental powers.
So my calculations, I’m somewhere between 74 and 94. And I’ve reached the halfway point now. But have I?
Well, 1996 when I was 73, I was cycling and I felt tightening on the neck. Oh, I must retire today. So I stopped. Next day, I returned to the bicycle. After five minutes it became worse.
So I said, no, no, this is something serious, it’s got to do with the blood vessels. Rung up my doctor, who said, ‘Come tomorrow’. Went tomorrow, he checked me, and said: ‘Come back tomorrow for an angiogram.’ I said: ‘What’s that?’ He said: ‘We’ll pump something in and we’ll see whether the coronary arteries are cleared or blocked.’
I was going to go home. But an MP who was a cardiologist happened to be around, so he came in and said: ‘What are you doing here?’ I said: ‘I’ve got this.’ He said: ‘Don’t go home. You stay here tonight. I’ve sent patients home and they never came back. Just stay here. They’ll put you on the monitor. They’ll watch your heart. And if anything, an emergency arises, they will take you straight to the theatre. You go home. You’ve got no such monitor. You may never come back.’
So I stayed there. Pumped in the dye, yes it was blocked, the left circumflex, not the critical, lead one. So that’s lucky for me.
Two weeks later, I was walking around,I felt it’s coming back. Yes it has come back, it had occluded. So this time they said: ‘We’ll put in a stent.’
I’m one of the first few in Singapore to have the stent, so it was a brand new operation. Fortunately, the man who invented the stent was out here selling his stent.
He was from San Jose, La Jolla something or the other. So my doctor got hold of him and he supervised the operation. He said put the stent in. My doctor did the operation, he just watched it all and then that’s that. That was before all this problem about lining the stent to make sure that it doesn’t occlude and create a disturbance.
So at each stage, I learnt something more about myself and I stored that. I said: ‘Oh, this is now a danger point.’
So all right, cut out fats, change diet, went to see a specialist in Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital. He said: ‘Take statins.’ I said: ‘What’s that?’ He said: ‘(They) help to reduce your cholesterol.’
My doctors were concerned. They said: ‘You don’t need it. Your cholesterol levels are okay.’ Two years later, more medical evidence came out. So the doctors said: ‘Take statins.’
Had there been no angioplasty, had I not known that something was up and I cycled on, I might have gone at 74 like my mother. So I missed that deadline.
So next deadline: my father’s fall at 87.
I’m very careful now because sometimes when I turn around too fast, I feel as if I’m going to get off balance. So my daughter, a neurologist, she took me to the NNI, there’s this nerve conduction test, put electrodes here and there.
The transmission of the messages between the feet and the brain has slowed down.
So all the exercise, everything, effort put in, I’m fit, I swim, I cycle. But I can’t prevent this losing of conductivity of the nerves and this transmission. So just go slow.
So when I climb up the steps, I have no problem. When I go down the steps, I need to be sure that I’ve got something I can hang on to, just in case. So it’s a constant process of adjustment.
But I think the most important single lesson I learnt in life was that if you isolate yourself, you’re done for. The human being is a social animal - he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world.
I don’t much like travel but I travel very frequently despite the jet lag, because I get to meet people of great interest to me, who will help me in my work as chairman of our GIC. So I know, I’m on several boards of banks, international advisory boards of banks, of oil companies and so on.
And I meet them and I get to understand what’s happening in the world, what has changed since I was here one month ago, one year ago. I go to India, I go to China.
And that stimuli brings me to the world of today. I’m not living in the world, when I was active, more active 20, 30 years ago. So I tell my wife. She woke up late today. I said: ‘Never mind, you come along by 12 o’clock. I go first.’
If you sit back - because part of the ending part of the encyclopaedia which I read was very depressing - as you get old, you withdraw from everything and then all you will have is your bedroom and the photographs and the furniture that you know, and that’s your world. So if you’ve got to go to hospital, the doctor advises you to bring some photographs so that you’ll know you’re not lost in a different world, that this is like your bedroom.
I’m determined that I will not, as long as I can, to be reduced, to have my horizons closed on me like that. It is the stimuli, it is the constant interaction with people across the world that keeps me aware and alive to what’s going on and what we can do to adjust to this different world.
In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you’re retiring, you’re going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you’re done for. So statistically they will show you that all the people who retire and lead sedentary lives, the pensioners die off very quickly.
So we now have a social problem with medical sciences, new procedures, new drugs, many more people are going to live long lives. If the mindset is that when I reach retirement age 62, I’m old, I can’t work anymore, I don’t have to work, I just sit back, now is the time I’ll enjoy life, I think you’re making the biggest mistake of your life.
After one month, or after two months, even if you go travelling with nothing to do, with no purpose in life, you will just degrade, you’ll go to seed.
The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.
If you’re not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that’s real torture.
So when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: ‘Oh, 62 I’m retiring.’ I say to them: ‘You really want to die quickly?’ If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going.’
WHY MM LEE QUIT SMOKING…
‘I had a case in Kuching, Sarawak. So I took the flight and I felt awful. I had to make up my mind whether I was going to be an effective campaigner and a lawyer, in which case I cannot destroy my voice, and I can’t go on. So I stopped smoking.’
…DECIDED TO STAY IN SHAPE
‘One day I was at the home of my colleague, Mr Rajaratnam, meeting foreign correspondents including some from the London Times and they took a picture of me and I had a big belly like that (puts his hands in front of his belly), a beer belly. I felt ‘No, no, this will not do’.’
…AND DISCOVERED SOMETHING WAS UP
‘(In) 1996 when I was 73, I was cycling and I felt tightening on the neck. ‘Oh, I must retire today.’ So I stopped. Next day, I returned to the bicycle. After five minutes it became worse.
So I said: ‘No, no, this is something serious, it’s got to do with the blood vessels.’ Rung up my doctor…
Had there been no angioplasty, had I not known that something was not up and I cycled on, I might have gone at 74 like my mother. So I missed that deadline.’
HIS TOP ADVICE
‘The most important single lesson I learnt in life was that if you isolate yourself, you’re done for. The human being is a social animal, he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world…
You must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you’re retiring, you’re going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you’re done for
Source : Straits Times - 12 Jan 2008
Singapore Property - Buy , Sell , Rent , Invest
Mindy Yong
(+65)91002985
Be like Italy and Austria - aim for a cultural renaissance
By Jeremy Au Yong
HAVING overseen the country’s economic growth, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is now hoping for a cultural renaissance in Singapore.
His wish: for the country to reach the levels of Italy and Austria.
Speaking during a dialogue at the Silver Industry Conference and Exhibition yesterday, MM Lee clarified on a point he made on Monday at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Iseas) 40th anniversary dinner.
‘I said the other night at the Iseas conference that in 10 to 15 years we should be able to be at the level of Italy and Austria. So I got feedback: We already passed Italy and Austria,’ he said to laughter, referring to how people thought he had meant economic wealth.
Yesterday, he explained that he had actually been referring to the quality of civilisation in the two countries.
‘If you go to Florence or you go to Venice or you go to Rome and you see their churches, their museums, and you see the number of sculptors, painters sitting outside trying to copy Leonardo da Vinci, you know that was the beginning of the renaissance. That is a great civilisation.’
On Austria, he noted how the nation was the centre of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is home to the famed, almost 500-year-old Vienna Boys’ Choir.
‘These are things which take a long time to nurture, and that night at Iseas we were nurturing some,’ said MM Lee.
He was referring to home- grown troupes that had put up performances featuring traditional Indonesian and Chinese musical instruments.
However, the push for a cultivated society must be buttressed by economic growth, MM Lee was quick to add.
‘You cannot have a cultivated society if you have an underclass sleeping under your bridges, in the (street) corners or in the parks, nor can you have your old abandoned. So these are problems that every society faces,’ he said.
Singapore must also continue to work on becoming a society that offers people many paths to success, MM Lee said.
‘What we have to do is to make the best use of the people we have and we got a heterogeneous, a diverse group of people, maximise their value to…the whole society and use them where they are capable of adding to our general well-being.’
One example of such diversity, he cited, is the academic differences between the Chinese and Indians.
Mr Lee revealed that he studied the SAT scores of Singapore students every year. He found that the scores in Mathematics for the Chinese students were consistently in the 95th to 99th percentile but these slipped to the 75th to 85th percentile for the verbal tests.
Indian students meanwhile had high scores for the verbal component of these tests that are needed to qualify for entry into American universities.
Mr Lee also highlighted the accomplishments of students from the Institute of Technical Education or ITE.
He said most of them were from the bottom third of the school population in terms of their academic performance.
‘But out of them, one quarter make it to the polytechnic and university because in the ITE, the teaching is different. It’s hands on, it captures their interest.
‘They suddenly discover they can do these things and in the end they make it to the top. So there are many roads to success and I would say for the next 10, 15, 20 years, our best extension of what we have done is to grow this sector,’ he said.
Source : Straits Times - 12 Jan 2008
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Mindy Yong
(+65)91002985
Singapore HDB wants $18k payout back from ex-hawker
Stall compensation was paid out in error; woman has three weeks to repay
By Tania Tan & Esther Tan
HOPING TO START OVER: Madam Lee hopes to repay the money in instalments and has also requested to get another stall to go back into business. — ST PHOTO: ALAN LIM
MADAM Lee Ah Muey gave up her women’s clothing stall in Hougang Avenue 1 in 2003 and the Housing Board gave her $18,000 as compensation.
But this was a mistake on the HDB’s part. Madam Lee, 75, was not entitled to the money, and in fact had signed a contract back in 1996 forgoing any compensation if the hawker centre was redeveloped.
Realising its mistake, the HDB now wants its money back. On Wednesday, Madam Lee received the board’s notice giving her three weeks to pay back the money that she had long since spent.
‘I was in shock. I couldn’t sleep for days. I worried about how to pay back the money I didn’t even know I owed,’ said the widow, whose husband died seven years ago.
The money is long gone - used to pay her medical bills, when her health started deteriorating after she stopped working.
‘I became sick because I missed my friends from the hawker centre,’ said the mother of five grown-up children. She lives with her second daughter in a house in Lorong Gambir.
After the notice to pay up from the hawker centre’s landlord, Madam Lee got another reminder, this time from the National Environment Agency (NEA), which managed the hawker centre.
‘It’s ridiculous,’ said Madam Lee’s second daughter, Ms Gina Lau, 46, an insurance agent. ‘She was no longer a hawker by then.’
Faxes and phone calls to HDB and NEA did not help clear up matters. To get to the bottom of things, Madam Lee, accompanied by two daughters and a son-in-law, trooped down to the HDB Hub office in Toa Payoh yesterday .
Two officers from the HDB’s Properties and Land Department finally explained how the mix-up happened.
It turns out Madam Lee originally operated out of a stall at the Lim Tua Tow market near Serangoon. When it closed, she signed an undertaking to continue operating her stall at Block 105, Hougang Avenue 1.
The document states that in the event that the Hougang stall was also closed or redeveloped, there would be no compensation.
Seven years later, in 2003, the hawker centre was upgraded.
‘Due to an oversight, Madam Lee was offered the ex-gratia payment of $18,000. Madam Lee opted for the payment and terminated her tenancy,’ said the HDB spokesman.
Madam Lee will have to repay the money, but is now hoping to do so in instalments and has also made a new request - to get another stall to go back into business.
HDB and NEA officials will meet her on Monday and she will be given a list of available stalls to consider.
Madam Lee had mixed feelings after yesterday’s meeting, as she would still have to return the money. ‘What else can we do? I feel quite bo pian,’ she said, using a Hokkien term meaning ‘no choice’.
Her daughter said: ‘We can return it but we’ll be quite tight on cash.’
On a more positive note, Madam Lee added: ‘I’m happy to have a chance to go back to work.’
Source : Straits Times - 12 Jan 2008
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UK seeks Asian investors for Northern Rock-London
Govt looks to China, Mid-East to help fund a takeover
(LONDON) The British government is seeking help from backers in Asia and elsewhere as it tries to widen the net for potential rescuers of stricken bank Northern Rock.
A person close to the deal told Reuters on Thursday that Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank advising the government on Northern Rock’s options, was now seeking investors in China and the Middle East to help fund a takeover.
Another source close to the matter said the investment bank was also considering a plan to convert the Bank of England’s (BOE) loans to Northern Rock into bonds for sale to investors.
Northern Rock is Britain’s biggest casualty of the global credit squeeze and is estimated to have borrowed about £26 billion (S$72.7 billion) from the Bank of England since it was forced to seek emergency loans in September.
Finance minister Alistair Darling said finding a private-sector solution was still the government’s preferred option but it and Goldman were keeping options open.
Nationalisation remained an option, he told the Parliament’s Treasury committee, but signalled that state-ownership - which could see shareholders get nothing - would only be a temporary measure before the bank could return to the private sector.
Goldman Sachs would be looking for the ‘optimum financing package for the sale of the company’ as part of its goal to resolve the Northern Rock crisis ‘as quickly and efficiently as possible’, a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
The government’s attempts to find a rescuer to pay back the loans and revive the business have mostly focused on two consortiums, led by investment groups Virgin and Olivant.
But extended turbulence in credit markets has raised concerns the suitors will struggle to finance a deal and the government could be forced to nationalise the bank.
Mr Darling said shareholder rights were important, but the government’s priority was protecting depositors and taxpayers.
‘We want to make sure that we get the money back that the Bank of England has lent,’ Mr Darling said. ‘Shareholders always accept that if you buy shares they can go up or down.’ His comments knocked Northern Rock shares, outweighing optimism earlier in the day that funding from elsewhere could help a deal.
The shares fell 4.5 per cent to 85.25 pence, down from an early peak of 98 pence and cutting the bank’s market value to £360 million, less than one-tenth of its value a year ago.
The money that Goldman is seeking from investors in China and the Middle East would be in addition to the £15 billion that could be available from Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup to help fund a rescue bid, one of the sources said.
The other source said converting BOE loans into bonds was a possibility, but that no decision had been taken.
Goldman, Northern Rock and the Treasury declined to comment. — Reuters
Source : Business Times - 12 Jan 2008
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Facts Global Energy moves worldwide HQ to Singapore
Energy consultancy’s relocation reflects commitment to clients in the region
By RONNIE LIM
AFTER hitting US$100 a barrel recently, oil prices are likely to stay in the US$85-95 range for the rest of this year, said Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman and chief executive of Facts Global Energy which announced yesterday that it had relocated its global headquarters to Singapore from Hawaii.
Dr Fesharaki: Expects oil prices to stay in the US$85-95 range
‘This price projection, however, assumes there will be no Iranian conflict. A lot of oil production is also coming back on stream this year from repaired oil rigs earlier hit by hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea. US oil demand is also expected to remain flat,’ he explained.
His comments to BT in a phone interview came after oil slid almost US$2 a barrel to settle at US$93.71 in New York on Thursday over concerns that a US recession could hit oil demand.
Still, oil prices will stay high, he said, propped by strong demand not only from China and India, but also now from the Persian Gulf economies whose oil demand is growing by 450,000 barrels annually, ‘or the same rate as China’s’, he said. The three together will add one million barrels per day of oil demand.
He said that he expects oil prices to rise to US$130-150 a barrel in five to eight years’ time as world oil supplies reach a plateau, especially with countries like Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait practising ‘resource nationalism’ and not wanting to produce more.
On the establishment of Facts’ global HQ in Singapore, Dr Fesharaki said that the move reflects the growth of the oil and gas consultancy’s operations here over the years.
‘Singapore is now the heart of our operations, with research done here on oil and gas fed to the rest of our offices, including in Hawaii and London. Besides, it is smack in the centre of the Asia-Pacific which is seeing the biggest energy growth,’ he said.
The Singapore HQ now has about 30 staff, including multi-disciplinary specialists with long industry experience.
This compares with about 10 staff in Hawaii, 15 in London and another half dozen in Dubai, where it expects to open an office next year. It also has representative offices in Beijing, Houston and Washington, besides strategic alliances with firms in Caracas, Calgary, San Francisco and New Hampshire to give it full global coverage of the energy business.
Commitment to its long-term clients - Facts has over 200 regional corporate clients on retainer, including firms like Petronas since the early 1980s - was another reason for moving its HQ to Singapore.
‘Our commitment to clients in the region and the seriousness of our efforts are reflected by the decision to relocate here,’ its Singapore managing director Jeff Brown said.
Source : Business Times - 12 Jan 2008
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Wall Street woes continue to weigh on sentiment- US
By R SIVANITHY
IF there was a single theme to this week’s trading, it would have been ’sell the bounces and only selectively buy the dips’.
This comes from the fact that every bounce was quickly met with waves of selling pressure, even when Wall Street rose the night before.
The source of all the negativity was actually Wall Street, where bounces are now viewed with a great deal of scepticism and where investors find a unique development in place - virtually all analysts and brokers are in agreement that the immediate outlook for stocks is not positive.
Over the course of the first two weeks of 2008, brokers such as Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have released cautionary reports on the market, all revolving around the likelihood of the US economy slipping into a recession and the strong probability that this has not yet been discounted by Wall Street.
Estimates for the quantity by which US stocks might fall before prices reflect the slowdown range from 10-15 per cent, so given that the major indices are only 3-4 per cent lower now, it appears as if there’s some way to go yet.
Also, yesterday’s news that Merrill Lynch’s writedowns might total US$15 billion so far led to a steep drop in the US futures market and reversed a 40-point rise for the Straits Times Index (STI) into a net loss of 23.73 to 3,287.34. The index lost ground for the second consecutive week, dropping 150 points or 4.4 per cent. The index is now down 5.6 per cent for the year so far.
However, it’s not all bad. Even though a US slowdown may already be in place - at least according to Merrill Lynch - no one realistically expects it to be too long-lasting and a second-half recovery is quite probable. AMP Capital summed it up by saying in its weekly round-up that ‘following a run of bad news on the US economy over the last few weeks, fears of a US recession are increasing’, adding: ‘We think it’s now a 50/50 call.
‘Comments by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke suggest that the Fed is becoming more concerned about the downturn in growth than the risk of inflation, suggesting more easing ahead. His comment that the Fed stands ready to take ’substantive additional action as needed’ suggests that the Fed will cut by 50 (basis) points later this month.’
Blue chips which have been badly hit include the Singapore Exchange, which lost $1.68 or 13.1 per cent during the week to $11.10, DBS which dropped 64 cents or 3.1 per cent to $19.84 and UOB, which lost 92 cents or 4.7 per cent to $18.74.
In the second line, standout falls include recent initial public offer (IPO) KTL Global, which was 80 cents on Wednesday but ended at 54.5 cents yesterday, a whopping loss of 32 per cent in three days. It had been offered at 28 cents.
China chemical firm Jiutian was another that suffered a large drop, dropping 15.5 cents or 34 per cent to 29.5 cents over the week despite DBS-Vickers’ mid-week ‘buy’ call with a 76 cents target price.
The week was also notable for the relaunch of a slimmer STI on Thursday with 30 components as opposed to the previous 47. New entrants Yangzijiang, Yanlord and SIA Engineering all benefited from having index status but among the stocks that were dropped from the index, Venture Corp, stood out with a fall of $1.52 or 12 per cent to a 52-week low of $10.80 between Monday and Friday.
Source : Business Times - 12 Jan 2008
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Second A380 jet joins Singapore SIA fleet
By NISHA RAMCHANDANI
SINGAPORE Airlines’ second Airbus A380, which was handed over to the company in Toulouse, France, yesterday, will join the first one on the Singapore-Sydney route.
This will allow some rotation of aircraft on the Sydney route, SIA said.
The second aircraft is expected to arrive in Singapore around 9 am today. It seats 471 passengers in three different classes like the first A380, which took to the skies in October last year.
In a release, SIA also said that the addition of the second double-decker jet would create opportunities for crew training.
The airline’s third A380, which will join the stable late next month, is to be used for a daily service between Singapore and London Heathrow.
SIA said it has firm orders for another 17 A380s, for a total of 19 aircraft.
On Thursday evening, the first A380 slipped off the tarmac onto a grass verge at Changi Airport, Terminal 3. No one was injured. The incident happened after a tow truck pulling the plane forward to a take-off position disconnected from it because of a fault with the truck’s hydraulics. The plane has since been lifted out of the grass verge and given the green light to resume its flight yesterday.
Source : Business Times - 12 Jan 2008
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More Fed interest rate cuts to come - WASHINGTON
Bernanke promises ’substantive’ action to avoid US recession
(WASHINGTON) Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke borrowed a page from Alan Greenspan’s crisis playbook when he promised emphatically to cut interest rates further if the weak United States economy needs the help.
‘We stand ready to take substantive additional action as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks.’
- Mr Bernanke
The response from Wall Street on Thursday showed that the ex-Princeton economics professor is improving but still has a few things to learn before he can match Mr Greenspan’s magic in wowing financial markets.
Still, the effort rated at least a ‘B+’ while earlier attempts by Mr Bernanke to handle the first major crisis in his two-year tenure have gotten far lower grades.
The Dow Jones industrial average reacted to the last Fed rate cut on Dec 11 by plunging 294.26 points - not exactly the response Mr Bernanke was seeking to instill confidence that he iscapable of combatting America’s worst credit crunch since the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s.
The problem has been that Mr Bernanke and his Fed colleagues have appeared to be providing rate relief in a grudging fashion, disappointing investors who wanted a full-throated pledge that the Fed was prepared to do whatever was needed to keep the US from falling into a recession.
In a Thursday speech, Mr Bernanke was more forceful. ‘We stand ready to take substantive additional action as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks.’
That’s more like it, investors said, pushing the Dow average up by 117.78 points. It was welcome relief for a market that has been plunging in the New Year as investors have had to digest much bad news, indicating that the country was moving dangerously close to a recession.
The most ominous signal on that score came last week when the government reported that unemployment in December shot up to 5 per cent from 4.7 percent in November. That was the biggest one-month gain since Oct 2001 during a time of huge layoffs in the travel industry after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.
The wo