Olympics: Singapore paddler Li loses in bronze medal playoff

Olympics: Singapore paddler Li loses in bronze medal playoff
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Li Jiawei lost to China’s Guo Yue 2-4 in the women’s table tennis individual bronze medal playoff in the Beijing Olympics on Friday.

27-year-old Li, the world number six, lost 6-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-7, 3-11, 4-11 to the 20-year-old world number two.

Li had been hoping to cause an upset in the singles after helping secure Singapore’s first Olympic medal in 48 years, winning silver in the team event.

However, the loss leaves Li in fourth place in the singles competition for the second Olympics in a row, after failing to clinch bronze in the playoff in Athens in 2004.

Li’s latest match was closely watched by ardent fans in Singapore.

Some 150 of them were at the Singapore Table Tennis Association to catch the live telecast of the match.

“Quite sad, because Li Jiawei tried her best but still lost,” said a boy.

“A bit disappointed, but I think the China team is the stronger team,” said a man.

“In the last two sets, she’s too prudent, too careful and let the opponent be able to control the whole game, especially with her very effective serve and very powerful forehand drive,” said Soon Min Sin, secretary of the Singapore Table Tennis Association.

While Li did not bring home the singles bronze, she and the rest of her team mates will be given a hero’s welcome when they return home on Monday.

They will go down in history for clinching Singapore’s first Olympic medal in 48 years. - CNA/ir

Source : Channel NewsAsia  - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Retailers hit by soaring rentals

Retailers hit by soaring rentals 

Many are struggling to maintain bottom line, but no relief in sight yet 

By Michelle Tay 

FOR a retailer, it is a nightmare scenario - getting stuck in a shop with expensive rent that attracts no shoppers.
Yet retail rental levels, especially in prime areas, are still skyrocketing despite the slower economy.

 
That has left industry players wondering if retailers who committed to lease shop spaces at very pricey levels have over-extended themselves.

‘The top retail rents of about $80 per sq ft (psf), which were announced recently by Ion Orchard, are a cause for concern,’ said Mr Colin Tan, head of research and consultancy at Chesterton International. ‘How do you ensure a reasonable profit?’

Said Mr Nash Benjamin, chief executive of fashion retailer FJ Benjamin: ‘Very, very few people can pay that rate. It’s a top-end rate which everyone’s making big noise about, but it’s neither a realistic nor sustainable rate.’

‘A lot of retailers are struggling,’ noted Ms Lau Chuen Wei, executive director of the Singapore Retailers’ Association.

She said: ‘(It’s getting) more difficult for retailers to maintain top line sales. And what’s hitting them quite hard is sustaining the bottom line.’

According to Jones Lang Lasalle, average retail rents are about 27 per cent higher than they were 10 years ago.

They stood at an average of $41.25 psf a month in the first quarter of this year, compared to about $32.50 psf a month in the first quarter of 1998.

They have risen about 57 per cent since the rock-bottom days of the Asian financial crisis, when they hit $26.25 psf in the first quarter of 1999.

CB Richard Ellis said ’super-prime space along Orchard Road saw the highest quarterly increase of 5.3 per cent, hitting an average of $54.40 psf a month’.

‘If the shop size is very small and the shop is situated in a very busy place, the rentals can be as high as $60 psf or more. (But) the majority will be between $10 and $50 psf,’ said Mr Nicholas Mak, Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy.

Retailers interviewed by The Straits Times all sigh with despair at the rising rentals, which property consultants say show no sign of abating yet.

‘Quite a good number of retailers are getting worried about whether they can sustain present sales volumes in the current economic slowdown,’ said Mr Danny Yeo, Knight Frank’s director of retail.

‘But have they been complaining that sales have dropped by a very substantial amount? I don’t think so.’

Other industry experts agree, saying that demand for prime retail spaces remains high.

Rising demand is reflected in the rising occupancy rate, said Mr Mak, who added that the average occupancy rate for retail space in Orchard Road rose from 95.4 per cent in the middle of last year to 96.7 per cent in the middle of this year.

Knight Frank said in a recent research brief that the projected supply of five million sq ft of retail space expected to be completed next year will ’serve to relieve the supply crunch seen over the past couple of years’.

It added that ‘retailers can look forward to higher retail sales psf’ as the nominal retail sales figure is expected to rise from $650.60 psf last year to almost $700 psf in 2010.

And it seems the so-called retail hot spots have remained roughly the same through the years.

Property consultants are unanimous that Orchard Road remains Singapore’s primary and premier shopping belt, mainly because of its central location and the large density of malls on the strip.

Said Chesterton’s Mr Tan: ‘Orchard Road has been Singapore’s only major shopping belt. Other shopping areas just cannot match up to Orchard Road in terms of size, quality and variety.’

‘If we classify retail hot spots according to the level of shopper traffic, the malls nearer to Orchard MRT Station would still be considered the hottest,’ said Ms Daisy Loo, head of leasing and consulting at Sandalwood Retail.

By these experts’ definition, malls such as the upcoming Ion Orchard and Orchard Central would certainly make it to the ‘Singapore’s hottest retail spaces’ list and continue commanding premium rental rates from retailers.

So would the Orchard Road-facing double-storey stores in existing malls Ngee Ann City, Wisma Atria, Paragon and Mandarin Gallery.

‘At the end of the day, it’s who wants who more,’ said Ms Lau.

‘We’ve heard of times when the mall can bend backwards to accommodate what the tenant wants.’

Said Mr Yeo: ‘I think, going forward, retailers contracting for renewal will just be more careful about committing to a $60 or $80 psf kind of rent.’

Mr Benjamin said: ‘I always tell our landlords to please remember one thing - You own the property but we are your customers. If we can’t afford to rent your premises, you have a problem. So be nice to your customers.’

Singapore’s hottest retail spots

1: Ion Orchard
Location: Being built at the corner of Orchard Road and Orchard Turn

Top rental range: $60 to $80 per sq foot (psf) per month

Star tenants: Six double-storey stores totalling 50,000 sq ft, including luxury fashion brands Prada, Louis Vuitton and Cartier

 
2: Wisma Atria
Location: On Orchard Road between Ion and Ngee Ann City

Top rental range: $55 to $70 psf

Star tenants: Double-storey Nike concept store, totalling 8,000 sq ft, which has taken over the former Topshop space.

 
3: Mandarin Gallery
Location: At the corner of Orchard and Bideford Roads

Top rental range: $50 to $60 psf

Star tenants: Double-storey stores, ranging from 2,700 sq ft to 6,800 sq ft, for Emporio Armani, Marc by Marc Jacobs and D&G.

 
4: Ngee Ann City
Location: At the corner of Orchard and Bideford Roads

Top rental range: $40 to $60 psf

Star tenants: Luxury giants Chanel and Louis Vuitton on the first floor. They are due to expand into double-storey spaces, or duplexes, over the next two years - Chanel into a 7,000 sq ft store and Louis Vuitton into a 10,500 sq ft one.

 
5: Paragon
Location: At the corner of Orchard and Bideford Roads

Top rental range: $40 to $60 psf

Star tenants: Four duplexes facing Orchard Road, ranging in size from 3,600 sq ft to more than 10,000 sq ft, to be occupied by luxe labels Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada and Tod’s.

Note: Rental figures provided by Mr Danny Yeo, director of retail at Knight Frank

 
Source : Straits Times - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Singapore MPs: Plug loopholes for rental flats

Singapore MPs: Plug loopholes for rental flats 

One idea to reduce non-desperate cases: Make applicants show proof of their needy status 

By Goh Chin Lian 
  
Among the MPs’ suggestions are educating HDB applicants on alternatives to rental flats and giving concessionary loans to those who want to downgrade. ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG
WHEN it comes to nipping the problem of the not-really-needy applying for rental flats meant for the truly needy, the health sector offers some answers.

Eye surgeon and MP Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC) said the crucial question asked of applicants for Medifund, which helps the needy pay for medical expenses, was whether their family can support them financially.
This meant producing documents to prove family members have little or no money in their Medisave and bank accounts.

Currently, people who apply for subsidised HDB rental flats do not need to give such details.

They need only show that their household income is not more than $1,500 and that they had not sold their property within 30 months of applying for a rental flat, noted Dr Lim.

Five other MPs who spoke to The Straits Times also gave suggestions on how to deal with this problem.

These include educating applicants on alternatives to rental flats and giving concessionary loans to those who want to downgrade to a smaller flat.

The MPs were responding to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s worry over the tripling in the number of people seeking HDB rental flats and his call for those who were not really in need to look for alternatives, such as moving in with their children or renting a room in the open market.

In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Prime Minister Lee cited the case of three children asking the HDB to give their mother a rental flat, even though two of them lived in private property and they had the money to hire a maid to look after her.

MPs who have seen such cases believe the underlying problem is often that elderly parents cannot get along with their daughters-in-law or their own children.

Madam Ho Geok Choo (West Coast GRC) believed the solution was to counsel such families.

She recalled persuading a man to rotate among his siblings the care of their elderly parents, instead of putting his old folks in the queue for a rental flat.

She said: ‘The family should always be the first line of defence. People should not take the easy way out.’

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah GRC) wanted more public education, focusing in particular on middle-aged parents with children and parents who live with their grown-up children.

‘Educate them on the alternatives to rental flats and go on the positives, that you should be more caring to your parents,’ he said.

And when the HDB comes across such cases, it should refer them to the community development councils which can mediate among the family members, instead of just rejecting the application.

He added: ‘If you give a straight no, you will get more and more re-appeals.’

Housing policies also need to change to cater to the high demand for rental flats, said MPs Liang Eng Hwa (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) and Charles Chong (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC).

They noted that those seeking rental flats may genuinely want to downgrade to smaller, less costly accommodation.

Mr Liang reckoned that these people who earn more than $1,500 a month may not mind paying a little more than those renting the flat at a subsidised rate.

To cater to them and others who are needy, more rental flats should be built, he added. This would be over and above the current plan to raise the supply by 20 per cent to 50,000 in the next few years.

Mr Chong homed in on the policy of granting HDB concessionary loans only to people moving to bigger flats.

He argued that the HDB should allow people who cannot afford to live in four- or five-room flats and who want to downgrade to also qualify for these loans. That way, they can look for a smaller flat in the open market and do not need to apply for a rental flat.

While the HDB has approved requests on a case-by-case basis, Mr Chong believed it should be ‘a matter of policy, not exception’.

One sure change is the eligibility criteria for rental flats. They are under review, with an eye on tightening them and keeping out people who are not in need.

 
Source : Straits Times - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Chinese, but S’porean

Chinese, but S’porean
 
Olympics brought out the ‘Singaporean’ in ‘Chinese Singaporean’ 

By Janadas Devan, Review Editor 
  
THE world changed on Aug 8. The Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony was not quite a man-on-the-moon moment, but it came close.
It marked China’s re-emergence as a great power, some said. It was a Sputnik moment for the West, especially the United States, others said. It made Chinese proud to be Chinese, the Chinese said.

The last was a perfectly understandable reaction. But did Chinese here mean Chinese nationals or ethnic Chinese everywhere? How were Chinese Singaporeans to react to Aug 8? The world changed that day, certainly. Did Chinese Singaporeans change along with it?

The Sunday Times ran an interesting series of articles last week on the subject, all written by Chinese Singaporean journalists. Two were from Lianhe Zaobao: Mr Chong Wing Hong, an alumnus of Nanyang Univerity, and Ms Yew Lun Tian, a graduate from a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school. Three were from The Straits Times: Mr Teo Cheng Wee and Ms Hong Xinyi from SAP schools, and Ms Goh Sui Noi from an English school.

The articles ran under the collective headline: So Proudly Chinese. A better title would have been: So Confusingly Chinese Singaporean - And Proud Of It.

As it so happens, it was a Straits Times journalist, Mr Teo, who seems to have felt proudest to be Chinese on Aug 8. ‘I don’t think I have ever felt more proud to be Chinese than when I was watching the opening ceremony that night,’ he wrote.

The Zaobao journalists were a tad cooler. ‘There is no denying that cultural pride welled up in me as I took in the show,’ Mr Chong admitted. ‘But I was also a detached viewer, with questions popping up in my mind during the proceedings.’ And he could be detached because he was ‘no true-blue Chinese’, he remarked. ‘Singapore, where I have grown up, is my home.’

The other Zaobao journalist, the younger Ms Yew, was similarly taken with the display of Chinese culture. ‘I swooned with pride as China presented its cultural heritage icons in splendid glory,’ she reported. But she was, simultaneously, as detached as Mr Chong.

‘By the fourth or fifth item, I contemplated surrender,’ she wrote, not altogether tongue-in-cheek. ‘Okay, okay, you win, you’re the best, let’s just get on with the show.’

SAP schools’ alumni have been accused by the purely English-educated as being culturally monochrome. If the culturally monochrome can encompass so peculiarly a Singaporean turn of irony, I say let us have more SAP schools.

And that was what was most interesting about all the articles: They were all, to one degree or another, ironical - irony being, by definition, the conjoining of two or more irreconcilable ideas or thoughts: I am Chinese; no I am not. I identified with Chinese culture; I am different. I felt moved by the display; enough already. It was an altogether productive confusion.

And revealing too, for 50 years ago there would have been very little of such confusion. Cultural nationalism preceded political nationalism in Singapore. It could not have been otherwise, for this place was not a nation then. To be a nationalist was to be a cultural nationalist.

Thus, when Mao Zedong said on the steps of Tiananmen: ‘China has stood up’, Chinese here felt it had stood up for them too. Similarly, Malays and Indians here were inspired by the Indonesian revolution and the Indian national movement, respectively. The very idea of a Malayan nationalism - there was no such thing as a Singaporean nationalism then - had its origins in the exogenous cultural nationalisms of Singapore’s component races.

A grand-uncle of mine is illustrative. He was born here, never visited India in his life. And yet, in 1946, when Jawaharlal Nehru visited Singapore, he skipped work to go greet him. When asked by his boss why he had absented himself without leave, he replied: ‘I went to pay homage to the uncrowned king of India.’

His employer, the British Naval Base at Sembawang, sacked him. Today, his children and grandchildren, my cousins, would not bother going to greet Nehru’s successor, with or without leave.

Another illustration: The Straits Times newsroom virtually stopped work last week to watch the table tennis semi-finals and finals. Former Chinese nationals, now Singaporeans, beat South Koreans - deliriously happy faces all round. Our Chinese lost to their Chinese - glum (especially Chinese) faces all around.

On Aug 8: ’so proudly Chinese’, ‘I felt one with them’. Barely a week later: ‘I’m most certainly not one of them. Four years from now, we’ll beat them - with the help of their Chinese, if necessary.’

For better or worse - and it is mostly for the better - we are culturally Chinese, Malay or Indian.

As China and India become great powers, they will in all probability instigate a degree of cultural pride among overseas Chinese and Indians everywhere, including Singapore. We would have had little to do with their becoming great powers but we would feel a little reflected glory.

That 5,000 years of civilisation, that is mine too, as Mr Teo said, and it continues to do admirable things that one can identify with. And he would not be wrong to feel that way. Zhang Yimou produced the Olympics’ opening ceremony. Our cultural impressarios produced the Merlion. You do not have to be Chinese to recognise that there is no contest - culturally.

But politically, there is - or rather, was - a contest, and the ‘Singaporean’ in ‘Chinese Singaporean’ has won.

Every one of the journalists who wrote last Sunday proved that point, almost unconsciously. They belonged to different generations, pre- as well as post-65ers. Some were effortlessly bilingual, some so-so. Yet all said, in varying ways, that their identities were not based solely on race and culture. Yes, I am Chinese - or Malay or Indian; no, I am definitely not.

That actually was as good a show as the one Zhang Yimou put on - better, perhaps, for there was no lip-synching and everyone spoke in his or her own voice.

 
Source : Straits Times - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Ban on political films to be eased

Ban on political films to be eased 

No longer realistic to disallow all forms of party political films, says Government 

By Jeremy Au Yong 

A 10-YEAR-old law banning films that promote a political party or push a political end will be amended early next year.
This is to bring it in line with changes first announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally.

Responding to queries from The Straits Times, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lee Boon Yang said his ministry (Mica) plans to table a Bill in Parliament to amend the Films Act early next year.

‘The Government accepts that our policies must evolve to remain relevant in the current media landscape. It is no longer realistic to disallow all forms of party political films,’ he said.

Political films were banned in 1998, two years after Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan applied for a licence to sell a videotape on the SDP.

Mica, meanwhile, is awaiting the final report from the Goverment-appointed Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (Aims).

It is understood that a draft report from this committee will be made available for public consultation soon. The report will then be finalised by year end.

‘Mica will then study Aims’ recommendations before finalising our own review of the Films Act and Parliamentary Elections Regulations,’ Dr Lee said in an e-mail reply.

The Parliamentary Elections Regulations, which currently ban the posting of election materials online during an election period, is the other set of rules being reviewed by the ministry.

However, Dr Lee did not say when those amendments would be made.

The modifications to the laws were flagged by PM Lee last Sunday when he announced a trio of changes to ease restrictions on political expression.

He lifted the outright bans on party political films and online election materials, while also allowing outdoor protests. The protests, however, can only take place in Speakers’ Corner.

In his reply, Dr Lee gave an idea of the sorts of films that would be allowed when the changes come into force.

‘We think films which are factual documentaries or recordings of live events held in accordance with the law ought to be allowed,’ he said.

‘Such films are less likely to turn politics into an emotional and irrational debate with all the dangerous consequences,’ he said. ‘However, political commercials and films which are dramatised and made to distort issues or create a slanted impression should not be allowed.’

He conceded that there is a grey area between those two categories, and said that Mica would study how to make the distinction clearer.

As for the rules on election materials, he stressed that though they will be allowed in the lead up to polls, there must be accountability and responsibility.

The potential change has drawn mixed reactions. Though some criticise it for being too minor, others see it as a step in the right direction.

Singapore Management University law lecturer Eugene Tan, for one, welcomed the move. ‘The current rules are too quaint and too quixotic for the global city that we aspire to be,’ he said.

Source : Straits Times - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Hoi Hup-led group wins Singapore HDB project

Hoi Hup-led group wins Singapore HDB project

It will build 1,200 DBSS flats at Lor1A Toa Payoh
By KALPANA RASHIWALA

THE Housing and Development Board yesterday awarded a Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) site at Lorong 1A Toa Payoh to a Hoi Hup Realty-led consortium that emerged as the top bidder when the tender for the site closed on Tuesday.
The winning bid of about $198.82 million works out to about $160 per sq ft per plot ratio - the highest of three bids for the 103-year leasehold plot.

The consortium also includes Sunway Developments and Hoi Hup JV Development, whose shareholders include Straits Construction and Hoi Hup Realty.

A Hoi Hup spokeswoman said yesterday the group plans to build about 1,200 HDB flats on the site, of which about a third will be three and four-room flats and the rest five-room flats. ‘We’re looking at launching the project in early second-quarter 2009,’ she said.

The average selling price is expected to be around $500 psf and will depend on whether Hoi Hup succeeds in securing exemption of bay windows and planter boxes from gross floor area calculations.

This will hinge on whether Hoi Hup can submit its formal application for the project to the Urban Redevelopment Authority in time to secure provisional permission before Oct 7.

After that date, bay windows and planter boxes will no longer be exempt from GFA calculations.

 
 
‘We’re looking at building a total of five blocks, of which two will be 46 storeys high and with a sky terrace on one of the upper levels (above the 20th floor). The remaining blocks will be 40 storeys high,’ the spokeswoman said.

‘We have to complete the entire project within four years.’

A Hoi Hup-Sunway consortium is also developing another DBSS flat project, called City View @ Boon Keng. This was launched earlier this year at an average price of $520 psf.

More than 80 per cent of the 714 units have been sold so far.

Source : Business Times - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

$20m more Singapore govt funding for industry associations

$20m more Singapore govt funding for industry associations

Three new associations join LEAD programme
By DIONDI TAN

TRADE and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said yesterday the government will pump another $20 million into the Local Enterprise and Association Development (LEAD) programme for local industries.
The extra money will support new industry associations, follow-on projects from current member associations and the development and training for LEAD secretariat staff.

Since the launch of LEAD in May 2005, 16 industry associations have joined the programme and 56 industry-wide initiatives have been approved.

Overall, about $80 million has been invested by industry and the government in these initiatives.

Three new associations joined LEAD coinciding with yesterday’s announcement, and will spearhead projects in their industries.

The Association of Aerospace Industries of Singapore will focus on upgrading the business capabilities of industry members by encouraging the adoption of international certification, facilitating networking opportunities and conducting technological upgrade seminars.

The Association of Private Schools and Colleges (APSC) will engage in a branding exercise for the private education sector, work on a quality-assurance framework for private education organisations and help them internationalise.

 
 
The Singapore National Shippers’ Council will set up a Shippers’ Academy to provide upgrading and training for employees in the industry.

The courses will be optimised to raise productivity and increase efficiency.

Andrew Chua of APSC said the LEAD programme can boost the industry by creating more credibility both at home and overseas. He also said the programme will raise the level of clout that the industry has in terms of self-regulation.

The ability to bring in foreign companies and certification bodies using LEAD was stressed yesterday by Phang Cheng-Kwang, executive director of Singapore Precision Engineering and Tooling Association, which has been a LEAD member from the start.

Source : Straits Times - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Singapore ‘the right place to be in’

Singapore ‘the right place to be in’
SINGAPORE’S development to-date, and its strategy for the future ‘are outstanding’, Dr Jurgen Hambrecht says when we meet, just minutes after he has had a bird’s eye view of the Republic from the Singapore Flyer.
‘It’s opening up more and more, and attracting more people and cleverly so to,’ he adds, alluding to Singapore’s foreign talent-draw.

On its part, BASF also believes very much in foreign talent, he says. ‘It is also one reason why we are investing in R&D in Singapore, and recruiting staff and top people in the technical areas and also from the universities.’

‘When it comes to diversity, we are not the best yet, but we are working on this … this is something from BASF’s point of view where Singapore will play a part,’ he said.

Dr Hambrecht was referring to BASF’s establishment last year of its second research and development laboratory here - for organic electronics - following its first R&D facility for nanotechnology, under a S$30 million, three-year R&D budget for Singapore.

This is on top of its earlier US$500 million Ellba Eastern joint venture with Shell Chemicals on Jurong Island producing styrene monomer/propylene oxide (SMPO), which are intermediates used for end products like polystyrene containers and rubber soles.

Dr Hambrecht said that its two leading-edge R&D labs here will play a big role in BASF’s long-term strategy to stay competitive through innovation.

‘Singapore is a good place, because of intellectual property protection, to look at the entire Asian region. Certainly this is why future-oriented technology, where you need patent protection, is being done in Singapore. This is the right place to be in.

‘Here, we started with nanotechnology for all kinds of areas, and now we’ve brought in photovoltaic research. This means that of our five growth clusters, we do basic spearhead research on two of them here in Singapore. Besides Germany, no other country has two of our growth clusters,’ Dr Hambrecht said, emphasising the Republic’s importance to BASF.

Furthermore, any innovation originating from the laboratories has also to be followed through on the ground, that is, in manufacturing, he added.

Following its SMPO plant investment on Jurong Island, Dr Hambrecht said that ‘there is a new technology which we are at this very moment looking at in Europe, which is called propylene direct oxidation. I believe this is a much better technology compared with SMPO. So as we go on, we have to evaluate any kind of project vis-a-vis their future feasibility’.

‘When we come to basic building blocks in chemistry, the way to differentiate yourself is to have a new, more competitive product,’ he stressed.

Asked if BASF was now focusing more on R&D in Singapore, rather than manufacturing investments, Dr Hambrecht said: ‘No, everything starts with R&D. But if you don’t have manufacturing close to this, at the end of the day R&D will not stay,’ he said.

Dr Hambrecht said that the Economic Development Board has been doing an excellent job in strategically positioning Singapore in this regard, by not just drawing in the big petrochemical investors but also the R&D labs like BASF’s and Mitsui Chemicals’ which will help generate the next-generation products.

Does BASF have an in-house think-tank just like Singapore’s EDB has informal ‘amoeba’ teams of officers to ‘dream up’ new innovation or growth areas?

Dr Hambrecht said: ‘We have a similar approach and we talk intensively every year with EDB about the future, and we openly exchange our ideas … by the way, EDB got some ideas about integrated manufacturing from BASF. I think EDB’s basic approach to this may have emerged out of this.’

He was referring to the economies and efficiencies gained from having fully-integrated petrochemicals manufacturing at a single site - or the ‘Verbund’ concept - like what BASF has in Ludwigshafen in Germany and in Nanjing, China.

Singapore’s Jurong Island has prospered in much the same way, attracting multi-billion dollar petrochemical complexes like Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore’s and more recently ExxonMobil’s second complex and Shell’s latest project, thanks to such integration.

Source : Straits Times - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Engines purr for budget-conscious Singapore F1 fans

Engines purr for budget-conscious Singapore F1 fans

By NISHA RAMCHANDANI

(SINGAPORE) The historic Formula One night race in Singapore next month is drawing a strong turnout from budget-conscious travellers - if bookings at backpacker inns and hostels are anything to go by.
While such establishments may not be on a par with hotels in terms of capacity or facilities, they are reporting brisk business during the race weekend thanks to their low prices.

However, the biggest bonus for visitors coming here for the race might well be the fact that hostels are exempt from paying a tax of 20 per cent (for non-track-side hotels) and 30 per cent (for track-side hotels) that is being levied on hotels by the government to help offset the cost of hosting the race. As such, most of the hostels that BT spoke to are passing on the savings by keeping rates unchanged.

Fern Loft Backpacker Hostel - which has a combined capacity of 120 across its River Valley, East Coast and Chinatown locations - is already fully booked for all three days of the race weekend, with guests from countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia.

A one-night stay in a dorm room comes to an affordable $20-$25 a night, while private rooms are in the region of $60-$125. Bookings were mostly made through the Internet.

The Hive, which can host 60 guests, is also full for the race weekend. Room rates have remained constant at $20 daily for dorm rooms and between $42 and $55 for private rooms.

 
 
Another hostel saw bookings for its six private rooms come in as far back as nine months ago. ‘We still have some interested parties on hold because we’re saving rooms for our corporate clients,’ said one budget hostel which declined to be named.

The hostel, which has filled about 60 per cent of its 90-person capacity, said that 85 per cent of the travellers who booked with them for that period have indicated on booking forms that they are coming for the F1. The hostel has even implemented a minimum three-night stay for guests arriving between Sept 25 and 29.

Over at the Prince of Wales, its five double rooms have been booked for about a month now while the Rucksack Inn has had all of its 22 beds booked since the last two weeks.

‘Bookings started to come in end-July to the first week of August,’ said Yeo Hwee Sian, manager of Rucksack Inn. The inn is also leaving its dorm room rate unchanged, at $30 a night. Guests that are coming for the race hail from the Czech Republic, the Philippines as well as Germany, said Ms Yeo.

After all the beds were taken up, she even had to refer one group to another hostel, Betel Box. ‘But they were full too,’ she added.

A check with Betel Box showed that they had only one bed available for both Sept 26 and 28, but were full on the 27th.

 
Source : Straits Times - 23 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com