Search Results for: japan

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DETAILED European Commission report has listed trade barriers impeding European Union (EU) automobile, parts and components sales imposed to protect export market industries from the recession. Brussels fears that while these restrictions were designed to help vulnerable businesses survive the recession, they could cause long-term damage to Europe’s auto manufacturers.…

BY DINAH GARDNER

BURMA is both a dream and a nightmare for energy companies. First, it is undoubtedly resource rich. According to the BP Statistical Review, the country had 0.49 million cubic metres (17.5 trillion cubic feet) of proven natural gas reserves at the end of 2008, roughly the same as Vietnam.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

IN 2004, Australia and its newly independent neighbour Timor-Leste’s (East Timor) failure to agree how to exploit the abundant hydrocarbons of the Timor Sea’s Greater Sunrise Fields has delayed this project for five years. However, according to a spokesperson from Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade, "a decision about the preferred development method will be reached in the coming months."…

BY WILLIAM BARNES

IN Southeast Asia confectionery is important, perhaps deceptively so.

"No Asiatic regime practices the art of confectionery," opined Richard Sterling in his robust book, "The Fearless Diner."

Sterling may have been to too many Chinese-style banquets, where an abrupt finish is common.…

BY ANDREW SALMON

AFTER passing the fortress-like medieval gate of Namdaemun, visitors enter central Seoul’s traditional shopping quarter: a jumbled maze of stalls and alleyways. A 15-minute walk through the raucous bustle of this 600-year old market, leads to its modern equivalent: The neon-lit, pedestrianised square mile of Myeong Dong.…

BY ERIC J LYMAN

AS the final phase of the European Union’s (EU) tobacco sector reform gets set to go into effect, indications are that Europe’s largest tobacco producing country, Italy, is better prepared than it was for the earlier phases.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

REAPPLYING perfume ten times a day may not count as an addiction, but the ingredients found in your favourite scent could certainly lead to one: cosmetic ingredients have been historically targeted by clandestine drug manufacturers as sources of chemicals used to produce illicit street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR

WOES continue at Osaka’s Kansai International Airport where passenger numbers fell 34% for the first half of 2009, to an average of 28,600-a-day, hit by the recession and influenza worries, the airport announced July 29.

Already mired in debt and saddled with the highest landing fees in the world, Kansai is struggling to hold on to existing airlines, never mind attract new flights it needs to start breaking even.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

TOYOTA Motor Corp is to release an ultra-efficient and reasonably priced hybrid car worldwide in 2011, with the British market a top target for sales.

The compact hybrid will have a fuel-efficiency of 40 kilometres per litre – making it the best-performing mass-produced hybrid in the world – with a price tag of Yen 1.5 million (GBPounds 9,622) in Japan.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

OVER the past five years steel production has struggled to keep pace with demand in the Gulf, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as hundreds of billions of dollars worth of construction projects sprung up in the desert.…