APEC trade and finance officials to meet in Singapore in Feb & July

APEC trade and finance officials to meet in Singapore in Feb & July

By S Ramesh,

SINGAPORE: For the first time, Singapore will bring together Asia-Pacific’s senior trade and finance officials next month and in July to discuss fiscal and monetary measures to help businesses and workers tide over the economic crisis.

In the past, these senior officials had separate meetings.

As the host of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meetings, Singapore will work with other APEC member economies to accelerate regional economic integration “at the border”, “behind the border” and “across the border”.

APEC will also give priority to provide impetus for the successful conclusion of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Round of talks.

Singapore stressed that securing a global deal will not only help deliver new trade flows but also a firewall against protectionist pressures.

This year’s theme is “Sustaining Growth, Connecting the Region”.

Singapore’s Trade and Industry Ministry said on Wednesday the theme reflects APEC’s continuing efforts to facilitate trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.

It added that these efforts have gained greater importance in view of the challenging economic environment.

Also launched on Wednesday was a special logo to commemorate APEC 2009.

It depicts the 21 economies coming together to convene at a single point, working towards unity, cooperation and synergy to advance common interests.

- CNA/yb

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 15 Jan 2009

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Singapore sets growth agenda for Apec

Singapore sets growth agenda for Apec

By Robin Chan

SUPPORTING growth and integration while battling the economic crisis is the challenge Singapore has laid down for its fellow Apec members this year.
Key talks will be held in November and hosted by Singapore for the first time, drawing leaders from 21 economies around the region, including incoming United States president Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Hu Jintao.

As this year’s chairman and host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec), Singapore gets to nominate the central subject for what are sure to be crucial discussions given the severe economic situation.

Trade and finance officials, who previously had met separately, will meet together for the first time on fiscal and monetary measures to deal with the downturn. These meetings will be held here next month and in July.

The talks will culminate in the key summit, expected in November, involving Pacific Rim leaders.

Singapore took over as host from Peru after the Nov 25 summit in Lima last year. Peru hosted 129 meetings leading up to the summit under the theme of ‘A new commitment to Asia-Pacific development’.

While the economic crisis is clearly the top priority, Singapore hopes that under its chairmanship, Apec - formed 20 years ago - will achieve more progress on regional economic integration.

This involves lowering trade and investment barriers, simplifying business regulations and reducing the time and cost of moving between borders.

Another step would be to lay the foundations for a possible Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, which would bring together 40 per cent of the world’s people and half of world trade.

With the US and China among its ranks, the Apec meetings could provide some impetus to the derailed Doha Round of global trade talks, now in their eighth year.

As well as establishing the meeting’s theme - ‘Sustaining growth, connecting the region’ - Singapore has also unveiled a logo and set up a website at www.apec2009.sg

The logo - a spark with 21 strokes - symbolises the 21 member economies working towards unity, cooperation and synergy to advance common interests.

Source : Straits Times - 15 Jan 2009

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Small building jobs restored to help SMEs - Singapore

Small building jobs restored to help SMEs - Singapore

Government will also speed up payments to firms for work done

By Joyce Teo

This year will be a challenging one for the industry, so the revived projects will help smaller firms hold their own against bigger ones. — PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

SMALLER government construction projects that had been deferred since end-2007 amid a building boom are being brought back on stream to help ignite the now-slumping sector.
Restarting the projects, each worth up to $50 million, will help smaller building firms that are feeling the pain more than the construction giants.

The work, which will be outlined in next Thursday’s Budget, could include building schools and upgrading lifts in HDB blocks.

‘The purpose of these additional projects…is to help small and medium-sized contractors because…we are told that the larger firms have jobs in hand,’ said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan yesterday.

One sign of the tighter market is the fact that the number of tenderers for small projects of up to $30 million has doubled compared with six months ago, added Mr Mah, the guest-of-honour at a construction and property prospects seminar.

To sustain the flow of jobs to smaller firms, the minister said that many of the projects will kick in towards the middle or end of this year. Other suitable work in the pipeline will also be brought forward.

Industry players lauded the move.

‘Most of the construction firms are small and medium-sized, which have recently handled mostly private sector projects,’ said the Singapore Contractors Association’s executive director Simon Lee.

Now that a lot of the private jobs have dried up, these firms would clearly welcome any small public sector projects, added Mr Lee.

If the Government is seeking to pump-prime the economy, smaller projects are good as local contractors can bid for them, said construction firm BBR Holdings’ chief executive Andrew Tan.

If the jobs are packaged as big parcels, few local firms can bid and they are likely to go to the foreign parties, he said.

The move will help to stabilise and boost the industry, said Davis Langdon & Seah Singapore’s director, Mr Seah Choon Meng, who spoke at the seminar.

This year will be a ‘challenging if not depressive year’ for the construction industry, both in terms of work demands as well as construction costs, he said.

Official data show a sector in slowdown. Private industry construction demand - the value of contracts awarded - will drop to between $5 billion and $9 billion this year, well down from $20.1 billion last year, according to Building and Construction Authority (BCA) data released at the seminar.

The projected fall - of 55 per cent to 75 per cent - will be the biggest slide since the 53.5 per cent decline in 1998.

Overall, construction demand is projected to reach $22 billion to $28 billion this year. This will be due to the value of public sector contracts like roads and MRT infrastructure possibly rising 31 per cent to between $17 and $19 billion.

Last year, the overall value of contracts rose 41 per cent to a record $34.6 billion.

Meanwhile, construction output, which records payments made for work done, was estimated at $25 billion last year, up from $17.87 billion in 2007.

While the BCA said it could peak at $28 billion to $30 billion this year, others think the figure is debatable because an increasing number of residential projects were deferred from the fourth quarter last year as home prices fell.

Tender prices, softening slightly now that private sector works are falling off the cliff, are likely to decline by between 15 and 20 per cent from the second or third quarter onwards, said Mr Seah.

Overall construction costs fell by more than 5 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to feedback obtained by the BCA.

Yesterday, Mr Mah said that public sector agencies will be making more frequent, prompt and full progress payments to firms for work done. It will also lower the 5 per cent security deposit for public works by at least half.

Apart from MRT projects, other likely major public works this year include HDB flats, the National Heart Centre and the International Cruise Terminal, while PowerGas’ liquefied natural gas-receiving terminal and Wildlife Reserves Singapore’s new river-themed park and safari at Mandai are on the private sector’s horizon.

Source : Business Times - 15 Jan 2009

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Google launches local edition of its news website

Google launches local edition of its news website

By ONG BOON KIAT

GOOGLE yesterday kicked off the 56th localised edition of its news portal in Singapore, promising news from over 4,500 English- language online sources that include local media outlets.

Accessible at http://news.google.com.sg , the Singapore edition of Google News trawls the latest happenings from top-tier Singapore media like AsiaOne, The Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, TODAY, as well as overseas ones like Reuters, Malaysia Star, The Irrawaddy News and The Asia Pacific Post.

On the website, users can scan headlines and brief snippets of stories, then, by clicking on the headline, they will to be taken to the news publisher’s website where they can read the full news article.

Each news item is trailed by a row of related- links. Users can also customise the website by setting up feeds of the latest news based on their own keywords.

Speaking to the media from India on a teleconference, Google News product manager Rahul Roy Chowdhury said the relevancy of news presented is determined by an automated ranking technology that imposes over 50 criteria, including the number of local sources carrying the news, as well as the number of follow-ups to the news event.

The higher those numbers, the farther up the news is likely to be ranked on the website. He added that the Singapore edition will be updated every 15 minutes.

Google’s latest service comes up against local search and directory service Rednano.sg, a joint venture between Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Norwegian media group Schibsted ASA.

Like Google News, the latter offers news and search results tailor-made for the local Web surfer. Unlike Google News, Rednano.sg also offers free access to news archives owned by SPH.

SPH Search chief executive Paul Jansen singled out a further difference between both services: linkages between local content on rednano.sg, such as the linking of local news reports to local maps, or local food reviews to local directory listings.

Besides Singapore, Google News has also been localised for countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, the US and the UK.

Source : Business Times - 15 Jan 2009

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