Singapore Private dating agencies get $4m boost for activities

Singapore Private dating agencies get $4m boost for activities

SELECTED private dating agencies will get extra arrows to fit onto their Cupid’s bow, courtesy of the Government.

It will provide them with $4 million a year in funding to provide subsidised ’social interaction’ programmes for singles.

These agencies will, however, need to be accredited by the Government.

The first batch of accredited agencies is likely to be announced in October.

There are about 200 such bodies in Singapore, which charge between $50 and $200 monthly for membership.

The funds will be administered by a new body made up of the merger of government matchmaking agencies Social Development Unit and Social Development Service.

The merged body, yet unnamed, will reach out to singles in general, beyond its members.

So it will set up a network of full-time officers to create opportunities for singles to interact at various platforms such as workplaces, community clubs, public sector agencies and companies.

They will plan activities and organise talks and workshops.

They will also organise classes at junior colleges and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) from Jan 1 next year. These will touch on matters like social etiquette, relationships, and personal grooming and communication skills.

The number of singles has increased steadily over the years. For instance, the proportion of single men in the 30 to 34 age group has increased from 30.7 per cent in 2000, to 34.7 per cent last year.

But surveys conducted by the Government found most singles want to get married and have children.

Source : Straits Times - 22 Aug 2008

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Pregnant? Fired? Boss must pay

Pregnant? Fired? Boss must pay

Under new rules, staff fired in last 6 months of pregnancy will get benefits

By Li Xueying

PREGNANT employees will be further protected from discrimination by bosses, from January next year.

Employers who fire them, for no good reason, within the last six months of their pregnancy will have to pay these woman their maternity leave benefits.

A FAIR WORKPLACE
‘The last thing women want is to be given the choice between career and family, and then find that she’s being discriminated against at the work front.’

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport

Maternity leave
And baby makes glee
The same rules apply if they are laid off within the last three months of their pregnancy.

These changes will tighten the current rules, which hold the employer responsible only if the employee is fired in the last three months of her pregnancy.

These measures will help address a common apprehension among women in the wake of the Government decision to extend maternity leave from three to four months.

When maternity leave was first extended from two to three months in 2004, the number of complaints from women who lost their jobs while pregnant rose.

There were 25 that year. The number almost tripled to 71 in 2006, although it fell to 59 last year, and just 19 in the first half of this year.

Combating such behaviour is crucial, stressed Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport.

‘The last thing women want is to be given the choice between career and family, and then find that she’s being discriminated against at the work front.’

But will the new measures work?

Mrs Lim acknowledged the desire from some quarters for legislation, which will be more punitive.

‘But discrimination in reality can be very subtle too. So what we want is to cultivate this whole spirit and this whole culture where it is really quite uncool to act against pregnant women, really uncool for employers to discriminate against parents of young kids.’

Meanwhile, some have asked if paternity leave would have alleviated gender discrimination, given that employers of fathers would have shared the burden along with those who had employed mothers.

Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said in an e-mail to The Straits Times: ‘I doubt introducing paternity leave will solve the issue of gender discrimination effectively.’

He stressed that employers in Singapore are ‘generally fair and do not discriminate against women’.

They understand the benefits of a harmonious work-life balance and many have introduced initiatives to achieve this, he added.

He pledged that his ministry will investigate complaints of discrimination.

‘But more importantly, we work through our tripartite partners - SNEF (Singapore National Employers Federation) and the unions - to reach out to employers.

‘We share with them best practices in the industry, showcase good employers which have adopted fair employment practices and help employers introduce such practices.

‘I think this is a more effective approach to address the issue of discrimination.’

The minister also assured bosses that the longer maternity leave will not affect companies’ competitiveness.

Earlier, at the Tuesday media conference, he acknowledged that companies will face challenges when making arrangements for workers to cover the duties of colleagues on leave.

But the Government had built in some flexibility in the maternity leave, he said, noting that the third and fourth month of the leave can be taken any time in the first year of the child’s birth.

‘That will allow them to discuss with their employees how best to minimise disruption to their day-to-day operations.

‘So I think this flexibility will give them some comfort, knowing they can manage the process and not hurt their competitiveness.’

Source : Straits Times - 22 Aug 2008

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Singapore Temasek assets grow to $185b

Singapore Temasek assets grow to $185b

$21b added despite tough year and plunge in Merrill stake

By Grace Ng

TEMASEK Holdings’s assets grew 13 per cent to $185 billion in its latest financial year, despite a turbulent period for equity markets.

The growth comes amid a freefall in the market value of troubled Western banks like Merrill Lynch, of which the Singapore sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is the largest shareholder.

Chairman S. Dhanabalan noted that Temasek knew it was likely to lose money in the short term when it invested in Merill a few months ago. But the investment is sound over a horizon of five to seven years, he said.

Temasek is also prepared to invest more money in Western banks if opportunities arise, he told 180 executives at an event organised by TiE Singapore, a network of entrepreneurs.

Temasek, which is solely owned by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, has added $21 billion to the market value of its net portfolio over the year to end March.

It delivered 17 per cent total returns on shareholder funds over the period, sustaining its compound annual growth rate of 17 per cent since its inception in 1974.

‘Temasek’s 13 per cent growth in assets is very strong given the tough market conditions,’ said Mr Adrian Gmuer, Asia business head of hedge fund house RMF.

Mr Gmuer noted that the HFRI Emerging Markets Global Index rose 11 per cent in the year to March 31. This tracks the performance of hedge funds that, like Temasek, are exposed to growth markets in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere.

Mr Dhanabalan also revealed that Singapore and Asia account for nearly 75 per cent of Temasek’s investments.

He disclosed these figures ahead of the release of Temasek’s annual review next Tuesday - its fifth since 2004.

The review will be closely watched by Singaporeans and global investors, as it will be the first time Temasek will report on its performance amid a credit crisis touted to be the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

But Mr Dhanabalan said Temasek has weathered rough times before: ‘We have been around for more than three decades, we have seen the ups and downs of several economic cycles.

‘Every time I go through a cycle…it’s like the end of the world. I asked myself, in 1973 during the oil shock, what will the world look like five years from now?

‘Looking back now, it was just a little blip,’ he said, adding that he hoped the current problems would not be ‘too severe a downturn’.

The credit crunch allowed Temasek to take a significant stake in major institutions like Merrill Lynch at ‘attractive prices’, which would not have been possible ‘under normal circumstances’, he noted.

‘We also knew that likely the (share) price may go below what we had invested at,’ he said. Merrill’s share price has fallen 55 per cent since last Dec 24, when it first announced Temasek’s investment.

‘But we are looking at it for five to seven years,’ he said, adding that the investment will boost the value of Temasek’s portfolio in the ‘long term’.

It will take another year or two to be certain whether Merrill Lynch will pull through the crisis, noted Mr Hugh Young, managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Singapore.

‘But a five- to seven-year horizon is ample time for Merrill to rebuild itself, and Temasek can wait since it is a long-term investor,’ he said.

Mr Dhanabalan noted that there is ‘fear and suspicion’ about SWFs, as they are perceived by some to lack governance and may make politically-motivated investments in key foreign companies.

He asserted that Temasek is differentiated from other SWFs in terms of its ownership, accountability and transparency.

Temasek is ‘neither a part of the Government’s policy arm nor do we invest Singapore’s foreign reserves’, he said.

Instead, it operates as ‘an autonomous and professional’ owner and manager of its assets and investments.

Temasek also follows the regulations that apply to any company in Singapore, he added. The country’s Constitution ensures fiscal discipline in how the national wealth held by Temasek is used.

Thirdly Temasek is ‘arguably one of the most transparent privately owned companies around’. It is recognised by US policy makers as setting ‘the gold standard in transparency’ together with Norway’s SWF, said Mr Dhanabalan.

Source : Straits Times - 22 Aug 2008

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Budget hotel boss makes rich list- Singapore

Budget hotel boss makes rich list- Singapore

Chief of Fragrance chain debuts on Forbes’ S’pore list at No.24

By Fiona Chan

From far left: Kwek Leng Beng, Dr James Koh, Fragrance Hotel owner and Tan Boy Tee. — THE STRAITS TIMES FILE PHOTOS
BUDGET hotels and mid-range condominiums are hardly what one associates with the rich and famous.

But they proved the key to wealth for Mr Koh Wee Meng, the chief of Fragrance Group, which owns the chain of tourist-class Fragrance hotels, as well as boutique property developer Fragrance Land.

Mr Koh debuted on Forbes magazine’s list of Singapore’s richest people at No.24, propelled by a string of well-sold boutique condos and revenue from Fragrance’s 18 hotels islandwide. But Fragrance - one of the few property companies that did better this year than last year - was an exception to the real estate riches rule.

Some other property bigwigs found their fortunes halved as the market slowed and stock prices tumbled. Upmarket developers such as SC Global’s Simon Cheong and Ho Bee Group’s Chua Thian Poh suffered especially from the downturn in the luxury homes segment.

Mr Cheong, who made his debut on the list last year, fell from 15th place to 22nd as his net worth fell from US$480 million (S$680 million) to US$245 million. Mr Chua slipped from 13th position last year to 20th this year after his fortune fell from US$500 million to US$260 million.

Mr Cheng Wai Keung, chairman of property and retail group Wing Tai Holdings, saw his wealth plunge to US$255 million from US$475 million last year after the company’s stock fell 50 per cent.

Generally, the rankings released yesterday remained much the same as last year, particularly in the top spots.

Property magnate Ng Teng Fong, who heads Far East Organization, was named Singapore’s richest man for the second year in a row. His fortune rose from US$6.7 billion last year to US$7 billion.

Mr Ng was again followed by the family of the late banker Khoo Teck Puat, who are worth US$6.1 billion, up from US$5.7billion last year.

United Overseas Bank chairman Wee Cho Yaw also kept his third spot with a family fortune valued at US$3.6 billion, from US$3.3 billion last year.

In fifth and seventh places are Singapore’s newest billionaires: Mr Kuok Khoon Hong of Wilmar International and remisier-turned-investor Peter Lim.

Mr Kuok, who founded Wilmar as a tiny palm oil outfit and turned it into one of Asia’s largest agribusinesses, saw his stock surge nearly a third in the last year due, in part, to soaring palm oil prices.

Mr Lim, coincidentally, also got rich off Wilmar. He bet on Mr Kuok’s success with an early investment in the palm oil producer and is now reaping the benefits.

Commodities also launched Mr Sunny Verghese, the chief of cashew and cocoa trader Olam International, into the rich list for the first time. He debuted in 39th place with a fortune of US$125 million.

Another new entry was Mr Wong Fong Fui, the chief executive of Boustead Singapore, whose successful turnaround of one of Singapore’s oldest companies echoes his own classic rags-to-riches story.

Forbes said Mr Wong was born into a poor family and worked as a tree tapper on a Malaysian rubber plantation when he was seven. He was accepted into a secondary school after he wrote an essay, with the following lines: ‘I tap rubber trees. I see rubber trees in the morning. I see rubber trees in the evening. I see rubber trees every day, day in, day out. Rubber trees, rubber trees. I hate rubber trees.’

As always, shipping magnates sailed smoothly into the wealth rankings. In the top 20 alone were Labroy Marine’s Tan Boy Tee, Yantai Raffles’ Brian Chang, Pacific International Lines’ Chang Yun Chung, Singapore Shipping Corp’s Ow Chio Kiat and Ezra Holdings’ Lee Kian Soo.

Notable dropouts this year include fashion entrepreneur-turned-high-end hotelier Christina Ong, wife of tycoon Ong Beng Seng. Her fortune was dragged down by the falling stock price of bag maker Mulberry, in which she has a stake.

After her removal, only three women remain on the list: Ms Olivia Lum, founder of water treatment firm Hyflux; Ms Vivian Chandran, the widow of energy firm Chemoil founder Robert Chandran; and Mrs Margaret Lien, the widow of banker Lien Ying Chow. The total net worth of the richest 40 remained at US$32 billion.

Source : Straits Times - 22 Aug 2008

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S’PORE’S Li Jiawei kept her medal dream alive by making the final four players of the women’s table tennis singles tournament at the Beijing Olympics.

S’PORE’S Li Jiawei kept her medal dream alive by making the final four players of the women’s table tennis singles tournament at the Beijing Olympics.

She beat American Wang Chen to face World No. 1 Zhang Yining of China at 10am today. Their match will be telecast live over Channel 5 and Channel 604.

The other semi-final will feature China’s Guo Yue and Wang Nan.

GAO’S DREAM ENDS IN TEARS

THERE was only disappointment and tears for Singapore’s No. 1 paddler Gao Ning, who crashed out of the final 16 of the men’s singles tournament yesterday.

No coach showed up for his match, causing an uproar among Singapore officials.

Unhappy Singapore Table Tennis Association president Lee Bee Wah rebuked team officials, saying: ‘The damage to Gao Ning is beyond repair. His Olympic dream is shattered.’

SPORT

Source : Straits Times - 22 Aug 2008

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CityDev issuing 1st tranche of Islamic bonds by year end

CityDev issuing 1st tranche of Islamic bonds by year end

CITY Developments said yesterday that it will issue the first tranche of Islamic bonds by the end of the year, as it looks to build up its war chest.

Singapore’s second-largest developer announced last week that it plans to sell $1 billion of Islamic multi-currency medium-term notes, arranged by Malaysian bank CIMB. The deal will be Singapore’s first Islamic unsecured financing arrangement.

CIMB Group is listed on the Malaysian stock exchange through Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings.

‘We hope to do the first tranche before year-end, subject to market conditions,’ CityDev’s chief financial officer Goh Ann Nee said at a briefing yesterday.

CityDev said that it has not decided on the size or the coupon rate of the first tranche of notes. But management has indicated that the rates will be competitive and that it expects to see good institutional demand.

CityDev will use the funds to buy land or buildings, and has said that it will inject its own properties, freeing funds for new investments.

Islamic financing will allow CityDev to tap a broader base of investors, says managing director Kwek Leng Joo.

‘Many are curious why City Developments is enhancing its war chest,’ Mr Kwek said. ‘We always believe that in the midst of any economic slowdown there are tremendous opportunities.’

CityDev did not say which markets it is interested in. But management has guided that it will look at distressed assets in the region, including Vietnam, China, the Middle-East and Russia, CIMB analyst Donald Chua said in a note yesterday.

‘Given restrictions on the use of syariah/Islamic products, we believe proceeds will be used for investments primarily in residential property and commercial (office) investments,’ he added.

CIMB Investment Bank head of debt capital markets Thomas Meow said that the bank has been in discussions with other Singapore firms to set up syariah-compliant financing.

Vince Cook, chief executive of DBS unit Islamic Bank of Asia, told Reuters: ‘Given the ongoing difficult conventional market conditions, it is not surprising that issuers are looking at ways to open up new pools of investors.’

CityDev shares gained six cents to close at $10.20 yesterday.

Source : Business Times - 22 Aug 2008

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Singapore Temasek willing to pump more into Merrill Lynch

Singapore Temasek willing to pump more into Merrill Lynch

It was aware at time of investing that Merrill could plunge before rebounding

(SINGAPORE) Just a month after it injected an additional US$900 million in US securities firm Merrill Lynch, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings has indicated that it may raise its stake even further in the troubled bank.

Mr Dhanabalan: When an SWF is government-linked, no matter how tenuously, scrutiny is magnified manifold. A world of more restricted trade and capital flows is not good for Temasek and Singapore, nor for the world.

The investment company’s chairman S Dhanabalan said yesterday that it would be willing to look at the possible opportunities to do so, but ‘whether we do it depends on our assessment and risk diversification’.

The 71-year-old chairman was speaking to 175 business leaders at a Raffles Hotel luncheon organised by Talent ideas Enterprise, a non-profit organisation that promotes entrepreneurship.

Last December, Temasek paid US$5 billion for a stake in Merrill. Giving a deeper insight into the considerations leading up to the deal, Mr Dhanabalan said: ‘We saw an institution that had good management, good business. We thought the price was attractive, but we also knew that it was very likely it would go below what we invested. But we look at it (for a period) of 5-7 years.’

Merrill’s shares have dipped 55 per cent since last Christmas Eve, the day it announced Temasek’s purchase of about 5 per cent of its stock.

In his speech, Mr Dhanabalan also revealed that Temasek’s assets had increased to $185 billion at the end of March this year, 13 per cent higher from a year earlier.

‘Growing with our blue- chip companies and our direct investment activities, Temasek now owns a net portfolio of about $185 billion at market value as at March 31, 2008,’ he said.

These latest figures come ahead of Temasek’s anticipated release of its annual report next Tuesday.

Mr Dhanabalan said that Singapore and Asia make up about 75 per cent of Temasek’s investments, down slightly from 78 per cent a year ago.

Looking ahead, he said that Temasek’s growth outside Singapore ‘will be higher’, meaning the proportion of investments here will inevitably shrink.

Of late, Temasek has been venturing into markets outside of Asia, excluding Japan, in a bid to seek higher returns and diversify its portfolio.

Besides the heavy investments in Merrill and Barclays, Temasek is also busy hiring for its new offices in Brazil and Mexico.

Temasek’s original breakdown in terms of geography has been one third Singapore, one third Asia, and one third in the developed markets.

But Mr Dhanabalan explained that the ratios alone do not drive Temasek’s investments.

‘We are very opportunistic. We don’t say we need to have so much in this market, so let’s go invest. If the opportunity arises, we go and invest. We have no prior sort of proportion that we must invest in Brazil or Mexico,’ he said.

Mr Dhanabalan also took the opportunity to once again reiterate Temasek’s stance that it is an atypical sovereign wealth fund in that it owns its assets and is not a fund manager like most other SWFs.

Describing Temasek as an institution that ‘often finds itself drawn unwittingly into this controversy’, he said that while Temasek is seen as the ‘gold standard’, it still risks collateral damage from any backlash against SWFs in general.

The controversy surrounding these funds stems from how they have significantly increased their influence on global markets in recent years. UK-based research organisation IFSL says assets under the management of SWFs increased 18 per cent last year to hit US$3.3 trillion. This is likely to exceed US$10 trillion by 2015, it said.

‘When the investor is government-linked, no matter how tenuously, the scrutiny is magnified manifold. A world of more restricted trade and capital flows is not good for Temasek and Singapore, nor for the world,’ said Mr Dhanabalan.

Source : Business Times - 22 Aug 2008

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BEIJING Olympics: Singapore’s Li, China’s champs enter table tennis women’s singles semis

BEIJING Olympics: Singapore’s Li, China’s champs enter table tennis women’s singles semis

BEIJING: China’s three table tennis champions battled into the semi-finals of the women’s singles Thursday, with only Singapore’s Li Jiawei left to halt the host nation’s charge for gold.

China’s world number one and defending champion Zhang Yining fought off a ferocious challenge from Singapore’s number nine seed Feng Tianwei in her quarter-final, before winning 13-11, 12-14, 14-12, 12-10 13-11.

China, where table tennis is considered the national sport, have never lost the women’s singles title since the sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, such is the dominance of the team.

But Singapore’s Beijing-born Li, fresh from leading her compatriots to silver in the team competition against China, the city state’s first medal in 48 years, is gunning for an upset in the singles.

The fourth seed destroyed Wang Chen’s dreams of clinching a medal for the United States, winning 15-13, 11-6, 12-10, 13-15, 11-4 in their quarter-final, and now takes on the Athens gold medallist.

Wang, 34, who announced she is retiring after these Games, earlier made history by becoming the first player for the United States to reach the last eight of the Olympic tournament.

“I’ve been preparing for this for two years. I’m 34 years old, I’m not a young player, my back hurts always and I always feel very tired,” said Wang, a former national China player who moved to the United States eight years ago.

China’s Wang Nan, the veteran of the Chinese team at 29 who has three gold medals from previous Olympics, also had a tough workout against Hong Kong’s Tie Yana before prevailing 11-5, 11-4, 11-13, 11-2, 11-4.

World champion Guo Yue fought off Wu Xue from the Dominican Republic, the surprise of the tournament after she defeated paddlers higher than her 50-world ranking, winning 11-5, 16-14, 13-11, 11-5.

The two Chinese champions have a showdown in the other semi-final on Friday.

Zhang said she won her match against Feng, which included numerous fast and furious rallies, despite being barred from using her match racquet after it failed inspection from tournament officials.

“I could not attack because of the rubber on the backup racquet. It’s not powerful enough,” she said.

“She (Feng) has good defence and is good at rallies. Compared to the last time, I feel that she has improved in her ability to sustain a rally. She is still young and has a great future,” she said.

Zhang earlier shattered Japan’s hopes of securing a medal on the women’s side, defeating teenage prodigy Ai Fukuhara 4-1 in the round of 16.

Zhang took the win in her stride, suggesting she lost the fourth game against Japan’s darling of the sport because she was impatient to get back to the Olympic village.

“Overall the match was within my control. I felt quite assured of a win. Compared to my opponent, I have greater capabilities. So I was certain of winning the match,” she said.

“I might have relaxed too much in the fourth game and lost my concentration. I just wanted to hurry up and go home to rest.”

- AFP/ir

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 22 Aug 2008

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BEIJING Olympics: Li Jiawei, Feng Tianwei through to table-tennis quarterfinals

BEIJING Olympics: Li Jiawei, Feng Tianwei through to table-tennis quarterfinals

BEIJING: Singapore table tennis players Li Jia Wei and Feng Tianwei continued their good run at the Olympics on Thursday morning by winning the women’s singles fourth round matches.

Feng Tianwei made short work of Li Jie of the Netherlands, beating the latter four sets to one in a mere 43 minutes.

Li Jie took the lead in the first set with 11-7, but did not stand a chance once Feng warmed up to the game. The Singaporean paddler took the next four sets straight at 13-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-4.

In the next table, things were more heated as Li Jia Wei battled Hong Kong’s Lin Ling.

It was a nail-biting showdown from start to end as both players evened the scores by taking a set each for the first six sets 4-11, 14-12, 10-12, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9.

On the deciding seventh game, Li Jia Wei managed to scrape through with a 13-11 win to enter Thursday evening’s quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s male paddlers failed to do as well in their men’s singles third round matches.

Croatia’s Tan Ruiwu, who was in top shape, knocked Singapore’s Gao Ning out of the competition in just 24 minutes.

Gao seemed to be in poor form, and lost to Tan in all four sets 11-6, 14-12, 11-4, 11-7.

Over at table four, Singapore’s Yang Zi managed to pull one off over Chinese Taipei’s Chuan Chih-Yuan in a close 61-minute match.

The pair tied for six sets with 14-12, 7-11, 11-8, 7-11, 5-11, 11-7. In the deciding seventh set, Yang smashed Chuan out of the match with a 12-10 win.

Both Li Jiawei and Feng will compete in the table tennis women’s singles quarterfinals at 6pm on Thursday.

Li Jiawei will meet American Wang Chen, while Feng will play a tougher match against China’s number one paddler Zhang Yining.

- CNA/yb

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 22 Aug 2008

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