Penang Set To Be Regional Logistics Hub For Both NCER & IMT-GT

BUTTERWORTH, July 31 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today that Penang Port will be promoted as the primary port for both the Northern Corridor and the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) by expanding its capacity to handle the expected increase in container traffic as well as the larger container vessels.The Prime Minister said the international airport at Bayan Lepas will be the primary air cargo hub and handle the easily perishable top quality food exports."The facilities to be upgraded at Bayan Lepas include new cargo and passenger terminals and an additional runway to cope with the anticipated increase in air traffic volume," he said when launching the Penang package of the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) masterplan here.He said Penang already has quality logistics infrastructure including ready access to the North-South Expressway, the Penang Bridge, a deepwater port and an international standard airport."So the thrust of the major developments in the state within the NCER context is to upgrade its capacity to be the regional logistics hub. These efforts encompass capacity and logistics network expansion in an integrated manner," he added.For the convenience of Penang residents, the Prime Minister said, several public transportation projects will be implemented, with the focus on comfortable and brisk travel.One project has already been implemented - the RapidPenang bus service, introduced within a short time due to the close cooperation between the federal and state governments - and Abdullah described the bus service asreflecting "the government's ability in providing a quality, comfortable, systematic and efficient service to the people of Penang."Another project is a rapid ferry service for motorcyclists and passengers which will be introduced next year to supplement the existing ferry service while the ferry terminals at both ends will be upgraded.A third project is Penang Sentral, an integrated rail, ferry, monorail and land transport hub to be jointly developed by Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) and Pelaburan Hartanah Bumiputera Bhd on a six million sq ft location that will house not only the integrated terminal but also have commercial, retail and residential development, much like MRCB's KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur."With Penang Sentral, Penang residents and those in the Northern Corridor will enjoy a quality transportation system that is safe and efficient and suitble for all travel purposes - work, sightseeing, commercial and for industry needs," he said."I am confident the project will transform the Butterworth area into a bustling, modern metropolis, while Swettenham Pier on the island becomes a new transportation and commercial hub."To complete the transportation network will be the 37km monorail system on the island which, according to him, will be the pulse of the island's transportation system."I am confident that the monorail system will help ease the traffic congestion on the island as well as at Seberang Perai, and residents will be able to travel to other states, especially within the NCER, with greater ease," he added.Abdullah believed that with the second bridge project to link the island and the mainland and the widening of the existing bridge, the transportation system will see a vast growth in the traffic flow between the island and its NCER hinterland.

Transmile Unable To Issue 2006 Annual Report And 1Q Results

KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) -- Transmile Group Bhd said it was unable to issue its first-quarter result and 2006 annual report as at stipulated deadline as it had only finalised its audited financial statement for financial year ended Dec 31, 2006 on June 29.The air cargo service provider said it was not able to issue its first-quarter results by May 31, 2007 and annual report 2006 by June 30, 2007.Transmile in its filing to Bursa Malaysia Tuesday said it was in the midst of finalising the first-quarter results and would endeavour to announce the financial performance by Aug 15.As for the annual report 2006, Transmile said it would endeavour to despatch them to shareholders at least 21 days before the annual general meeting which should be held not later than Sept 12, 2007.

NCER- RM177 Billion Investment ready to flow

ALOR STAR, July 30 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today launched the masterplan for the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), a development initiative that is expected to draw investments worth RM177 billion from 2007 to 2025.The prime minister said that of the total sum, one-third was expected to be spent by the government, with the balance to be through Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) and private sector investment."The government will start the ball rolling to provide the best possible socio-economic environment and this will be followed by the private sector and commercial investments later on," he said when launching the masterplan at the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (Mada) headquarters here.The initiative is expected to spur growth and boost income levels in the NCER, home to 4.29 million people, within 20 years.Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP), the NCER development programme has been identified as one of the areas to generate the country's economic growth.Present were Abdullah's wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali, Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid and Perlis Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim. The NCER covers Kedah, Perlis, Penang and northern Perak.The launch was also attended by Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Effendi Norwawi.Abdullah, who is also Finance Minister, said that in the initial phase, the government would provide RM5 billion on top of existing allocations for NCER programmes which had been identified."The government plans to invest the money following a review of 9MP programmes and increase the allocations after the 9MP mid-term review," he said.Abdullah said he and the leaders of the four states would chair a coordination and implementation body comprising federal and state government officials being set up to oversee NCER implementation.The northern corridor concept, he said, was formulated on the premise that development efforts could be carried out much faster and in a more orderly manner by leveraging on the potential of the states concerned.Abdullah said initiatives meant to stimulate socio-economic development for the well-being of the people would be carried out in the NCER.He said the thrust of development efforts there would be on trade and market trends to push the northern region forward in the globalisation age.To this end, he said, there was a need for a mind shift with regard to the potential of the country's northern states and districts.Abdullah said the NCER was different from the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) in Johor as the former covers a wider area with differences in the demographic make-up."The challenges and opportunites are different too. For example, the latest figures show that the poverty rate in Kedah and Perlis is much higher than the the country's average," he said.Abdullah said as the household income in the NCER was also lower than the nation's average, the government aimed to introduce socio-economic transformation for the people in the north, unlike IDR's urban-centred growth targets.But the philosophy behind both development initiatives is similar -- to add value to rural sectors, urban industries and human capital, he said."The value-add culture should be made part of people's lives as it is the key to Northern Corridor's success," he said, adding that it was also important to narrow the income gap between rural and urban areas.Abdullah said efforts would be made to transform rural economy to make it more modern, sustainable and profitable, such as the move to promote "new agriculture".Opportunies should be created in the rural economy of the north to allow investors to introduce modern techniques as well as consumer and market knowledge among entrepreneurs in rural areas, he said.The prime minister said special programmes would be implemented to develop commercial-scale projects by the private sector.One of them, he said, was to encourage the amalgamation of land to allow the utilisation of modern methods for crop cultivation and harvesting for commercial purposes.Saying that the management aspects would come under the private sector, Abdullah stressed that this would not jeopardise land ownership as land owners would be able to enjoy higher income from big-scale and modern agricultural projects.And in the process, land owners and farmers would also be able learn new techniques, including by becoming contract farmers, he said.He said commercial agricultural projects would promote downstream activities and agro-based small and medium industries.Abdullah said all these would be backed by programmes to enhance innovation and skills in the agricultural sector through the establishment of research and development centres and agriculture faculties with the cooperation of the private sector.The prime minister expressed the hope that such initiatives would produce a new generation of skilled and business-savvy farmers in the northern belt on whose shoulders lied the future of rural economy."I want the country to mould a new generation of rural dwellers who won't see the necessity to look for jobs in major towns; people who are able to toil the land using modern technology. This is something that will change our rural landscape," he said.

BOJ Less Likely to Raise Rates

July 27 (Bloomberg) -- The chance that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates in August declined after global stocks slumped and the nation's consumer prices fell for a fifth month.
Investors see a 48 percent likelihood of a rate increase next month, down from 66 percent yesterday, according to Credit Suisse Group calculations based on the exchange of interest payments. Consumer prices excluding fresh food fell 0.1 percent in June from a year earlier, the government said in Tokyo today.
Though Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui has said the bank could raise rates even if prices were still falling, he has also said policy makers must be confident economic growth will be sustained. Global stocks slid on concern a worsening U.S. housing slump will slow growth in the world's biggest economy.
``The heightened concern over systemic risk in the U.S. may make it difficult for the bank to move next month,'' said Eishi Yokoyama, an economist at AIG Global Investment Corp. in Tokyo. ``The price report won't alter the bank's expectations that prices are going to rise in coming months.''
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid the most in more than four months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday sank the most since February and the FTSE 100's biggest drop in four years led European declines.
Japan's retail sales unexpectedly fell 0.4 percent in June, the Trade Ministry said today, as higher taxes, lower wages and a furor over lost pension records weighed on consumer sentiment.
Weak Data
``Given today's weak CPI and retail data as well as the stock decline in the U.S., there are more factors mounting against an August rate increase,'' said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit Suisse Group in Tokyo. Shirakawa, a former central bank official, said he put the chances of an August rate increase at ``less than 50 percent.''
The yen weakened to 118.95 per dollar at 10:50 a.m. in Tokyo from 118.68 in New York late yesterday. The yield on Japan's 10-year bond fell 4.5 basis points to 1.81 percent, the lowest in seven weeks. The Nikkei tumbled 2.3 percent.
Concern is mounting that the U.S. housing slump will spread to the rest of the economy, crimping demand in Japan's biggest export market. Sales of new homes in the U.S. fell 6.6 percent last month, the most since January, a report showed yesterday.
``Housing market data has continued to be unimpressive,'' Tadao Noda, a Bank of Japan policy board member, said in a speech yesterday. ``Some have indicated the recovery in the housing market could take more time than initially thought so we need to continue to keep a close watch on this issue.''
Tokyo Prices
Tokyo's core prices, seen as an indicator of the nationwide consumer price index, fell 0.1 percent in July from a year ago, the statistics bureau said. The drop in prices nationwide and in the capital matched economists' expectations.
Consumer prices in Japan have failed to rise this year, after posting gains in eight months of last year. Those increases led to speculation that the economy was emerging from more than seven years of deflation that discouraged investment and consumer spending.
Nationwide core prices may fall as much as 0.2 percent in August and September because crude oil costs were near records in those months in 2006, said Takehiro Sato, chief Japan economist at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo.
Competition among mobile-phone operators is also exerting downward pressure on prices. KDDI Corp., Japan's second-biggest mobile-phone carrier, said last week that it will cut monthly fees by half, matching a move by larger rival NTT DoCoMo Inc.
Mobile Phones
Given the mobile-phone prices, the time of the next consumer-price increase ``may be delayed to December from November,'' said Hiroaki Muto, a senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo.
Still, there are also budding signs of inflation, as companies gradually pass rising costs of oil and raw materials onto retail prices. Rengo Co., an Osaka-based paper maker, this week said it will raise prices of cardboard and other paper by at least 15 percent from Sept. 1 to meet higher costs.
Inflationary expectations are increasing amid a surge in gasoline and food prices, according to a central bank survey of consumers. Some 72 percent of consumers expect prices to rise this year, compared with 59 percent in the previous quarter, the bank said in the quarterly report on July 18.

Measat And Astro Finalise Measat-3 Agreement

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Bernama) -- Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd announced today that it has finalised an agreement worth US$381 million with Astro All Asia Networks Plc's subsidiary, Measat Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd, for the utilisation of Ku-Band transponder capacity on the Measat-3 satellite.Under the agreement, Measat Satellite will provide Astro with up to 13 Ku-Band transponders on the Measat-3 spacecraft, representing over one quarter of the satellite's communication capacity.Measat Satellite's chief operating officer Paul Brown-Kenyon said in a statement that the Ku-Band payload was designed to support direct-to-home (DTH) operators across Malaysia, Indonesia and South Asia."With the enhanced capacity of Measat-3, Astro has been able to introduce numerous new services, including new channels and Astro-on-Demand. Our customers can look forward to more new services over the next 12 months," said Astro TV's chief executive officer Rohana Rozhan.Brown-Kenyon said that 13 other customers were now leasing capacity on the Measat-3 satellite, including Radio Televisyen Malaysia, TV3, Ho Chi Minh City Television. Celcom and BBC Worldwide."We are delighted by the initial take-up of capacity on the new satellite. Having reached almost 50 percent utilisation, we expect the satellite to be operating close to capacity by year-end," he said.

BASF- Vietnam Bridge Project

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Bernama) -- International chemical firm BASF said today it has won a contract to supply high-strength concrete admixtures for the construction of the Phu My Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.It said in a statement that its construction chemicals division in Vietnam will supply the Glenium SP8S admixture for the project, a 2-km cable-stayed bridge across the Saigon River. It is expected to be ready by end-2009."Vietnam is an important and fast-growing market with a strong contribution to our growth in the region," said BASF group vice president and head of BASF construction chemicals in the Asia Pacific, Dr Boris Gorella.BASF's portfolio encompasses chemicals, plastics, performance products, agricultural products, fine chemicals and natural gas.

Dialog seeks more business overseas

PETALING JAYA: Dialog Group Bhd is actively expanding its overseas business as part of the company’s strategy to boost earnings, chairman and group managing director Ngau Boon Keat said.
The group, he said, was targeting the United States by year-end, after its success in the Asia-Pacific, Australia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Britain and Europe.
“We are also interested to expand our operations in new territories like Australia, Kazakhstan and Nigeria,” he told reporters after the company EGM yesterday.
Ngau said Dialog’s overseas business contributed about 50% to group revenue last year.
“We expect another round of good growth this year,” he added.
Clients of the integrated specialist technical services provider for the oil, gas and petroleum industry in the upstream and downstream activities include multinational oil majors, national oil companies as well as multinational engineering and construction firms.
Ngau said Dialog was positioning to be a global player, given the universal nature of the oil and gas (O&G) industry.
He said the group’s prospects were positive, in line with continued strong world demand for energy, combined with insufficient refining capacity global.
This resulted in the world O&G industry players intensifying exploration, production, processing and manufacturing efforts both upstream and downstream.
“Dialog wants to aggressively capitalise on these tremendous business opportunity, both locally and globally,” added Ngau.
Paris-based International Energy Agency, in its latest report, forecast that world energy demand would grow an average 2.2% a year.