Search Results for: Singapore

BY MARK ROWE
A ROW over dealership rights could lead to a permanent parting of the ways for Malaysia’s Oriental Holdings and Honda. Oriental was sole distributor for Honda cars until last July, when Japan’s second biggest carmaker took back those rights to form a local unit, giving it direct involvement in Malaysia’s market.…

BY MARK ROWE
A CONTACTLESS card that can pay for groceries without being swiped through a payment machine at a supermarket checkout counter is to be tested with consumers in Singapore. The card can store 500 times more data than that of existing smart cards – enough data storage space to hold a small novel.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
ESTABLISHED airport operators, including those of Zurich, Frankfurt, Malaysia, Singapore Changi and Copenhagen, have participated in road-shows in New Delhi and London held to attract interest in Indian government plans to lease the management of its four large metropolitan airports in New Delhi, Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta, (Kolkata).…

BY MARK ROWE
INCHCAPE plc is set to abort its plan to privatise its Singapore-listed subsidiary Inchcape Motors after a key shareholder announced it would block the bid. British investment company Guinness Peat Group, which has been mopping up Inchcape Motors’ shares, said it will reject Inchcape plc’s conditional cash offer of £GB0.90p a share to turn Inchcape Motors and its motor distribution business into a 100 per cent privately owned company.…

BY MARK ROWE
SINGAPORE’S biggest industrial landlord, JTC Corporation, has almost completed a year of geological exploration under the city state’s Jurong Island where it hopes to build rock caverns to hold petrochemicals, because of a lack of above-ground storage. JTC will now develop detailed plans for suitable locations.…

BY MARK ROWE
MALAYSIA Airports Holdings (MAH) has launched a US$3.5m international campaign to make Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) a regional hub to rival Singapore. Many major carriers, including British Airways, Qantas and Lufthansa, have stopped flying to Malaysia in recent years but MAH intends to offer tax breaks and fifth freedom rights to allow airlines to pick up passengers while in transit in Malaysia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PRACTICE of allowing companies to deduct bribes paid to secure contracts overseas from their domestic tax bills is still widespread, with a United Nations report saying it was allowed in 50 per cent of countries surveyed. The paper on how the organisation’s 1996 declaration against Corruption and Bribery in International Commercial Transactions said that it was however banned in Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Iceland, Nigeria, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.…

Keith Nuthall
THE MALAYSIAN tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary has proposed a RM7billion (US$2bn) road network in Johor as part of long-term plans to turn the southern Malaysian state into a major international aviation and shipping hub to rival Singapore. The ambitious plan involves the construction of three dedicated roads to link Senai Airport, the two ports in the state – Tanjung Pelepas and Pasir Gudang -and the new customs, immigration and quarantine complex in Johor Baru.…

Keith Nuthall
WINES of SA, a non-profit organisation responsible for the promotion of South African wines, has reported that South African wine exporters are to begin targeting east Asian markets as a key to future growth.

The recent move will build on the industry’s existing successful penetration of the European markets coupled with the signing of the wine and spirits agreement between South African and the EU.…

BY MARK ROWE
THAI-JAPANESE joint venturers have floated a plan to turn a hillside in northern Thailand into one of the world’s most unlikely ski venues. Leisure Patine International Co Ltd, which has previously developed ice rinks in Thai shopping centres, has suggested that Japanese snow-making machines could be used to establish a ski slope near the town of Chiang Mai, a place better known as a haven for European and Australian backpackers.…