DALIAN (China) - BANK of China, the country's biggest foreign exchange lender, will need more capital to maintain its capital adequacy ratios, but it has no specific fund-raising plans, an executive said on Thursday.
SYDNEY - AUSTRALIAN business confidence has surged to its highest level in almost six years as expectations rise that an economic recovery is underway, a monthly survey showed on Tuesday. Confidence rose from +10 in July to +18 in August, the highest reading since October 2003, the National Australia Bank (NAB) study found. A positive reading indicates optimists outnumber pessimists among the 405 firms surveyed.
XIAMEN (China) - CHINA'S economy is seeing more signs of economic strength, but a recovery is still not very solid, meaning Beijing will continue with its stimulative policies, State Councillor Ma Kai said on Tuesday.'The trend of economic stabilisation is still not firm, not solidified, not balanced, and we still face many difficulties and problems,' Mr Ma told a financial forum in the coastal city of Xiamen.
WASHINGTON - THE United States is on the 'road to recovery' nearly one year after teetering Wall Street giants sparked global panic and worldwide financial woes, President Barack Obama said on Tuesday. Speaking to labour leaders on the US holiday of Labor Day, Mr Obama assured the crowd in the northern city of Cincinnati, Ohio that the United States was making strides after a year of financial hardship.
LONDON - BRITISH companies expect to cut jobs at a slower pace in the next three months with some sectors, notably finance, expecting to boost headcount, a survey showed on Tuesday.A quarterly survey by recruitment firm Manpower showed a seasonally adjusted net balance of -2 per cent of firms planned to cut jobs between October and December.
Steelmaker Nam Leong's chairman, Mr David Poh, tells StraitsTimes.com Editor Joanne Lee that the saddest day in his company's life was not during a recession at all.
Started more than 50 years ago as a family-run micro-financing firm, then a sanitary equipment maker, Nam Leong now makes steel parts and piping and is run by two brothers - David and Mark. They might be well-positioned to ride the storm at this moment with contracts with both Integrated Resorts, but how will they tackle what comes after?
ST.com Editor Joanne Lee speaks to the CEO of one of Singapore's most iconic family businesses: Traditional Chinese Medicine maker Eu Yan Sang.Hear what Richard Eu considers to be the biggest lesson he has learnt running a family business during down times.
ST.com Editor Joanne Lee talks to F&B entrepreneur Michel Lu.
Best known for nightclubs Centro and Lola a few years ago, he now runs Hacienda, one of the first bars that brought the Dempsey area alive, and Prive - a fine dining restaurant, bar and bakery on Marina Bay. He also has three projects rolling out over the next few months.
How does he do it? And why is he so confident despite the storm?
Goodrich Global's CEO Chan Chong Beng tells ST.com's Joanne Lee how he used various economic crises to reposition his company for better times.
The 54-year-old started the interior furnishings company in 1983, specialising in wall coverings, carpets and floor laminates.
It employs 140 staff with 18 regional offices in seven places, including Hong Kong and Dubai.
ST.com's Joanne Lee talks to Pestbusters' Chairman and CEO Thomas Fernandez about how he learned to dominate his niche in an industry with at least 250 competitors.
Having fallen sick while mixing chemicals to kill bugs the amateurish-way, he invested in a specialised degree in the US and now insists on all his staff being certified as pest and germ controllers - the competitive edge he claims allows him to charge high prices even during an economic crisis.
WASHINGTON - THE US government on Friday posted a smaller-than-expected US$111.40 billion (S$160.4 billion) budget deficit for August, marking a record-matching 11 straight months of deficits.
FASHION show organiser, nightclub owner, restaurant and bar proprietor - these are jobs for tough guys.But Ms Karen Seah - all petite 1.55m of her - is one single-minded woman who has taken on these male-dominated domains and succeeded.
COMPANIES must guard against getting complacent in the light of reports that the current H1N1 virus outbreak may be mild, Spring Singapore head of business and service excellence, Mr Yap Pao-Jui, said.Speaking at a seminar organised by the Singapore Manufacturers' Federation yesterday, Mr Yap told attendees that they might think H1N1 was mild and did not affect them severely.
SINGAPORE companies should use their expertise in infrastructure to expand into India and profit from that country's rapidly growing economy.The advice came from Mr Reginald Wee, International Enterprise (IE) Singapore's regional director for South Asia, who told a seminar on Tuesday that there were rich pickings in India.
WHILE many guitarists dreamt of being rock stars reeling off solos to hordes of screaming fans, guitar enthusiast Ho Zen Yong danced to a different tune: He wanted to build his own.
BIODIESEL may sound like a technologically advanced fuel, but the green alternative to pump diesel can be produced from something as simple as cooking oil.And since June 2007, Alpha Biofuels has been collecting used cooking oil from local businesses and refining it to produce biodiesel.
YOU could almost say that baking powder runs in his veins. After all, Mr Foo Ko Kin, the 55-year-old managing director and founder of food technology company CerealTech, has spent his entire career in the baking industry.His first taste came with a temporary job at a Danish bakery at Shaw Centre.
A GOVERNMENT-LED training initiative for business owners and executives is beginning to help more small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) here gain a foothold in emerging markets abroad.Trade agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said its International Business Fellowship (iBF) was designed as a scheme to educate entrepreneurs about doing business in various overseas markets.
IF you are one of the people left bamboozled by such new-fangled marketing terms as brand architecture, grab a packet of Maggi Noodles. There's a new healthier version out there and the fact that it is getting noticed is down to a bit of nifty brand architecture by the local whizzes at Bonsey Design Partnership.
BACK in 1978, Mr Mark Lee Tian Hock felt deeply frustrated by the slow manual data processing at a major Malaysian shipyard where he was an accountant. But it was the frustration that propelled him into the world of information technology.
'WHEN the going gets tough, the tough get going.' That's the motto that Indian-born Rakesh Chopra, founder and managing director of software firm Icon Resources & Technologies, instils in himself and his staff. For Mr Chopra, 45, these are tough times indeed, the toughest he has faced since 2000, when he took the plunge to become his own boss. That was no walk in the park either. Then aged in his mid-30s, the engineer had two sons, Nikhil and Ashish, to support.
FIGURES show that the construction industry in Singapore has continued to do well even as other sectors continue to reel under the impact of the economic downturn. This is the reason why Expand Construction can predict that 2009 and 2010 will be its best performing years since its incorporation in 2000, while other small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are struggling for survival.Von Lee, group executive chairman of Expand Construction, points out that a major problem facing the construction industry is the increase in raw material prices last year. However, he believes that the next two years will be relatively easier for his company as a result of the decisions and strategies implemented.
Nam Leong Co Pte Ltd, a major steel piping equipment supplier in the region, has seen its share of ups and downs after half a century in business. Poh Seng Kui, managing director of Nam Leong, said while discussing the company's journey that he believes that the company has been able to overcome challenges because of its careful control of its cash flow and debt positions.
CELINE Teh, founder of building materials supplier Earth Arts, not only has a strong personal interest in stones but also a character that is just as strong and hardy.
The middle-aged divorcee has been playing dual roles as managing director of her fast-growing company and mother of three children, whom she put through university.
THE COLLAPSE of several heavyweight financial institutions as the result of the global financial tsunami has triggered a worldwide economic recession that has spilled into most industries. The most urgent issue facing companies of all sizes across the world at the moment is how they can survive the financial crisis and eventually emerge from under its cloud.
OFFSHORE oil and gas company Kim Heng Group may have grown to become a multi-million dollar concern with a subsidiary in as far away as Australia. But for brothers Thomas Tan, 51, and Tan Sek Khoon, 54, the Singapore River is where their heart is. It was where their father, Mr Tan Eng Hai, started the family business and it will always be remembered as the place where they spent most of their childhood. Their memories are of hopping on and off river vessels and learning the trade that is now their livelihood.
