http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44232
By Malini Shankar*
The endangered Blue Tiger butterfly is the target of poachers in India. 
Credit:Malini Shankar/IPS
BANGALORE, Oct 13 (IPS) - A great variety of endangered wildlife species end up feeding the illegal market for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) thanks to poor enforcement in stopping the trade, say experts and activists.
"The Chinese market is like a 'black hole' sucking in wildlife products from neighbouring countries," said Peter Pueschel, head of global Wildlife Trade Programme at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), in an e-mail interview with IPS.
India, China's neighbour to the south, is most at risk with its vast biodiversity and poorly enforced laws.
According to the wildlife crime database maintained by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), 846 tigers, 3,140 leopards and 585 freshwater otter (skins) were poached between 1994 and Aug. 31, 2008 and another 320 elephants were poached between 2000 and 2008 in India.
"Although many species used in TCM are now protected by national and international laws, illegal trade and poaching have increased to crisis levels as TCM's popularity has expanded over the last two decades," says Samir Sinha of the Indian chapter of the TRAFFIC, the Britain-based wildlife trade monitoring network.
"The problem is widespread, and mostly boils down to lack of political support," says Belinda Wright of the WPSI.
Elephants, tigers, leopards, mongoose, black bears, rhinos, snakes, butterflies, gorillas, otters, musk deer, antelopes, reptiles and products such as caterpillar fungus and porcupine quills form the bulk of the raw material for the TCM industry that, according to Interpol, is worth 20 billion dollars per year.
"We believe there is organised wildlife trade but it is difficult to identify," said Xu Hongfa, director of TRAFFIC – China in e-mail responses to queries from IPS.
According to most wildlife experts the illegal trade is helped along by the fact that Chinese authorities do little to curb the TCM industry because it is regarded as a part of East Asian culture. But Beijing can and does vigorously protect certain species such as the Giant Panda which has iconic status.
"Poaching the Giant Panda will result in severe punishment. According to Chinese law, anyone found poaching one Giant Panda will get at least a ten-year term of imprisonment,'' Xu said. ‘'Chinese government has taken action to improve the TCM market management but it is not very successful,'' he admitted.
"During a five-day period in June 2008, EIA (Environment Investigation Agency) investigators observed five traders who have been documented selling Asian big cat skins in previous years,'' said Debbie Banks of the London-based EIA, adding that Chinese authorities failed to act on information passed on to them.
"We pass sufficient information to enforcement authorities so that they take appropriate action. It is apparent that the authorities have failed in effective enforcement against persistent offenders,'' Banks said. ''It would not be appropriate for us to publish their details,'' she added.
Pueschel referred to a stock of 110 tonnes of ivory that disappeared from Chinese government custody in July 2008. "The main point here is that these incidents have not been taken seriously. It remains totally unclear where this ivory has gone. Nevertheless China has been designated an ivory importing country ("trading partner") supported by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) secretariat."
In May 2006 a consignment of 3,900 kg of ivory tusks was found concealed in a container of timber logs seized by customs officials in Hong Kong, revealing the ingenious methods used by wildlife racketeers. "The 'standard sizes' of cut ivory pieces make it easier to hide them inside any kind of packaging material," says Pablo Tachil a wildlife investigator based in Bangalore.
According to Tachil, Burma has emerged as a major staging point for the wildlife trade because of its location close to India and Burma and the major markets of South-east Asia. ''Burma is also an ideal hideout for poachers and traders, because of weak policing," he said.
What troubles activists is the continued demand for wildlife products around the world.
The popularity of ivory objects, for example, has grown in spite of the clear danger it poses to elephant populations and this, says Pueschel, is partly due to commercial sites on the Internet like eBay facilitating rampant trade. ''We continue to campaign for their banning all wildlife trade.''
An IFAW report in 2007 revealed that at least 90 percent of all investigated ivory listings on eBay were legally suspect. While eBay claims that its site allows 'shoppers to see the positive social and environmental impact' of each purchase, including whether it 'supports animal species preservation', activists say nothing is done by way of monitoring.
The animal most at risk of ending up as raw material for TCM is the tiger because it has long been revered in China as a symbol of power and strength and the belief that its products have potent medicinal properties. Only a century ago there were eight kinds of tigers, with over 100,000 wild tigers in the world. Today only five tiger subspecies exist, with fewer than 5,000 wild tigers in the world.
For India, the good news is that such events as the complete decimation of the tiger population in the Sariska reserve of Rajasthan state between 2002 and 2005 has caught the imagination of the public and helped authorities to ensure that traffickers are caught and brought to book.
Also in India several high-profile individuals have been caught in recent years and booked for poaching resulting in pro-wildlife wide publicity. These include the well-known film actors, Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan and India's former cricket captain, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi.
In June 2008, two Czech nationals were convicted for trying to smuggle out 'Delias sanaca', an endangered butterfly species listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act in the Singalila National Park near Darjeeling. And by September one of them was handed down a fine of Rs 60,000 (1,300 US dollars) and three years of simple imprisonment.
Such exemplary cases go a long way in helping authorities to prevent wildlife crime,'' Utpal Kumar Nag, forest officer in Darjeeling, told IPS.
(*Malini Shankar is a well-known wildlife photojournalist and documentary film maker).
Project Tiger (http://www.projecttiger.nic.in/sariska.htm)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Illegal Trade Decimating Wildlife
Seven killed in Myanmar bus explosion: police
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081013/wl_asia_afp/myanmarblast_081013040658
Mon Oct 13, 12:06 AM ET
YANGON (AFP) - Seven passengers were killed and one was injured when a bus exploded in Myanmar's main city Yangon early Monday morning, a police official said.
The blast occurred at 2:30 am (Sunday 2000 GMT) as the bus headed north through the city, said the police official who did not wish to be named.
The official said the explosion had been caused by a faulty re-fitting of the bus to run on cheaper natural gas instead of petrol, a common practice in impoverished Myanmar.
Myanmar has also been hit by a spate of bombings which authorities have mostly blamed on armed exile groups, but when a bus explosion at a busy Yangon intersection last month and injured three passengers, officials did not say whether it was caused by a bomb.
State-run media has also begun blaming blasts on democracy activists, accusing two members of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) of bombing pro-government offices in July.
The NLD won a landslide victory in elections in 1990, but the junta never allowed it to take office and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest almost continuously since.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by claiming the need to fend off ethnic rebellions.
China's Reputation On Product Safety Reaches a New Low on Tainted Milk Scandal
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/167398-China-s-Reputation-On-Product-Safety-Reaches-a-New-Low-on-Tainted-Milk-Scandal
Blaine Harden
The Washington Post
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:47 UTC
Thanks to tainted milk, China's product-safety reputation is plumbing new depths. Even Burma -- where one of the world's most repressive and isolated military governments relies on trade with China -- has now warned its people to steer clear of all Chinese dairy products.
The generals who run Burma, owing to a bloody military assault last year on Buddhist monks and democracy protesters, are sealed off from much of the world by economic sanctions. They increasingly depend on China for everything from military hardware to consumer goods.
Still, the Burmese government has publicized its destruction of 16 tons of Chinese baby food tainted with melamine, the industrial chemical that was mixed with milk products, leading to the deaths in China of four infants, the sickening of more than 54,000 babies and a Chinese government crackdown on 22 dairy companies.
"Authorities concerned have urged the people not to consume milk and dairy products," the state-run New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday in Rangoon, the nation's largest city. Burma is also known as Myanmar.
The anomaly of consumer protection in Burma points to the scale and severity of China's global public-relations disaster in the wake of what appears to have been a long-standing, industrial-scale scheme to adulterate infant formula and other milk products.
Dairy operators add melamine to milk products to increase their protein levels and to increase the profits they bring. The chemical often causes kidney stones when consumed by babies in infant formula.
A global backlash to the milk scandal continues to uncover melamine-tainted foods, from "Chocolate Pillows" sweets in Osaka, Japan, to a milkshake in Austria to White Rabbit Creamy Candies in West Hartford, Conn. The scandal has touched some of the world's largest food companies, as Nestle, Cadbury, Mars and Kraft Foods have recalled products or suspended sales. Imports of Chinese dairy products have been suspended from Brunei to Burundi, Cambodia to Russia.
"China is overwhelming other countries with its ability to produce things at a cheaper price," said Yoko Tomiyama, head of the Consumers Union of Japan, where paranoia about Chinese food products is now ubiquitous. "As long as this globalized consumer system prevails, there will always be the next melamine."
Over the weekend, China announced the arrest of six more people suspected of producing and selling melamine. They were detained in northern China, where the country's milk industry is based.
Trying to contain damage from the scandal, China announced Sunday that no traces of melamine were found in a large test of milk products sold across the country. Chinese newspapers reported Monday that the tests were conducted in 27 cities on more than 600 batches of milk.
It was the second time in a week that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has said that tests have found no contamination. The stock price of three of China's largest dairy companies rose Monday in trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai, after government tests cleared some of their products of contamination.
Complaints by parents about sick children first surfaced last December in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province. Doctors there also issued warnings.
But the scandal did not become public until Sept. 11 when a journalist posted an item on a Chinese social Web site about the sick children. It mentioned Sanlu Dairy Co., a 50-year-old firm that health officials say covered up the complaints of worried parents.
Hundreds of police officers have since conducted raids on pastures, breeding farms and milk-purchasing stations in the Shijiazhuang area.
The Agriculture Ministry said over the weekend that it was trying to help dairy farmers whose businesses have been ruined by collapsing demand for milk. In a statement posted on its Web site, the ministry said: "On the one hand, we must crack down on illegal behavior, but on the other hand we must protect the interests of the dairy sector."
Japan opposition wants bigger global security role
Democratic Party of Japan shadow cabinet defence minister Keiichi Asao speaks during an interview at his office in Tokyo. Japan would play a more active role in global security if the opposition wins upcoming elections but also seek better diplomacy to bring peace to Afghanistan, Asao said.
(AFP/Kyoko Hasegawa)
by Kyoko Hasegawa
Mon Oct 13, 1:42 AM ET
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan would play a more active role in global security if the opposition wins upcoming elections and would also seek better diplomacy to bring peace to Afghanistan, the shadow defence minister said.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has been gaining ground in opinion polls, raising the prospect of the fall of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party which has ruled for all but 10 months since 1955.
Keiichi Asao, the defence minister in the Democrats' shadow cabinet, said he would maintain support for the United States -- which stations more than 40,000 troops in officially pacifist Japan -- but with a different attitude.
"The DPJ regards the the Japan-US alliance as very important," Asao told AFP in an interview.
"But we think that Japan should say what it needs to say to the United States. In return, we will be involved at the frontlines in UN activities.
"Our use of force will need to be endorsed not only by the United States but also by the international community as a whole, namely the United Nations," he added.
Japan has long pushed for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council to bolster its influence in global affairs. A previous bid to join flopped due to strong opposition by China, the only Asian nation in the elite club.
At 44, Asao is young for a Japanese politician. A former banker, he earned a master's degree in business administration from Stanford University in California.
Asao called for a new way of thinking about the Taliban, which is waging a bloody insurgency against Afghan leaders and foreign troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"Theoretically we could join ISAF, but the party has not concluded on joining it because we don't think ISAF is contributing to building peace in Afghanistan," Asao said.
He called for a greater focus on diplomacy, saying it was a mistake to view the Taliban as simply the extremist regime ousted in the US-led war after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"What's important in improving the Afghan situation is to offer diplomatic support to talks between President Hamid Karzai's government and the Taliban," Asao said. "We don't think of the Taliban as a monolithic group."
Karzai has called the Taliban to the negotiating table to end the violence on condition they accept his government's constitution and are not involved with Al-Qaeda.
Japan is one of the largest donors to Afghanistan, pledging 1.24 billion dollars since the fall of the Taliban.
Japan was barred from using force under the constitution imposed by US occupiers after World War II. But leaders from the ruling party have pushed for the country to play a larger role in international security.
Most controversially, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi sent troops on a non-combat humanitarian mission to Iraq, the first time since 1945 that Japan has deployed forces to a country where fighting is underway.
The DPJ strongly opposed the Iraq war and the Japanese mission to the country.
After taking power of one house of parliament last year, the opposition also briefly forced a halt to a separate naval mission in the Indian Ocean providing fuel and other logistical support to the US-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan.
The opposition will let the bill pass through parliament this time in hopes of pressuring Prime Minister Taro Aso -- who listed renewing mission and reviving the ailing economy as top priorities -- to call an election quickly.
Shadow prime minister Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ chief and a veteran political strategist, argued that the Indian Ocean naval mission amounted to Japan taking part in "American wars."
But Ozawa proposed last year sending troops into ISAF.
While certainly more dangerous than refuelling at sea, Ozawa argued ISAF was different as the mission was backed by a UN resolution.
The proposal was put on the backburner after criticism both within and outside the DPJ.
Monday, October 13, 2008
A leftover city of day laborers in Japan faces grim future
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/12/asia/japan.php
Unemployed men in the Airin district of Osaka, Japan, waited for their number at a labor center to collect welfare payments. (Ko Sasaki for The New York Times)
By Norimitsu Onishi
Sunday, October 12, 2008
OSAKA, Japan: With job signs stuck to their vans' windshields and sliding side doors left open in expectation, the recruiters were sizing up the potential hires at Japan's largest day-labor market here recently.
By 4:30 a.m., thousands of aging day laborers had spilled out of the neighborhood's flophouses and homeless shelters, or risen from its parks and streets, to form a potential work force of mostly graying men.
A sign on one blue van, barely legible in the twilight, offered a 15-day construction job paying $95 a day, minus $33 in room and board.
Although the terms were comparatively decent, the recruiter sitting in a folding chair in front of the blue van had found only one suitably young laborer by 5 a.m. Most were above the unwritten cutoff age of 55.
"It's really hard to use the men here because they've gotten old," said the recruiter, Takuya Nakamae, 55, turning his head toward his prize catch, a recruit in his 30s. "If you're this young, everybody wants you and you get plenty of offers. Just look at how young you are!"
And yet it was the older men who really knew how to work, he said, adding: "They're the ones who worked during Japan's decades of economic boom, so they know the ins and outs of every job. It's just that they don't have the strength anymore."
Nowadays, few young men gravitate here, the Airin district of Osaka. Little is being built in Japan's stagnant economy, and young day laborers or part-time workers find jobs by registering their cellphone numbers with temporary employment agencies.
Many of the older men who remain arrived here to work on the 1970 Expo in Osaka, which, like the Tokyo Olympics six years earlier, became a symbol of postwar Japan's rebirth. Over the decades, they left to work on bridges, buildings and highways all over the country, performing the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in helping build Japan. Some made it out of here and moved on to steadier jobs and lives.
But many others are still in Airin, one of the few corners of Japan where stray dogs lie in the middle of the street alongside drunken men, and Japanese mobsters, or yakuza, sell drugs openly on street corners and run gambling dens on certain blocks. After one worker claimed abuse by the police, scores of people here rioted for five days over the summer, though old-timers said the disturbances were only a faint echo of the violent and widespread riots of the 1960s and 1990s.
Many of the men left in Airin, on average just shy of 60 years old and with no family ties, are waiting to die here, said Minoru Yamada, who moved here in 1973, once worked as a day laborer and is now chairman of Kamagasaki Shien Kiko, a private organization that helps laborers.
"At one time, this was a place where you could remake yourself," Yamada said. "But not anymore. Now it's become a dumping ground for old men, a place where waste is disposed of."
A grim report by the city government last year said that conditions in Airin were rapidly worsening: an aging population, rising homelessness, deepening poverty and increasing cases of tuberculosis and alcoholism. The number of welfare recipients has grown fivefold in the past decade.
An ancient slum, this area was renamed and reshaped into Airin in the 1960s when the city government cleared it of family dwellings, concentrated all the city's day laborers here and invited others from all over Japan to meet a construction boom. Today, the city estimates that 30,000 people live here, about a quarter of its peak two decades ago, in this 62-hectare, or 153-acre, neighborhood, which is less than one-fifth the size of New York's Central Park.
The district's overall population is more than 85 percent male. But in Airin's core - an urban valley hemmed in by wide avenues and an elevated train track - there are almost no women at all.
During Japan's economic go-go years, the number of jobs offered here swelled, peaking at 9,614 a day in 1990. The number has fallen to about a third of that today and no longer includes jobs in the kind of large and lucrative construction projects that fueled Japan's boom.
Still, recruiters show up every morning at the Airin General Center, the day-labor market, saying they need to check over hires before sending them to a job.
"This is different from bidding on dead tuna at a fish market auction," said one recruiter, who said he shifted to Airin more than two decades ago after working as a pimp in Tokyo. "Sure, you can recruit on the Internet, but on the Internet, you can't make out someone's character. For example, a guy can be O.K. if he hasn't been drinking. But if he has, he may get crazy and create problems for everybody around him."
A couple of hours after the recruiters had left for the day, Tadashi Kato showed up at the center to put his name down for a job as a night watchman. Kato, 75, came here in 1957, abandoning forever his home in rural Hokkaido and family talk of fixing him up with a job at the national railway.
"It'd be natural to wonder whether I would have been better off joining the national railway, but I've led a carefree life and have seen things that people usually can't," Kato said in a guttural voice, explaining that he had taken photos of past riots here and was looking for a "successor" to inherit them.
He once lived in a flophouse. But nowadays, with few jobs coming his way, he sleeps on the streets. He refused to apply for welfare or enter the city-run homeless shelters, where each person receives one piece of hardtack bread a night. He would never, he said, depend on the government.
He was married briefly, and he said that, unlike many of the men who came here to escape after accumulating debts or abandoning their families, he long supported his former wife and their only child, a daughter.
He last saw his daughter, in Tokyo, when his first grandchild was born three decades ago.
"'Your feet stink - don't come here dressed like that,"' he said she told him. "She said I could come if I had some money for her, but not to bother if I didn't. Either way, it's hard being a man."
He had not seen his daughter since, but he said he knew her address.
"When I die, I'll absolutely go to my daughter's," Kato said of his ashes, adding, "Sometimes, you know, I think if I could go painlessly, it wouldn't be that bad not to wake up in the morning."
It was not 11 a.m. yet, but Airin's tiny outdoor drinking stalls were already filling up. These days, the most popular was a five-stool stall that belonged to Yayoi Onodera, 48, who charged $5 per drink and sold rice balls. She had earned around $40,000 in profit since moving here from Tokyo six months ago.
"I never dreamed I'd make so much money," Onodera said, adding that she had struggled in the beginning but was encouraged by a local yakuza leader who used to stop by before he was arrested and imprisoned for drug dealing.
Later that afternoon, many of the men drifted to Sankaku Park nearby where they watched sumo wrestlers on a television set atop a pole.
But Kazuyasu Ikeda, 64, went straight home to the 4.5-square-meter, or 49-square-foot, room he had been renting for the past six years for $11 a night. From his fourth-floor room, where he had a television set, 16 small cactuses and a small tank filled with guppies, he had a view of a parking lot and, beyond that, the Hankai train line.
He had just collected his wages for cutting grass that day and was in high spirits. The wages, of course, were nothing compared with what he had made during Japan's economic boom. Helping to build a highway in Okinawa back then, he said, he far outearned American marines stationed there.
"At a foreigners' bar that I used to go to, I was even more popular than the foreigners," Ikeda said, adding that he was such a regular that the bar kept a bottle of Camus Cognac for him.
He never had children and thus suffered no guilt, he said with a laugh.
But as he watched the end of the sumo matches of the day, Ikeda, a red towel he had used while working still wrapped around his head, seemed to grow tired and his mood darkened. The conversation drifted, as it often did in Airin, to the topic of death.
Ikeda boasted that he had never taken a handout, stood in a soup line or stayed in a homeless shelter. When there were no jobs, he collected aluminum cans. His "policy" was to rely on no one, he said.
"I'll hang on for another 10 years," he said.
The men here, he said, were like cigarette lighters worth 100 yen, or less than $1.
"It's painful to throw away a Zippo or Dunhill lighter even if it doesn't light properly anymore," he said. "But 100-yen lighters you just throw away. That's what we are."
India for expanding border trade with Myanmar
NEW DELHI: India will seek to expand border trade by opening more trading points along the 1,600-km border its shares with Myanmar during the two-day talks to be held at Mandalay beginning October 14. Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh will lead a high-level delegation to Myanmar during the crucial talks.
At present, only Moreh in Manipur is the only operational trade centre on the border. India will propose two additional such centres — Avangkhu in Nagaland and Zowkhathar in Mizoram. Mr. Jairam said border trade centres in Arunachal Pradesh were not under discussion because of security and other considerations on the Indian side.
In addition, he said India would propose an expansion of items to be traded. India is also expected to reiterate its offer to include Myanmar in the duty free tariff preference scheme announced by it for Least Developed Countries . The details of the financing mechanism to facilitate expanded bilateral trade will be also be firmed up during the Mandalay talks. Union Bank of India has already signed an agreement with the Foreign Trade Bank of Myanmar for establishing such a mechanism.
FTA beneficiary
Myanmar will be the beneficiary of the FTA with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to be signed by India and ASEAN in Bangkok on December 18. Myanmar is also a member of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Agreement involving Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
India is hosting the BIMSTEC Summit in New Delhi in mid-November. India’s exports to Myanmar in 2007-08 amounted to about $185 million, while its imports from Myanmar were valued at around $810 million, mostly comprising pulses.
On October 16, the Myanmar Prime Minister and Mr. Jairam will inaugurate a Centre for Enhancement of IT Skills established at Yangon with Indian assistance of $2 million. This Centre, to be run by Indian professionals, is equipped to train 1,000 youth every year who will be awarded a diploma from the Pune-based C-DAC (Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing) which is an institution under the Ministry of Information Technology.
Myanmar, Japan NGOs to jointly reconserve mangrove in cyclone-hit areas
www.chinaview.cn 2008-10-13 09:43:17
YANGON, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of Myanmar and Japan will cooperate in mangrove reconservation project in Myanmar's cyclone-hit areas, the local weekly Flower News reported Monday.
The four-year project (2009-2013), in which the Myanmar Forest Resources Environmental Development Association (FREDA) will cooperate with a Japanese NGO, is to grow 750 hectares of mangrove.
The two organizations had grown 1,215 hectares of mangrove in the country 10 years ago.
Earlier, two other non-governmental organizations of Myanmar and France have agreed to cooperate in such mangrove work in the region, according to local report.
The project in Bogalay and Ahmar in Ayeyawaddy delta, which will last for three years, includes dissemination of knowledge to local people.
Besides, another environment-conservation-related organization of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has also proposed to help Myanmar carry out such reconservation work on Mingmahlagyun sanctuary similarly damaged by the cyclone storm in May this year.
The Mingmahlagyun sanctuary in the Bogalay township is among the six sanctuaries and national parks in Myanmar recognized as ASEAN heritage parks.
Reports said Myanmar will regrow 20,250 hectares of mangrove in the Meinmahlagyun village to resist cyclone attack in the future.
Meinmahlagyun had about 40,500 hectares of mangrove before being hit by the severe storm, of which 30 percent were destroyed during the storm.
Noting that mangrove can mitigate the impact of cyclone storm, Myanmar has stressed the preservation of mangrove, calling on people to place emphasis to regrow such plantations after disaster.
Despite destruction of some mangrove in the delta region during the May cyclone storm, it had been able to prevent some villages from inflicting casualties as it was able to bring down the speed of the tidal wave, enabling most of the villagers there to escape from deaths, reports said.
Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago,Mon and Kayin on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.
The storm has killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured according to official death toll.
Editor: Sun Yunlong
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Burma signs energy deal with Thailand, Singapore
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200810/s2388725.htm?tab=asia
Updated October 12, 2008 17:50:50
Burma has signed an agreement with Thai and Singaporean companies to provide the two energy-hungry nations with electricity from a hydro-power project.
The state media says the project in the south will generate 600 megawatts of electricity, but gave no further details of the deal.
Burma is under sanctions by the United States and Europe because of its human rights record.
But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as neighbours China, India and Thailand spend billions of dollars for a share of Burma's energy resources to solve energy problems at home.
Asia's migrant workers fear losing jobs in global crisis
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rssarticleshow/msid-3586349,prtpage-1.cms
12 Oct 2008, 1221 hrs IST,AGENCIES
SINGAPORE: As the global financial storm blows fear through Asia's stock markets, Filipino maid Christy Arciaga is jittery, even though she does not own any shares.
Her businessman employer has lately become more irritable as he has watched his investments being swallowed in a sea of red ink, and the 46-year-old domestic helper is often on the receiving end of his bad moods.
"My employer would turn on the television every morning to check the latest stock market report even before breakfast. He is often angry and tells me he might send me home even before my contract ends," Arciaga said.
"The thought of going back has caused me sleepless nights. What about my family? Two of my children are still in college."
Thousands of migrant workers, among them maids, restaurant staff and labourers working in wealthy Asian cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong, are worried that an economic slowdown and retrenchments resulting from the crisis could hit their employers' pockets, and leave them without jobs.
This would mean that the flow of remittances they send home to their poor families will dry up, and with it money for food, clothing and school fees.
Another maid, Myra Catacutan, 34, said she recently heard her employer angrily talking on the phone with someone, presumably a financial adviser, demanding her money back.
"My employer was shouting to the one on the other line: 'Give me back my money'. When she turned to me, she was teary-eyed and told me she could lose a big amount," she said. "I am worried she might let me go."
All that money you've lost — where did it go?
By ERIC CARVIN, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Trillions in stock market value — gone. Trillions in retirement savings — gone. A huge chunk of the money you paid for your house, the money you're saving for college, the money your boss needs to make payroll — gone, gone, gone.
Whether you're a stock broker or Joe Six-pack, if you have a 401(k), a mutual fund or a college savings plan, tumbling stock markets and sagging home prices mean you've lost a whole lot of the money that was right there on your account statements just a few months ago.
But if you no longer have that money, who does? The fat cats on Wall Street? Some oil baron in Saudi Arabia? The government of China?
Or is it just — gone?
If you're looking to track down your missing money — figure out who has it now, maybe ask to have it back — you might be disappointed to learn that is was never really money in the first place.
Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, puts it bluntly: The notion that you lose a pile of money whenever the stock market tanks is a "fallacy." He says the price of a stock has never been the same thing as money — it's simply the "best guess" of what the stock is worth.
"It's in people's minds," Shiller explains. "We're just recording a measure of what people think the stock market is worth. What the people who are willing to trade today — who are very, very few people — are actually trading at. So we're just extrapolating that and thinking, well, maybe that's what everyone thinks it's worth."
Shiller uses the example of an appraiser who values a house at $350,000, a week after saying it was worth $400,000.
"In a sense, $50,000 just disappeared when he said that," he said. "But it's all in the mind."
Though something, of course, is disappearing as markets and real estate values tumble. Even if a share of stock you own isn't a wad of bills in your wallet, even if the value of your home isn't something you can redeem at will, surely you can lose potential money — that is, the money that would be yours to spend if you sold your house or emptied out your mutual funds right now.
And if you're a few months away from retirement, or hoping to sell your house and buy a smaller one to help pay for your kid's college tuition, this "potential money" is something you're counting on to get by. For people who need cash and need it now, this is as real as money gets, whether or not it meets the technical definition of the word.
Still, you run into trouble when you think of that potential money as being the same thing as the cash in your purse or your checking account.
"That's a big mistake," says Dale Jorgenson, an economics professor at Harvard.
There's a key distinction here: While the money in your pocket is unlikely to just vanish into thin air, the money you could have had, if only you'd sold your house or drained your stock-heavy mutual funds a year ago, most certainly can.
"You can't enjoy the benefits of your 401(k) if it's disappeared," Jorgenson explains. "If you had it all in financial stocks and they've all gone down by 80 percent — sorry! That is a permanent loss because those folks aren't coming back. We're gonna have a huge shrinkage in the financial sector."
There was a time when nobody had to wonder what happened to the money they used to have. Until paper money was developed in China around the ninth century, money was something solid that had actual value — like a gold coin that was worth whatever that amount of gold was worth, according to Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum in Denver.
Back then, if the money you once had was suddenly gone, there was a simple reason — you spent it, someone stole it, you dropped it in a field somewhere, or maybe a tornado or some other disaster struck wherever you last put it down.
But these days, a lot of things that have monetary value can't be held in your hand.
If you choose, you can pour most of your money into stocks and track their value in real time on a computer screen, confident that you'll get good money for them when you decide to sell. And you won't be alone — staring at millions of computer screens are other investors who share your confidence that the value of their portfolios will hold up.
But that collective confidence, Jorgenson says, is gone. And when confidence is drained out of a financial system, a lot of investors will decide to sell at any price, and a big chunk of that money you thought your investments were worth simply goes away.
If you once thought your investment portfolio was as good as a suitcase full of twenties, you might suddenly suspect that it's not.
In the process, of course, you're losing wealth. But does that mean someone else must be gaining it? Does the world have some fixed amount of wealth that shifts between people, nations and institutions with the ebb and flow of the economy?
Jorgenson says no — the amount of wealth in the world "simply decreases in a situation like this." And he cautions against assuming that your investment losses mean a gain for someone else — like wealthy stock speculators who try to make money by betting that the market will drop.
"Those folks in general have been losing their shirts at a prodigious rate," he said. "They took a big risk and now they're suffering from the consequences."
"Of course, they had a great life, as long as it lasted."
Saturday, October 11, 2008
New JICA must demonstrate effectiveness of integrated approach to ODA
New JICA must demonstrate effectiveness of integrated approach to ODA
The Japan International Cooperation Agency is embarking on a fresh start as "New JICA," an organization that will integrate the government's official development assistance (ODA) activities. In addition to assuming responsibility for activities related to technical cooperation undertaken by the old JICA, including technical training programs and the dispatch of experts, New JICA will also absorb the yen-loan division of the former Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), and more than half of the grant programs of the Foreign Ministry. New JICA is an important pillar in the effort to reform ODA.
Japan, which had ranked first in the world in 2000 in terms of ODA, had dropped to fifth place by 2007 as a result of its ODA budget being slashed from the latter half of the 1990s. During this time, however, the importance of overseas development assistance was reconfirmed at the international level when the United Nations General Assembly agreed on Millennium Development Goals in 2000. It is against this backdrop that New JICA was launched.
At the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD4) in May and at the Group of Eight Summit Meeting in July, the Japanese government announced that it intended to increase ODA for programs to reduce poverty and to fight global warming. Even in the currently difficult fiscal environment, the government should pay sufficient attention to ODA spending as it compiles the budget for the 2009 fiscal year. By honoring its ODA pledges, the government can play an important role in ensuring that New JICA will implement activities that will be highly regarded around the world. Given these expectations, New JICA needs to produce concrete results.
Integrating loan, grant, and technological cooperation programs under one roof will be a major step forward. While various ministries and agencies will continue to be involved from the planning stage with each new project, New JICA, as the implementing agency, will have a greatly enhanced voice.
Up to now, JICA and JBIC had cooperated in determining the shape of projects. However, due in part to problems stemming from turf wars between supervisory agencies, there was no guarantee that anything the most essential projects would be undertaken. Going forward, the divisions in charge of a particular region will now be able to adopt an all-embracing approach that encompasses loans, grants, and technical cooperation.
At a time when greater international emphasis is being placed on the results that are achieved by assistance programs, merely building facilities and infrastructure with yen loans will no longer be seen as satisfactory. Assistance needs to be directed in a manner that produces tangible results such as the elimination of poverty. Extending grants to technical cooperation programs that train personnel and to related enterprises would be an effective way to boost results.
In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, New JICA can be expected to adopt a forward-looking approach when it turns its attention to Africa. Japan's assistance to Southeast Asia has been lauded for building a foundation for economic development in that region. By applying lessons learned in Southeast Asia, Japan could make a major contribution to Africa. Japan needs to actively pursue development assistance tie-ups with private enterprises involved in exploration development for rare metals and in other activities. If Japan can succeed in lifting the economies of nations that receive aid, this would also benefit the activities of Japanese corporations.
On the occasion of the launching of New JICA, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Council, whose members include the prime minister and foreign minister, must embrace its role in shaping ODA policy. And as the command center for implementing ODA programs, New JICA needs to perform many tasks including establishing the direction of Japanese assistance. The effort to reform ODA is still only halfway complete.
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) October 9, 2008
社説：新ＪＩＣＡ 世界に統合効果を示そう
日本の政府開発援助（ＯＤＡ）を一体で実施する機関が動き出した。専門家派遣や技術研修など技術協力を担ってきた国際協力機構（ＪＩＣＡ）に、旧国際協力銀行（ＪＢＩＣ）の円借款（有償資金協力）部門、外務省の無償資金協力の半分以上を統合した新ＪＩＣＡで、ＯＤＡ改革の重要な柱だ。
日本のＯＤＡ予算は９０年代後半から削減され、実績も２０００年初頭までの世界一が０７年には５位に落ちている。その一方で、国際的には、００年の国連総会でミレニアム開発目標が合意されたように、援助の重要性が再認識されている。
そうした中での、新ＪＩＣＡのスタートである。
政府は５月のアフリカ開発会議（ＴＩＣＡＤ４）や７月の主要国首脳会議などを通じて、貧困削減や温暖化対策などでＯＤＡを増やすことを表明した。厳しい財政状況下ではあるが、政府は国際貢献の観点からも、０９年度予算編成でＯＤＡ予算には十分な配慮を払っていくべきだ。新ＪＩＣＡが国際的にも高い評価の活動を展開できるためには、政府公約の履行が欠かせないのだ。
この前提の下で、新ＪＩＣＡは具体的な成果を出さなければならない。
有償、無償、技術協力の３分野を同一機関で実施することは大きな進歩だ。案件ごとに企画立案段階から関係省庁がかかわることはこれまでと変わらないが、実施機関の発言力は格段に大きくなる。
これまでもプロジェクト形成に際しては、ＪＩＣＡやＪＢＩＣが協力してきた。ただ、所管官庁による縦割りの弊害もあり、本当に必要性の高い案件が取り上げられるとは限らなかった。これからは、有償、無償、技術協力を網羅するそれぞれの地域担当部が総括的に協力していける。
国際的に援助効果が重視されている中で、円借款で施設やインフラを造るだけでは不十分だ。それが活用され、貧困削減などの効果が表れなければならない。人材育成など技術協力や付随事業などへの無償資金協力は効果を高める上で、有効である。
また、ミレニアム開発目標の達成のため、今後、援助が増えるアフリカに目を向けた時、新組織は前向きの取り組みが期待できる。日本の東南アジア援助は経済発展の基礎を築いたと評価されている。この教訓をアフリカで生かすことができれば、大きな貢献ができる。レアメタル開発など民間事業と開発援助の連携にも、積極的に取り組んでいくべきだ。被援助国経済の底上げが実現できれば、日本企業の活動にも役立つ。
これを機に首相、外相らで構成する海外経済協力会議も役割を認識すべきだ。ＯＤＡの司令塔という以上、日本の援助の方向付けなどやることは多い。ＯＤＡ改革は道半ばなのだ。
Nobel Peace Prize plays it safe with Martti Ahtisaari
Nobel winner Martti Ahtisaari
By Adrian Blomfield
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 10/10/2008
After several years of slightly odd choices, the Norwegian Nobel committee has returned to tradition by awarding its famous peace prize to Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president.
When he came up with the notion for the award, Alfred Nobel envisaged that it would be given to people who had done “the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.” Recent recipients have prompted criticism that Nobel’s vision has been debased. People like Al Gore, the former US vice president and Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist, may have been worthy in their own fields but it was a difficult stretch to suggest that they had done much to further world peace.
Mr Ahtisaari is undoubtedly a more qualified winner. One of the world’s most prolific peace negotiators, he has been involved in mediating talks to end conflicts across the globe, from Northern Ireland to Namibia and Indonesia.
That has done little to silence the critics, however. In the recent past, the Nobel committee may have eccentrically quixotic or nauseatingly politically correct, depending on your point of view. In 2008, it has been far too conventional, perhaps even craven.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Enshrining Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms — freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom from want and freedom from fear — the declaration has become the world’s most translated document.
advertisementIt is an important anniversary and many believe that the peace prize should have been awarded to one of the brave individuals who have risked their lives and liberty in pursuit of protecting those freedoms. There were many contenders but most bookmakers pointed to two in particular: Hu Jia and Lidia Yusupova.
Mr Hu is a Chinese human rights campaigner, pro-democracy activist and champion of the environment who is currently serving a 3-1/2 year jail sentence for “inciting subversion of state power”. In a year that has seen international attention focused on China because of the Olympic Games, the Nobel Committee could have used its role as the world’s conscience to remind everyone of Beijing’s miserable human rights record.
Mrs Yusupova, often described by international human rights organizations as “the bravest woman in Europe” was clearly another deserving candidate.
She risked the daily danger of kidnap to become one of the few human rights activists to work and live in Grozny and virtually single-handedly exposed the gross atrocities that Russia and its loyalist Chechen henchmen visited upon the people of that sorry part of the world.
By passing both of them over, campaigners that I have spoken to in Russia believe that the judges have dealt a blow to the cause of human rights around the world. To paraphrase Sergei Kovalyov, a veteran Soviet-era dissident, the decision made it look like the committee had scant regard for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Bizarrely, some defenders of the Nobel committee have argued that it would have been inappropriate to give the peace prize to a human rights activist.
That has not stopped the judges in the past - and rightly so. Few would argue that the likes of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy activist, Lech Walesa, Desmond Tutu or the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov were unworthy recipients.
Then again it is easy to risk offending Burma, Apartheid South Africa or even the Soviet Union during those comforting days of the Cold War when it seemed so much simpler to distinguish right from wrong.
Provoking the powerhouses of China and Russia, especially when Europe depends on the latter for so much of its energy, is clearly a more unappetizing prospect for the Nobel judges.
It may have ditched the quixotic eccentricity, but it seems that the Nobel committee is as politically correct as it ever was.
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Suu Kyi appeals to Myanmar junta against her detention: party - Yahoo! News
Suu Kyi appeals to Myanmar junta against her detention: party - Yahoo! News
YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has appealed to the ruling junta against her detention, her party's spokesman said Saturday.
The appeal was sent by the opposition National League for Democracy party to military leaders in the administrative capital Naypyidaw in an attempt to secure her release from house arrest at her lakeside home in Yangon.
"One of her lawyers U Hla Myo Myint sent her appeal to the cabinet in Naypyidaw on Thursday. They accepted it and signed the receipt," Nyan Win, an NLD spokesman told AFP.
"We can say that the way is open for her appeal for her release. It's still too early to say how things will develop," he said, adding that he believed an appeal hearing date may soon be set.
Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi approved the final draft of her legal appeal during a meeting with her lawyer Kyi Win in September.
The NLD leader has been confined to her home for most of the past 19 years.
63-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi rarely meets with anyone except her lawyer and doctor and in August refused a visit from United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari, apparently in protest at the lack of progress he was making on reform in Myanmar.
On September 14 she was given an intravenous drip for malnourishment by her doctor Tin Myo Win after refusing food deliveries for a month.
The junta, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, released 9,000 prisoners, including ten political prisoners, last month, in an amnesty ahead of elections planned for 2010 -- in which Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the junta never allowed it to take office.
Censorship Isn't Good for China's Health
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122368047325124731.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#
Media freedom should be one legacy of Beijing's Olympics.
Hong Kong
As the world watched the fireworks of the Beijing Games' opening ceremony, the seeds of China's latest deadly public health disaster were being sown. This latest chapter in the toxic product scandals -- following toy train sets, dog food and dumplings -- is a sobering reminder of the ongoing public-health threat posed by Beijing's media censorship.
On Aug. 2, China's dairy product giant Sanlu Group asked government officials in Hebei province to "increase control and coordination of the media" that tried to report on the poisoning of infants with Sanlu's toxin-laced milk powder formula. Beijing had already decreed that along with Tibetan independence and public protests, "all food safety issues" were "off limits" for domestic news coverage during the Olympics.
Sanlu's appeal worked. China's state-controlled media didn't break the story until Sept. 10 -- after New Zealand demanded that China go public on illnesses related to the tainted formula. The contaminated milk, which causes kidney stones and can be fatal, has since been found in dairy products from some 20 companies.
Even as more babies got sick, China's censors still allowed only carefully vetted articles on the issue by the official news agency Xinhua. Beijing warned Web monitors that any mention of the issue needed to be "monitored and controlled." Meanwhile, the melamine-spiked milk made its way into China's export chain, prompting dozens of countries to ban Chinese milk imports.
In both the AIDS and SARS health crises, Beijing's stifling of news coverage allowed the epidemics to expand. This time, the cover-up has contributed to the sickening of 53,000 infants, the deaths of four children and the dismissal of China's food-and-product safety chief. The final human toll may be much higher -- Beijing is refusing to release updated statistics.
Beijing has made tentative moves toward loosening its choke hold on reporting. In the immediate aftermath of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, it allowed both domestic and foreign media a previously unknown level of freedom to report on the devastation. Within weeks, however, that brief window of tolerance closed and the government reimposed strict controls on reporting from the quake zone.
Beijing is scheduled to close another important window of media freedom on Oct. 17, when Olympics-related temporary rules that have allowed foreign media to talk to any consenting interviewee without government permission are to expire. The rules have been poorly implemented -- Human Rights Watch has documented numerous incidents of harassment, detentions and even death threats to foreign reporters. Yet the regulatory change was a step in the right direction and raised hopes that Beijing recognizes, if reluctantly, the need for media freedom.
By permanently extending these regulations -- and more important, granting local journalists the same rights -- Beijing could make a small step toward ensuring the timely and effective identification and resolution of future public-health crises.
Mr. Kine is an Asia-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Junta leases 50,000 acres of farmland to Bangladesh
Democratic Voice of Burma: Junta leases 50,000 acres of farmland to Bangladesh – Khin Maung Soe Min
Fri 10 Oct 2008
Filed under: News, Business / Trade
The Burma junta’s second-in-command, vice senior general Maung Aye, has signed a contract in Dhaka leasing 50,000 acres of paddy fields in Arakan state to the Bangladeshi government.
The majority of the paddy fields are in Myauk Oo and on Man Aung island.
Although the paddy fields are said to be owned by the military, farmers in Arakan state say that some of this land has been seized from local farmers without compensation and they are worried that more land will be seized to make up the 50,000 acres.
Than Hlaing, joint secretary of the Arakan National League for Democracy, said land confiscation could have serious repercussions for local food supplies.
“In Arakan state, we are enduring the consequences of starvation every day,” Than Hlaing said.
“Despite this, they are confiscating paddy fields and turning the people into tenant farmers,” he said.
“If they lease out 50,000 acres of paddy fields, I am certain that the people of Arakan will starve.”
Saw Mi Mi Than from the Arakan Women’s Union’s Bangladesh office also condemned the deal.
“We are urging the Bangladeshi government not to lease the 50,000 acres of paddy fields forcibly seized from the Arakan people,” she said.
According to online newspapers from Bangladesh, the two countries have discussed taxation issues and the demarcation of sea boundaries between Burma and Bangladesh.
The repatriation of Rohingya refugees is also due to be discussed.
The 4th International Symposium of Organization for Asian Studies, Waseda University,TOKYO,JAPAN finished successfully-10-10-2008.
Top General to Campaign for 2010 Election
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By SAW YAN NAING Friday, October 10, 2008
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Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, the minister for communications posts and telegraphs, was scheduled to arrive in Myitkyina, the capital of the Kachin State in northern Burma, on Friday to launch a campaign for the 2010 general election.
Ma Grang, a resident of Myitkyina, told The Irrawaddy that during his visit Thein Zaw would urge residents to vote for the junta-backed political parties in the multi-party election in 2010.
Thein Zaw is in charge of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) in Kachin State. The USDA, a regime-backed civic association, is expected to form two political parties—the National Prosperity Party and the National Security and Development Party—to contest the 2010 elections, according to USDA sources.
“He [Thein Zaw] will come and monitor the lobby campaign,” Ma Grang said. “He will visit local residents around Myitkyina and will ask them if they need help.”
Thein Zaw will be guided by USDA members while visiting residents in the area.
Ma Grang said that USDA members have been organizing local residents and encouraging them to show their support for the 2010 elections. Some people who demonstrate strong support will be presented with telephones, he said.
The general election is the fifth step of the junta’s “seven-step road map” to democracy.
In related matters, Aung Wa, a resident of the Sino-Burma border area, said leaders of Christian groups in Myitkyina have been summoned by local authorities and promised gifts of telephones if they support USDA candidates.
In May, USDA members played a major role in monitoring and organizing the national referendum on the state constitution.
In September 2007, USDA members also played a key role in the bloody crackdown during the civic uprising. In 2003, USDA members staged a deadly attack on Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade, in which about 100 people were killed.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Japan Offers to Help Out Nations That Need Cash
TOKYO -- Japan's finance minister said his country -- flush with nearly $1 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves -- is prepared to help bail out nations running out of funds amid the worsening global financial crisis.
Speaking in advance of Friday's Group of Seven meeting of finance and central bank officials in Washington, Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said he will call on the International Monetary Fund to set up a program to extend loans to nations in need of rescue.
"We are ready to provide our funds to the IMF," Mr. Nakagawa said.
Such a move would send a lifeline to countries like Iceland, where the government's efforts to bail out the country's three biggest banks has pushed the small nation to the edge of bankruptcy.
It would also be the latest evidence of Japan's rising global influence during the deepening economic turmoil. Japanese banks have come to the rescue of some of America's largest financial institutions. Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group is set to acquire 21% of Morgan Stanley. Nomura Holdings Inc. has acquired some of the Asian, European and Middle East operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
If Japan's proposed bailout plan is successful in stemming global financial hemorrhaging and stabilizing overseas markets, it would help boost Japan's flagging export-driven economy.
Mr. Nakagawa didn't outline details of his proposal or how Japan would pay for it. One obvious source of funds that Japan could tap is the government's foreign reserves, which totaled $954 billion at the end of the year. Japan has the world's second largest reserve after China's $1.54 trillion, according to the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook.
Providing money for a global bailout plan would help end a longstanding debate over how Japan should put its huge foreign reserves to use. Some politicians have criticized the government for failing to invest the funds more aggressively.
Japan's proposal comes after the Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped nearly 12% at one point on Friday. The yen also rose briefly to a seven-month high of 97.91 yen versus the dollar.
"We are going to take whatever steps are needed in order to deal with every possibility" that could further hurt market conditions, Mr. Nakagawa told reporters.
—Tomoyuki Tachikawa contributed to this article.
Write to John Murphy at john.murphy@wsj.com
Japan feels full force of financial crisis
TOKYO (AFP) — Prime Minister Taro Aso warned Friday that Asia's largest economy was at risk as Tokyo stocks saw their steepest plunge in two decades and the crisis claimed the first Japanese financial institution.
The Tokyo market meltdown "has reached a point where it affects the real economy and fundraising," Aso told reporters.
The Nikkei stock index fell by as much as 11 percent before ending the day down 9.62 percent, the biggest loss since "Black Monday" in October 1987. The index has dived more than 24 percent over the past week.
The government was quick to try to reassure investors that the collapse of Yamato Life Insurance with debts of 2.7 billion dollars was an isolated case.
But the mid-sized insurer blamed the financial turmoil for its downfall as hopes faded that Japan would be relatively immune to the crisis that began in the US housing market and has spread around the world.
"Because of the global financial market chaos and the credit crunch, the value of our securities holdings rapidly fell. It was beyond our expectations," said its president, Takeo Nakazono.
It was the first Japanese life insurer to fail in seven years, and only the eighth since the end of World War II. The credit crunch has also caused numerous bankruptcies in Japan's crumbling real estate sector.
Later in the day, Aso ordered the Financial Services Agency to remove restrictions on share buybacks for the rest of the year as part of efforts to halt a plunge in stocks.
"The fall obviously went over the edge," Aso said.
Under the current regulations, Japanese companies cannot buy back their own shares freely as authorities believe that share buybacks could be used as market manipulation.
The financial turmoil threatens to pile further pressure on Japan's economy, which may have already entered a recession, analysts said.
"There's no doubt that the financial market turbulence is hurting the overall economy," said Taro Saito, senior economist at NLI Research Institute.
The stock market plunge was a reflection of investors' fears for the future of the economy, he added.
"It is even possible that Japan records negative growth this year," he said.
Japan's economy suffered its worst contraction in seven years in the second quarter of this year and many analysts believe it is already in recession, which is usually defined as two straight quarters of negative growth.
The Bank of Japan injected a total of 4.5 trillion yen (45.5 billion dollars) into money markets, the most since the crisis started, as ministers played down fears that other financial institutions might go under.
"The main reason for Yamato Life's situation is its unique scheme, under which the company used proceeds from high-yielding securities to cover losses from high-cost insurance operations," Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said.
"Our understanding is that the situation is different from other insurance companies. It is extremely regrettable that the company's situation has come to this," he said in a statement.
Aso said he was ready to call an emergency summit of the leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations if finance ministers fail to come up with action to stem the crisis at a meeting later in the day in Washington.
Most Japanese financial institutions have escaped the worst of the global credit crisis, seizing the opportunity to expand overseas, buying stakes or assets from troubled Western banks.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is buying up to 24.9 percent of ailing US investment bank Morgan Stanley while top broker Nomura is buying a swathe of Lehman's operations across Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Japanese financial institutions are believed to have been more cautious than many of their European peers in investing in risky subprime assets because they are still recovering from their own crisis of bad loans in the 1990s.
Financial crisis sweeps U.S., Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong
Associated Press
TAIPEI (Taiwan News)- Dow Jones again slipped sharply 678.91 points, or 7.3%, below 9000 points to 8575.19 points on Oct 9, the lowest point in five years. Dow Jones has been crashing for a consecutive 7 days, a total of 2271 points drop or 20.9%. Wall Street’s confidence collapse cannot even be revived by bailout plan or interest rate cut.
U.S. stock market tumble gave rise to Asian market total collapses. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 974.12 points (10.64%); Kospi fell by 7% as of this afternoon; Hong Kong’s Heng Seng Index plummeted over a thousand points. Nikkei fell under 9000 points for the first time since June 26, 2003 and the drastic fall caused Japan’s futures market to cease trade.
In the wake of global financial crisis, Japan’s Yamato Life Insurance for 98 years filed for bankruptcy on Oct 10, the first insurance company closed in 7 years. Its debt exceeded 269.5 billion Japanese Yens (NT$ 88.68 billion) more than its asset value of 11.5 billion Yens (NT$3.783 billion).
TAIEX was spared today for closing on Double Ten Day. However, after Central Bank announced to lower interest rate, TAIEX still plunged 75.69 points to 5130.71 points, the lowest point since July 4, 2003. Franchises worried that even if Taiwan stock market escaped the disaster today, a huge crash was looming next week.
by Taiwan News, Website Editorial Staff
Friday, October 10, 2008
JAC MOVENENT
(6-10-2008) IKEBUKURO (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( BDA )
(7-10-2008) SHINJUKU (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
(ALD )
(8-10-2008) SHINJUKU (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( LBD )
(9-10-2008) SHIBUYA (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( DPNS-JPB)
(10-10-2008) SHIBUYA (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( NLD-LA-JB )
(11-10-2008) IKEBUKURO (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( FWUBC )
(12-10-2008) IKEBUKURO (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( KNU-J )
(13-10-2008) SHINJUKU (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( BDA )
(14-10-2008) SHINJUKU (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
(ALD )
(15-10-2008) IKEBUKURO (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( LBD )
(16-10-2008) IKEBUKURO (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( DPNS-JPB)
(17-10-2008) SHINJUKU (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( NLD-LA-JB )
(18-10-2008) SHINJUKU (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
( FWUBC )
(19-10-2008) IKEBUKURO (15;00 ~ 17 ; 00)
The 4th International Symposium of Organization for Asian Studies, Waseda University,TOKYO,JAPAN
IMF: UK to be worst hit in global economic downturn
http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2008/10/08/imf-uk-to-be-worst-hit-in-global-economic-downturn/
October 8, 2008
IMF: UK to be worst hit in global economic downturn
by Kay Murchie
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the UK faces its most severe economic downturn since the collapse of the early 1990s.
In its latest bi-annual World Economic Outlook report, the IMF predicted that the UK will be the worst hit out of the world’s leading rich economies, due to the ongoing financial turmoil and falling house prices which the nation has experienced in the last 12 months.
The global economy is up against the most threatening crisis since the 1930s warned the report.
The IMF has downgraded Britain’s prospects and expects the economy to grow by 1% this year, while in 2009, the British economy is forecast to shrink by 0.1%, according the IMF.
The organisation also predicts that world economic growth will slow drastically this year, and improve modestly later in 2009.
According to the IMF, the global financial crisis, which started with the collapse in US sub-prime mortgages in August last year, had deteriorated in the last six months and entered a ‘tumultuous new phase‘ last month.
Action needs to be taken by Governments to keep a lid on inflation, warns the IMF and it is calling on Governments to co-ordinate their actions and added that measures taken to deal with the problems should send a strong signal to improve market confidence.
Its report coincides with this week’s IMF-World Bank meeting in America, which will see finance ministers and economic experts come together from around the globe.
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Story link: IMF: UK to be worst hit in global economic downturn
World economy in 'major downturn'
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i7e19cce243eb21aa6f421be58b5dcbf1
World economy in 'major downturn'
Downbeat forecasts contribute to recession fears
By Georg Szalai
Oct 8, 2008, 07:58 PM ET
NEW YORK -- Stock markets around the world slumped further Wednesday, with the U.S. doing better than most countries, as global recession fears took center stage.
Downbeat economic forecasts from the International Monetary Fund left stocks down despite a 50 basis points interest rate cut coordinated between the U.S. Federal Reserve and European central banks.
Some big-name media and entertainment stocks continued their recent slumps and hit 52-week lows Wednesday, including India's AdLabs Films, which declined 9.8%; India's Eros International, listed in London, which lost another 3.7% of its value; and German pay TV giant Premiere AG, whose stock fell 4.1%. Shares of U.K. broadcaster ITV hit a new 52-week low but rallied to close unchanged in the end.
In the U.S., ADRs of Sony (down 5.5%) and shares of Viacom (down 3.8%) and CBS (down 3.6%) were among those setting new 52-week lows.
The Hollywood Reporter Showbiz 50 index fell below the 700-point mark to set a new all-time low of 685.39 early Wednesday before recovering and closing down 0.8% at 776.12. Its biggest decliners were Lionsgate (down 11.8%) and John Malone's Liberty Capital (down 9.8%).
U.S. markets swung back and forth all day before closing down. The Dow finished 2% lower, and the broad-based S&P 500 index dropped 1.1%. The damage was more pronounced elsewhere. In London, the FTSE 100 index finished down 5.2%, the German DAX lost 5.9%, and Japan's Nikkei shed 9.4%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 8.2%.
The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England as well as the Canadian, Swedish and Swiss central banks each cut their benchmark interest rates by half a percentage point Wednesday in a rare coordinated move to send a strong signal of unity as markets try to overcome the current financial crisis.
However, the move seemed partly overshadowed by the International Monetary Fund, which slashed its forecasts for economic growth around the globe.
According to the IMF, the U.S. and Europe already are in or on the brink of recessions. IMF officials said the rate cuts were steps into the right direction but that more might be needed to overcome frozen credit markets and low consumer morale.
The Washington-based IMF cut its 2008 forecast for world economic growth from 4.1% -- as projected in July -- to 3.9%. For 2009, its estimate fell from 3.9% to 3%, which would mean the slowest pace in seven years.
"The world economy is now entering a major downturn in the face of the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s," it said.
The world's advanced economies will see the weakest momentum since 1982 next year, while emerging countries also will experience a hit to their growth, according to the IMF forecast.
In the U.S., it sees growth slowing from 1.6% in 2008 -- ahead of its July projection of 1.3% -- to merely 0.1% next year.
"For the remainder of 2008 and early 2009, the U.S. economy faces flat to negative growth," the IMF said. "An emerging turnaround in the housing sector and more stable oil prices should help lay the basis for incipient recovery in the second half of 2009."
World economy in 'major downturn'
Downbeat forecasts contribute to recession fears
By Georg Szalai
Oct 8, 2008, 07:58 PM ET
NEW YORK -- Stock markets around the world slumped further Wednesday, with the U.S. doing better than most countries, as global recession fears took center stage.
Downbeat economic forecasts from the International Monetary Fund left stocks down despite a 50 basis points interest rate cut coordinated between the U.S. Federal Reserve and European central banks.
Some big-name media and entertainment stocks continued their recent slumps and hit 52-week lows Wednesday, including India's AdLabs Films, which declined 9.8%; India's Eros International, listed in London, which lost another 3.7% of its value; and German pay TV giant Premiere AG, whose stock fell 4.1%. Shares of U.K. broadcaster ITV hit a new 52-week low but rallied to close unchanged in the end.
In the U.S., ADRs of Sony (down 5.5%) and shares of Viacom (down 3.8%) and CBS (down 3.6%) were among those setting new 52-week lows.
The Hollywood Reporter Showbiz 50 index fell below the 700-point mark to set a new all-time low of 685.39 early Wednesday before recovering and closing down 0.8% at 776.12. Its biggest decliners were Lionsgate (down 11.8%) and John Malone's Liberty Capital (down 9.8%).
U.S. markets swung back and forth all day before closing down. The Dow finished 2% lower, and the broad-based S&P 500 index dropped 1.1%. The damage was more pronounced elsewhere. In London, the FTSE 100 index finished down 5.2%, the German DAX lost 5.9%, and Japan's Nikkei shed 9.4%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 8.2%.
The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England as well as the Canadian, Swedish and Swiss central banks each cut their benchmark interest rates by half a percentage point Wednesday in a rare coordinated move to send a strong signal of unity as markets try to overcome the current financial crisis.
However, the move seemed partly overshadowed by the International Monetary Fund, which slashed its forecasts for economic growth around the globe.
According to the IMF, the U.S. and Europe already are in or on the brink of recessions. IMF officials said the rate cuts were steps into the right direction but that more might be needed to overcome frozen credit markets and low consumer morale.
The Washington-based IMF cut its 2008 forecast for world economic growth from 4.1% -- as projected in July -- to 3.9%. For 2009, its estimate fell from 3.9% to 3%, which would mean the slowest pace in seven years.
"The world economy is now entering a major downturn in the face of the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s," it said.
The world's advanced economies will see the weakest momentum since 1982 next year, while emerging countries also will experience a hit to their growth, according to the IMF forecast.
In the U.S., it sees growth slowing from 1.6% in 2008 -- ahead of its July projection of 1.3% -- to merely 0.1% next year.
"For the remainder of 2008 and early 2009, the U.S. economy faces flat to negative growth," the IMF said. "An emerging turnaround in the housing sector and more stable oil prices should help lay the basis for incipient recovery in the second half of 2009."
We Should Join Hands’
http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/tibet/archives/2008/10/we_should_join.html
October 09, 2008
‘We Should Join Hands’
http://www.newsweek.com/id/161410
We Should Join Hands’
China's prime minister speaks out in his first interview with a
Western publication in years.
Fareed Zakaria
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Oct 6, 2008
In New York last week for the opening of the United Nations General
Assembly, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao gave a rare exclusive
interview to NEWSWEEK's Fareed Zakaria. Wen, 66, is known for his
openness and economic mastery, and has presided over some of the
fastest growth in China's history. He began the conversation by
pledging to "tell the truth" and invited Zakaria to interrupt him,
since Wen "prefers dialogue to long-winded speeches." The two covered
topics ranging from Tibet and Tiananmen Square to Darfur and human
rights, from political philosophy to the U.S. elections, from the
current financial crisis to the future of Chinese democracy. Excerpts:
ZAKARIA: What do you think of the financial crisis affecting the
United States?
WEN: We should join hands and meet the crisis together. If the
financial and economic system[s] in the United States go wrong, then
the impact will be felt not only in this country, but also in China,
in Asia and the world at large.
Regarding your own economy, many people now say there will be a
significant slowdown. Do you think that will happen? And if it does,
what do you think will be the consequences?
China's economy has been growing at an annual average rate of 9.6
percent for 30 years running. This is a miracle. And between 2003 and
2007, China enjoyed double-digit growth—yet the consumer price index
grew less than 2 percent a year.
China has been proactive in adopting regulatory measures. Our previous
concerns were to prevent a fast-growing economy from overheating and
to prevent soaring prices from becoming inflation.
But things have changed very fast [because of] the subprime crisis in
the United States and the serious turbulence that followed. We have
seen a decline in external demand, and China's domestic demand cannot
be significantly increased in a short period of time. [So] we do risk
a slowdown. We must re-adjust macroeconomic policy.
Do you think you can continue to grow if the United States goes into a
major recession?
Given the statistics for the first eight months of this year, we have
managed to do that. [But] a U.S. recession would certainly have an
impact on China's economy. Ten years ago, China–U.S. trade stood at
only $102.6 billion. Today the figure has soared to $302 billion—a 1.5-
fold increase. A shrinking of U.S. demand would certainly have an
impact on China's exports. And U.S. finance is closely connected with
Chinese finance. If anything goes wrong in the U.S. financial sector,
we would be anxious about the security of Chinese capital.
China is the largest holder of U.S. Treasury bills — by some accounts,
they ' re worth almost $1 trillion. Can you reassure [Americans] that
China would never use this status as a weapon in some way?
We believe that the U.S. real economy is still solidly based,
particularly the high-tech and basic industries. Something has gone
wrong in the virtual economy, but if this problem is properly
addressed, it is still possible to stabilize the economy. The Chinese
government hopes to see sustained development in the United States, as
that will benefit China. Of course, we are concerned about the safety
and security of Chinese money here. But we believe that the United
States is a credible country. And particularly at such difficult
times, China has reached out to the United States. And actually we
believe such a helping hand will help stabilize the entire global
economy and finance and prevent major chaos from occurring ... I
believe now that cooperation is everything.
Many people see China as a superpower already, and they wonder: why is
it not being more active in political resolution of issues such as
Darfur or Iran?
I need to correct some elements of your question. China is not a
superpower. Although China has a population of 1.3 billion and
although in recent years it has registered fairly fast economic and
social development, China still has … 800 million farmers in rural
areas and we still have dozens of millions of people living in
poverty. We need to make committed and very earnest efforts to address
these problems. That's why we need to focus on our own development and
on our efforts to improve people's lives.
But surely the Chinese government could pressure the Sudanese
government or the Iranian government or the government in Burma to be
less repressive. You have relations with all three of them.
That brings me to your second question. China is a justice-upholding
country. We never trade our principles. Take the Darfur issue that you
raised just now, for example. China has always advocated a dual-track
approach: China was among the first countries sending peacekeepers to
Darfur. China was also the first country that gave assistance to
Sudan, and we also keep [up] our efforts to engage the leaders in
Sudan to try to seek a peaceful solution.
Do you think it would be dangerous for the world if Iran got nuclear
weapons? And what do you think the world should do to try to prevent
it?
We are not supportive of a nuclear rise for Iran. We believe that Iran
has the right to develop a utilization of nuclear energy in a peaceful
way. But such efforts should be subject to the safeguards of the IAEA,
and Iran should not develop nuclear weapons … We hope that we can use
peaceful talks to achieve the purpose, rather than resort to the
willful use of force, or the intimidation of force. It's like a
relationship between two individuals. If one individual tries to
corner the other, the effect will be counterproductive. Our purpose is
to resolve the problem, not to escalate tensions.
I have a question for you: don ' t you think that the efforts made by
China in resolving the Korean nuclear issue have actually helped that
situation? I know it will take time to [achieve] a complete solution
to the Korean nuclear issue. But the model we have adopted has proved
to be r ight in this direction.
China's efforts have been appreciated in the United States and around
the world. And it makes people wish that China would be active in
other areas in the same way.
We have gained a lot of experience and learned lessons from the years
of negotiations. The progress made also had a lot to do with the close
cooperation among the six parties in the talks.
The Dalai Lama says now he would accept China ' s rule in Tibet. Why
don ' t you negotiate directly with him and solve this issue once and
for all?
The Dalai Lama is a religious leader and enjoys certain influence in
the Tibetan region. He is not an ordinary religious figure. The so-
called government in exile founded by the Dalai Lama practices
theocratic rule. And the purpose of this so-called government in exile
is to separate Tibet from China. All over the world, the Dalai Lama
keeps preaching about autonomy for the greater Tibetan region. He
wants to separate the so-called greater Tibetan region from the
motherland. Many people in the United States have no idea how big this
region is; it covers Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai and Gansu: a
quarter of China's territory.
For decades, our policy [has been that] as long as the Dalai Lama is
willing to recognize that Tibet is an inalienable part of China's
territory, and as long as the Dalai Lama gives up his separatist
activities, we're willing to have contact and talks with him or his
representatives. Now, sincerity holds the key to producing results out
of the talks.
What action would you like to see from the Dalai Lama that would show
sincerity?
His sincerity can be demonstrated in giving up separatist activities.
… Of course, talks may continue, and in light of the progress in the
talks, we may also consider raising the level of the talks.
Premier Wen, your country has grown, as you pointed out, 9.5 percent
for 30 years — the fastest growth rate of any country in history. What
is the key to your success? What is the model?
[The answer is] the reforms and opening-up policy we introduced in
1978. We emancipated productivity in China. We had one important
thought: that socialism can practice market economy.
People think that ' s a contradiction. How do you make both work?
Give full play to the basic role of market forces in allocating
resources under the macroeconomic guidance and regulation of the
government. Ensure that both the visible hand and the invisible hand
are given full play. If you are familiar with Adam Smith, you will
know that there are two famous works of his. "The Wealth of Nations"
deals with the invisible hand: market forces. The other book deals
with social equity and justice. In the other book, he stressed the
importance of the regulatory role of the government to distribute
wealth among the people. If most of the wealth in a country is
concentrated in the hands of the few, this country can hardly [have]
harmony and stability.
Some Americans and Europeans, particularly human-rights observers, say
that China has cracked down on human rights over the last few years.
They say they had hoped that the Olympics would lead to an opening,
but there has been more repression. How would you respond?
By hosting the Olympics, China has become more open. Anyone without
biases will see that. Freedom of speech and of media coverage are
guaranteed in China. The Chinese government attaches importance to,
and protects, human rights. We have incorporated these into the
Chinese Constitution, and we also implement [them] in earnest. We
don't think that we are impeccable in terms of human rights—it is true
that in some places and in some areas, we have problems. Nonetheless,
we are continuing to make improvements.
When I go to China and I ' m in a hotel and I type the words "
Tiananmen Square " into my computer, I get a firewall, what some
people call the Great Firewall of China. Can you be an advanced
society if you don ' t have freedom of information?
China now has over 200 million Internet users and the freedom of the
Internet in China is recognized by many, even in the West. To uphold
state security, China, like many countries in the world, has also
imposed some proper restrictions. On the Internet in China, you can
have access to a lot of postings that are quite critical about the
government. It is exactly through reading these critical opinions on
the Internet that we try to locate problems and further improve our
work. I don't think a system or a government should fear critical
opinions or views.
What are your favorite sites?
I've browsed a lot of Web sites.
There is a photograph of you at Tiananmen Square in 1989. What lesson
did you take from your experiences in dealing with that problem? Did
you feel it was necessary to stop political reform? Do you think in 25
years there will be national elections in w hich there will be
competition?
I believe that while moving ahead with economic reforms, we also need
to advance political reforms, as our development is comprehensive in
nature, our reform should also be comprehensive. I think the core of
your question is about the development of democracy in China. When it
comes to the development of democracy in China, we can talk about
progress in three areas. No. 1: we need to gradually improve the
democratic election system so that state power will truly belong to
the people and state power will be used to serve the people. No. 2: we
need to improve the legal system, run the country according to law,
and [have] an independent and just judicial system. No. 3: government
should be subject to oversight by the people. That will [require] us
to increase transparency in government affairs. It is also necessary
for government to accept oversight by the news media and other
parties.
We need to take into account China's national conditions and we need
to introduce a system that suits China's special features and we need
to introduce a gradual approach.
It's hard for me to predict what will happen in 25 years. This being
said, I have this conviction: that China's democracy will continue to
grow. In 20 to 30 years, Chinese society will be more democratic and
fairer and the legal system will be improved. Socialism as we see it
will further mature and improve.
People say you ' re studying the Japanese system because there ' s
democracy, but only one party seems to win elections. Is that the
model you see for China?
There are multiple forms of democracy in the world. What is important
is whether it really represents the interests of the people. Socialism
as I understand it is a system of democracy. And such a democracy
first and foremost should serve to ensure the people's right to
democratic elections, oversight and decision making. Such a democracy
should also help people to develop themselves in an all-around way in
an environment featuring freedom and equality. And such a democracy
should be based on a full-fledged legal system.
You ' ve said that you ' ve read the works of Marcus Aurelius a
hundred times. He is a famous Stoic philosopher. My reading of him
says that one should not be involved in the self, and in any kind of
pursuits that are self-interested, but should be more for the
community as a w hole. When I go to China these days, I am struck by
how much individualism there is, how much consumerism there is. Are
you trying to send a signal to the Chinese people to think less about
themselves and more about the community?
It is true I read the meditations of Marcus Aurelius on many
occasions, and I was very deeply impressed by the words that he wrote.
I very much value morality and do believe that entrepreneurs,
economists and statesmen alike should pay much more attention to
morality and ethics. In my mind, the highest standard to measure
ethics and morality is justice. When we think about the economy, we
think more about companies, capital, markets, technology, and so on.
We might forget about elements like conviction and morality. Only when
we combine these two kinds of factors can we [have] a full picture of
the DNA of the economy. It is true that in the course of China's
economic development, some companies have pursued profits at the
expense of morality. We will never allow such things to happen,
because such an approach simply cannot be sustained. That's why we
advocate corporate, occupational and social ethics.
Let me ask you a final question. You must have been watching the
American election. What is your reaction to this strange race?
The presidential election of the United States should be decided by
the American people. What I follow very closely is [what] the
relationship between China and the United States [will be like] after
the election. In recent years, there has been sound growth in China-
U.S. relations. We hope that whoever is elected president, he will
continue to grow the relationship with China. And China hopes to
continue to improve its relationship with the United States no matter
who takes office.
Go here for a transcript of Fareed Zakaria's interview with Chinese
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/161410
Bank of Japan makes record liquidity injection
AP
Thursday October 9, 6:21 am ET
Bank of Japan makes record liquidity injection of $40 billion
TOKYO (AP) -- The Bank of Japan pumped a record 4 trillion yen, or $40.3 billion, into the Tokyo money market Thursday to unthaw credit flows still frigid despite a series of interest rate cuts by central banks around the world.
The move was the central bank's largest ever single-day liquidity injection and marked the 17th straight day of emergency operations. It has added more than 25 trillion yen ($249.2 billion) to the system since the global financial crisis erupted last month.
South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong all slashed interest rates Thursday, following Wednesday's coordinated rate reductions led by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. China's central bank also cut rates Wednesday, thought did not say if it was part of the joint action.
Still, funding conditions remained tight in Japan, especially for foreign banks.
While the Bank of Japan applauded the synchronized monetary policy moves, it did not participate in the effort.
The central bank on Tuesday left its overnight call rate at an already low 0.5 percent. Monetary conditions remain accommodative, it said in a statement, adding that it has engaged in "decisive actions of liquidity supply."
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