China auto industry growing 30% per year: Can the auto show increase it?

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
The exhibition of auto parts in China will be held on June 8 and continue till June 10. Auto Components Shanghai 2006 will be held in Jiading Automobile Town over 12000 square meters. More than two hundred auto parts manufacturers both domestic and foreign will be participating in this exhibition. I am quoting from the press release:
As a grand event of China's auto parts industry, nearly 200 manufacturers from 10 countries and regions will attend, including over 40% foreign companies, and the exhibition space will reach 12,000 m2.
This exhibition is sponsored by CCPIT Shanghai Branch and SAE-China and undertaken by Shanghai International Exhibition Co., Ltd. affiliated to Shanghai World Expo (Group) Co Ltd. and the German IMAG-International Trade Fair and Exhibition Co. Ltd.
Chinese Auto Industry for the last few years has been growing at a rapid pace. At an average the industry grew by 30% per year. Alongside the auto parts industry had its fair share of growth. According to the press release in 2005 the number of auto parts producers reached 5000 and production was amounted to RMB440 billion and it is increasing. Seeing the potential of the industry many world famous autoparts producers came to China. At present 70% of the 100 top auto parts producers have their business in China. In addition, Chinese auto parts producing companies are exporting their products abroad. Last year, these companies exported 19.7 billion dollar of autoparts.
Eight exhibition groups are participating in this exhibition: China auto electronic and electric appliance exhibition group, Shanghai auto parts exhibition group, Zhejiang auto parts exhibition group, Japanese exhibition group, German exhibition group and Taiwan exhibition group.
Exhibitions and shows are a great way to attract visitors and potential investors and buyers inside the country. The Auto Component Show 2006 is the biggest show ever held. I believe and hope that this show will take China a step further towards their goal.

Related articles:
Auto Components Shanghai 2006 Moves to Jiading Automobile Town in June for First the Time

GIMME FIVE !!!!

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Korea, Asia’s Third largest economy, in 2005 acquired fifth position in automobile production. Automobile industry is a very competitive one and Korea is the home of some famous car making companies like-- Hyundai, Daewoo. Hyundai is the world’s 7th largest car producing company. Automobile is one of the major export items of Korea and in 2005 it produced 3.7 million cars out of which, 2.6 million have been exported. The first second third and fourth places were taken by USA, Japan, Germany, and China. To celebrate this success on Tuesday a ceremony took place at the Grand Inter Continental in Seoul. In that ceremony Korea’s Commerce Minister, Chung Sye-kyun said “We will seek to overcome the current challenges of the business environment and become a winning global player through endless efforts to improve our automobile productivity, which will call for trimming costs."
This huge success has made Korean car makers very ambitious and now they are planning produce 7.6 million cars by 2015. Congratulations to Korean Automakers!!! they have done a great job.

Related articles:
Korea ranks world's No. 5 in auto output

' Warcraft' raising a war in China

Written by: Biplob Kishor Deb
Chinese people are becoming crazy about pc gaming. For your convenience, here I should give an information that, at present, there are about 200,000 people are enjoying online gaming in China. The most recent evidence of such increasing popularity of gaming among the Chinese is the World of Warcraft game that became an instant hit in the Chinese market just after its launching in China one year back.

The present game fans of World Warcraft in China are more than 4.3 million which is more than the half of its total users world wide. So, the developer of this game, Blizzard became astonished seeing the rapid growth of its users in China and they said that they have more than six million users over the world. But recently some problems were found between Blizzard and the operator of this game in China, The 9 Limited. Blizzard refused The 9 Limited to give permission to update with its upcoming “Burning Crusade” expansion. On the other hand, The 9 Limited threatened Blizzard that they would operate another game “Guild War,” which is the competitor of World of Warcraft. The 9 Limited is now getting its 99 percent revenue from the World of Warcraft. To solve this problem both companies have started discussion but they have not figured out any possible solution. Here, it is also noteworthy that the revenue of the last quarter of The 9 Limited was less than its previous one because of having some technical problem with its database. The 9 Limited said that, “Of the 4.3 million registered player accounts in China, on average 300,000 are playing at any one time and during peak hours there are up to 610,000 playing simultaneously.”

Well, Chinese people are heading towards the gaming world and that is why, the gaming companies will also be heading towards the Chinese people.

What do you think about it?

Source:
China's millions flock to World of Warcraft
Global Gaming league (GGL) going for China (another article published in Asianbiz on China gaming)

Joint venture between Pugeot and Bank of China

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Peugeot Citroen Automobile Corporation and Bank of China will launch a joint venture auto financing project. The name of the project will be Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto Finance Company Limited. According to the report published in Forbes the total capital of this project is 500 million Chinese yuan. This venture won the approval of China Banking Regulatory Commission in August 2005. The major shareholders in this joint venture are Bank of China (50%), Banque PSA Finance (25%), and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Company Limited (25%). An official of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto Finance Company Limited said that the company would start its operation from July.

Related articles:
PSA Peugeot Citroen China auto financing JV to start operations in July

Thai people are heeding towards gambling on the craze of World cup

Written by: Biplob Kishore Deb
Football is the only sport that has great appeal over the world. Let me give one example, more than 850,000 people in Bangkok will bet in the coming World Cup. The news is based on a survey of the Assumption University ABAC. The university conducted a survey on 1,584 people in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

According to the survey, about 850,173 football fans, who are above 13, will participate in gambling in Bangkok on the occasion of upcoming world cup. These people will gamble around $56.3 million. Can you imagine that the people of a country like Thailand, who did not qualify in the World cup since this tournament started in 1930 and not even established themselves as a big power in the world football, are going to spend such a big amount in gambling ahead of world cup football? It seems that people are getting the football fever.

The pool also found that about 83% of the 850,173 football fans will be involved in gambling just for getting some extra enjoyment while watching the matches. On the other hand, rest of the fans will do this just for sharpening their analytical skills. Here, it is noteworthy that according to the ABAC survey, about 63.8 percent people in Bangkok will watch live matches and it will decrease productivity, but this problem may not be so severe because all of the world cup matches will be held at night in Bangkok as well as in the other South Asian countries due to time difference.

So, now could you understand why football is a universal sport?
I am sure, you could.
Source:
Survey finds 850,000 Bangkok football fans gambling on World Cup

WE WANT MORE!!!!

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
I do not know whether to be sad or happy with this news. Last Aprill, China’s amount of oil consumed was higher than that of the month of April in 2004. For the past few days I have written two posts about China’s present oil scenario- China raises its oil price, and China’s present Oil scenario. This post is a kind of update on the China’s present condition regarding its oil. I am quoting from the report:
China's apparent demand for oil climbed 10.8 percent in April from a year earlier, the strongest rise since 2004, after an increase in state-set fuel prices encouraged refiners to boost supplies to the domestic market.
The world's second-largest oil consumer used 6.69 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, calculations based on official data showed, despite a fall in crude imports as refiners shunned soaring global markets.

According to the report increase in the sales of cars in April has contributed behind this rise. China recently has raised its oil price due to price rise in the world market. However, price sensitive users like taxi drivers, fishermen, farmers did not hurt for this because of China government’s protective policy. According to Jeff Brown, analyst, International Energy Agency, due to the price rise of oil there will be increasing supply in the domestic market of China.

Related articles:
UPDATE 4-China April oil demand growth strongest since 2004

World Cup Blog: The place to be

The 18th world cup football is going to be held from 9June in Germany. Ahead of this biggest occasion of sports, fans become crazy and most of them started something all about world cup. On this occasion fans frequently go through some websites for taking information regarding their favorite teams and players with pictures and some other background news of world cup like statistics, records, player profile etc.


Considering such a huge interests of football fans over the world, a blog named “World Cup Blog” has been launched where football fans have access to go through some important and informative articles on various latest aspects of upcoming world cup like team analysis, player analysis etc. Fans can through their comment on each article and share their views and opinion. They can also easily find articles on the basis of their favorite teams with separate links. So fans can get article based on different category. Every article has relevant picture that makes the article more attractive to its readers. They can also find the name of top 5 teams in terms of getting highest posts. Moreover what is more important is that most of the articles get a huge number of comments and here lies the success of this blog.

The article I liked most is titled “What are your world cup superstitions.” Here, writer Bob Kellett, the managing editor of World cup blog, shows some interesting superstitious ideas of world footballer that they are used to do. I give my heartiest thanks to Mr. Bob for his excellent and informative article.

I think football fans and journalists can find this blog a window of information and latest news.

So, dear readers, pay a visit to this blog and who knows, you may find something more interesting in this blog that I did not find.

Source:
World Cup Blog
(by Biplob Kishore Deb)

Paeonia

In the beginning, blogging appeared to me like maintaining a diary on the net. There is nothing special about it. You write your thoughts and ideas and that is it. Now, I must say that my idea about blogs has changed. In previous months, I have come across many great blogs and known great bloggers. I have no doubt that blog and blogging is a serious business. Until now, I have come across one or two personal blogs. Recently, I have come across another personal blog of a Finnish woman: Paeonia.
Looking at the title of the blog, Paeonia, I thought that it may be a Finnish word. Then I looked for definition in Google and I found out that Paeonia is the Genus of a flower plant family. Then I looked at the title again and I noticed that in the background there is a hazy picture of green leaves. It appeared to me that, the author is a lover of nature and greenery (I am not sure about it). Below the title, an interesting statement: I, a hardy lady, botanize in both academic and civic flora. Well, the side picture ensures me that the writer is a lady (and definitely a beautiful one I would say); however, after going through her CV I have no doubt that she is definitely a hardy lady!!!!!
Susanne Sperring lives in Finland. She studied in Åbo Akademi University Turku, Finland. She did her B.A in Romance Philology and M.A in Sociology. She has a diversified career- a waitress, journalist, trainee, and many other activities. She is a highly energetic woman. At present she is a Laboratory Assistant in the iDTV Lab, at Media City of Åbo Akademi University. She is doing her PhD in the same University. Among her other qualities: she is ambidextrous, a booklover and a serious reader (after getting a literature scholarship she has bought many books and on the side bar you will also find small review of the books she is reading lately).
Paeonia contains small posts on various subjects of Susanne’s interest; television, internet TV, iTV conferences, interesting news and events happened or will happen to the author, ranging from 100-200 words. Honestly, I like this style because the writer describes her thoughts and ideas in simple sentences without using many examples or long introductions. Among recent posts, I enjoyed: Happiness formula, News Flashes, 2 years anniversary, Rocking International Women's Day, and Vasaloppet race timing. Among her old posts I really liked fate uncovered, hooray again!, Mystery of dialects, Runeberg's Day, and lastly Organizational blogs are more conversational than web sites.
Recently, Sussanne joined a conference on internet television in Athens and she uploaded the paper she read in the conference. Unfortunately, I could not read it because it was written in Finnish but those of you who know Finnish can see the paper from this link:
http://mediacity.abo.fi/idtvlab/documents/Sperring_Strandvall_Atiner_06.pdf.
Wish you readers a happy visit!!!
Useful links:
http://www.vasa.abo.fi/mediacity/home/index.php?lang=2&link=21&subID=232
(In case, if you fail to see the paper you can also get it through this link)

China getting 1.5 billion dollar loan from World Bank for infrustructural development

World Bank has decided to lend China 1.5 billion dollars to develop its infrastructure and overcome its challenges. The loan will be given in small amounts starting from 2006 and ending in 2010. The majority portion of the loan will be used in projects aimed at reducing poverty in rural China. In addition, the loans will be used to deal with issues such as, rapid industrialization, environmental problems, resource management, growing inequality between village and city population and so on. I am quoting from the report:
About 70 per cent of the proposed projects using the loans through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development will be in China's poorer inland provinces, the bank's China office said in a statement on its newly-endorsed strategy for the country for five years.
According to the strategy approved last week by the World Bank, the bank will help China integrate itself into the world economy, address poverty and inequality, manage resource scarcities and environmental challenges during 2006 and 2010, the statement said.
It will also help China strengthen the financial sector, and improve public and market institutions.

According to World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz, to increase the economic strength of China is very important for the world economy. China, at present, has a population of 1.3 billion. It has world’s third largest economy and the fourth largest trading nation. Although Communist, the country reformed its strategies and observed a rapid growth since 1978. China today has acquired the top position in manufacturing.
Despite these advancements it is considered as a developing country because of its poverty. The people of rural China are very poor and according to the World Bank their daily income is less than one dollar per day. Yet, China’s private sector is increasing at a rapid pace and only few cities of China is getting all the facilities. If such inequality remains then it would create serious problem. Hence, World Bank has decided to help China smooth its problems and integrate the country into Global business.

Related Articles:
WB offers $1.5 bn loans annually to China
World Bank offers loans up to USD 1.5 bn annually to China
China to join India as largest WB borrowers

China’s present Oil scenario

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Industrialization in China is growing at a rapid pace and the consumption of oil is increasing along with it. Chinese Oil experts are worried that such huge demand would risk China’s industrialization.

Zhu Jianjun, Director, Department of Development Research, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), in an Energy forum said that by 2020 China’s oil consumption would rise to 500 million tons. Last year, the amount was 320 million tons and by 2010 it would become 380 million tons. The Energy forum was recently held in Beijing. In the forum Zhu said that he was not worried about the oil shortage rather with the uneven distribution of oil in the world market, which is creating huge risk. Zhu expected that by 2010 China’s oil import would increase by 190 million tons constituting 50% of the annual oil consumption. It would become 60% by 2010.

On the contrary, China’s domestic oil production will observe a steady increase from 2006 to 2010. The total output is expected to be around 185 to 195 million tons. According to Pan Derun, Deputy Chairman, China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, since1984 China has discovered oil reserves containing 800-900 million tons per year. At present there are 576 oilfields in the country.

No doubt that oil is the main source of energy in the present day world and the demand of oil is increasing day by day. I think from now China should focus on alternative power resources because oil may be very important but its price is increasing and it is causing serious pollution. This is the time to do research on alternative source of energy.



Useful Links:
http://english.eastday.com/eastday/englishedition/business/userobject1ai2058681.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/27/content_4609449.htm
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/05/26/afx2775116.html

Yaro Starak’s Blogging Mantras

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Are you a new blogger in the block? Are you serious about writing blogs? Do you want to attract fair amount of readers to read your posts and increase you traffic? Well, to know about all these things you should visit the Blog Traffic School.COM. This blog is written by Yaro Starak. Formerly, a web designer in the University of Queensland, Yaro started blogging in 2004. In 2005 he started Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, which did not have many readers. Yaro then decided to become a serious blogger and set a goal to attract at least 500 readers to his blog in which he became successful. He is now running several internet businesses from his home. His blog traffic school contains strategies for building up a successful blog and tips on 'how to increase blog traffic?'.
I went through two of his blogs-- blog traffic school and Entrepreneurs journey. Blog Traffic School is all about building up a successful blog. I am really new in blogging and honestly, I enjoyed going through all the articles of the blog trafficking school. The article I liked most is The Original Top 10 Blog Traffic Tips. This article is very very helpful for new bloggers, especially, those who are serious about blogging. They will get many good tips about “how to attract readers?” from this article. How To “Announce” A Blog describes strategies that will help you boost your blog at its primary stage. Blogger or TypePad or WordPress? talks about different blogging websites and Word Press, a software, used for publishing your writings in the blog. I did not know about this software much so I searched Google and I found an article about Word Press in Wikipedia. Those who are interested to know about word press can visit the article from this link. Another noticeable feature of this blog is you can receive news letters containing different tips and tricks about blog.
Entrepreneurs-Journey is a blog dedicated to those engaged in internet related business. This blog contains many insightful articles related to web business. I really enjoyed the latest article Why Yahoo!, MSN & Ask.com Will Fail In The Pay-Per-Click Game. It contains the pros and cons of the popular search engines’ pay per click service. As I was going through the first article I came across a hyperlinked phrase “80/20 rule”. I clicked on the hyperlink and the article What Is The 80/20 Rule And Why It Will Change Your Life appeared. It is really a nice article. Yaro talks about his personal motto- which he believes. Google’s Plan For World Domination is an article about how Google will be more successful with its present line of Advertising and Payment service- its advantages and disadvantages.
Yaro also offers a course on blogging. You can know about the course from this article- How Much Will Blog Traffic School Cost? I find Yaro’s blogs very insightful and I like his posts because he talks about his personal experiences which gives his posts a different touch and makes them more unique and good to read. You can visit the two blogs from these two links:
Entrepreneurs Journey
Blog Traffic King
Please, comment in my post after you visit the blog. If you find any other useful information please write to me.


Useful Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress

Prisoners will enjoy World Cup Football 2006, Germany- staying in Bangladeshi prisons

(by Bipob Kishore Deb)
Dear readers, after reading the title, please do not think that Bangladesh government is going to launch any quiz competition for the prisoners so that they can go to Germany ahead of the upcoming world cup because government has no idea to let any prisoners be free from the prison before their punishment is over. So, how they will go to Germany?

Well, they will be in Germany virtually, not physically during the world cup as Bangladesh government is going to make a chance of watching world cup matches live on Bangladesh television (National television of Bangladesh) for the 71,000 prisoners of 66 prisons in Bangladesh for the first time considering the immense popularity of football in the country. Here, it is noteworthy that not only in Bangladesh, football has a great attraction in other South Asian countries too. In this regard, I read an article titled “World cup football 2006 fever and South Asia” written by Razib Ahmed where writer pointed out the huge popularity of football although no South Asian country has ever qualified in World Cup Football.

Inspector general of prisoners in Bangladesh, Brigadier General Zakir Hossain said, “The country's prisoners can watch the World Cup football for the first time as all the prisons now have televisions after we introduced them in 2003.”

The example of Bangladesh can be followed in other countries too and hopefully in the coming days the appeal of football can be used to motivate people not to break the law and go to prison.

What do you think about this idea?

Source:
Bangladesh inmates to enjoy World Cup for the first time

Visual radio

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Visual Radio is a blog about online radio. The blog writer is interested about blogs, visual radio, micro movies, and digital documents digital storytelling. However, the blog also contains posts on other topics. As I was going through I found a post on China (The Rise of China), which is very well written and informative. One of the main problems of the blog is that the writer does not post regularly. I think the people who are interested about topics such as, I pod, online radio, online audio and Video on demand will find lots of information in this blog. The intended audiences are Europeans since the writer lives in a European country. The blog contains a good number of articles about online audio, video. The article Online video, narrowcasting, podcasting focuses on how things like Video on demand (VOD), pod casting are quickly becoming popular and attracting lots of people and giving them a chance to represent their ideas in the net. Another Article How Many Blogs? Is about the rising number of blogs and how it is taking over the internet and also attracting various business organizations and media organizations. All the posts are pretty well written except one problem - the long period break between each post. You can visit the blog through this link. If you find anything or know anything about the writer or the blog please feel free to write here.

Nissan: no plans to shift to Eastern Europe

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Nissan Motor Corporation, Japan’s top automobile producer, has decided to stay in England. Now days, there is a growing trend among automobile manufacturers in Europe to shift their factories in Eastern Europe because of cheap labor and growing car market. Companies like KIA, Toyota, and Hyundai are making plans to shift their plants in Czech Republic, Prague, and Slovakia. However, Nissan Motor Corporation’s Senior Vice-President, Colin Dodge assured that Nissan would not move its headquarter from Sunderland, in northeast England. Collin said this on Monday in an Interview with Reuters. He also said that it is easy to make some short term gains from the shifting of manufacturing plants to another country but Nissan has been supplying cars in England for the last twenty years and it has now became one of the biggest car producers (4.1 million cars, one fifth of the total car production) in England and one of England’s biggest employers. He also mentioned that if such trend continues among automobile producers then it will seriously hamper the supply of automobiles in Western Europe.
According to the Reuters report, KIA, an affiliate of Hyundai and one of the fastest growing automobile companies in Europe has decided to build a plant in Slovakia and produce 300,000 mid sized cars by 2009. Hyundai also decided to build another plant in the Czech Republic.
Dodge said that Europe has the toughest automobile market in the world. There are many world class manufacturers who produce good quality products but he is optimistic that Nissan would steer clear the obstacles and would remain very competitive in the coming years.

Related Articles:
CORRECTED-Nissan says no plans to quit UK for Eastern Europe
Nissan to stay in UK

Here comes Toyota Camry Made in China

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Toyota’s first production of Camry in China has made its debut on Tuesday. Hundreds of government and company officials were present to celebrate the moment. This new car is produced in Toyota’s new manufacturing plant in China. Toyota Camry has already ranked top selling car in America. According to the report published in the Mainichi Daily.com the new Made-in-China Toyota Camry will cost 197,800-269,800 Yuan which is far below than the price of an imported Camry (340,000 Yuan). Toyota officials are expecting that this new price will increase the sales. Toyota Motor Corporation is comparatively a late comer in the Chinese auto market. In 2005 it sold 179,000 vehicles in China. Compared to the Japanese automakers General Motor Corporation is doing well in China. Last year, it outpaced Volkswagen. Another major challenge for Japanese automakers is the remaining political tension between the two countries that took a serious turn last year. After all this, Japanese automakers are very optimistic about selling their products and invested heavily in China. The new Chinese plant of Toyota is worth 3.8 billion Yuan. The plant contains all the latest technologies of auto manufacturing.

Related Articles:
Toyota rolls out first made-in-China Camry in bid to catch up with rivals

Indian automakers setting up plants in Abroad

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Indian automakers are now moving their operations outside the country. Due to the recent economic boom and easy to pay car loans the country’s automobile industry is observing an increase in car sales. Now the automobile producers are establishing manufacturing plants outside India. They are taking the tax cuts and other economic benefits offered by those countries. According to the report published in Sify.com Indian companies are setting up their plants in Indonesia, South Africa.

This month Tata Motors Limited and Marcopolo, a Brazilian bus making company has set up a joint venture under which, Tata Motor at its bus making plant in Africa will produce buses. Tata will also assemble pick up trucks in Thailand with a local firm.
Mahindra & Mahindra is looking forward to assemble pick up trucks in Malaysia. TVS Motor is also planning to set up a plant in Indonesia. Bajaj is also setting up its plant in Indonesia.
The prospering domestic market has made Indian automakers take bold steps and try new markets. However, economists and auto analysts mentioned that such move involves huge risks and the automakers should not move their attention from domestic market.
Related articles:
Auto makers look abroad for branding

China raises its oil price

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
China has raised its oil price due to the raise of oil price in the world market. This is the second time in the last two months that China has raised its oil price. According to the report published in Bloomberg.com Chinese government raised the price of gasoline by 10.6 percent, diesel by 12.3 percent and jet fuel by 10.3 percent. However, the price of oil in China is far below than other countries; 4.20 yuan or 52 U.S. cents and 42 euro cents per liter, or about US$2.10 a gallon. China after USA and Japan in the world is the third largest oil consumer. Until 1990 China depended on oil raised from its domestic wells. The demand of oil increased followed by its economic boom especially, in the manufacturing sector. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said that China’s main planning agency, State Development and Reform Commission, had imposed the hike because the present price of oil in China is far below than that of the International market. For this reason, Chinese oil refinery can not make much profit by selling refined oil. The raise was necessary in order to keep the flow of the oil supply. The Commission asked local governments to adopt subsidy policies after this rise and take necessary steps to protect the taxi drivers. It also asked the two National oil suppliers China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) to keep supplying oil as per the demand. This is the second major price adjustment in China since 2003.

Related Articles:
China Raises Fuel Prices Again But Remains Below World Levels
China raises fuel prices by 10 per cent
China raises fuel prices
China's Gasoline, Diesel Price Gains Won't Stem Refining Losses
China's Fuel Price Gains Won't End Refining Losses (Update1)
China raises gasoline, diesel prices

BBC Blog: The Door to FIFA World Cup Football 2006

The world cup football is knocking at the door and BBC opened the door making an outstanding and informative blog for the football fans throughout the world. Through this blog football fans can have an access to be in touch with the World cup football. BBC news staffs are sending recent news on world cup staying in Germany. So, every news item is like a new drop of water from the sky during the rain and readers enjoy the article on recent news much. Every article gets a lot of comments and thus it has become a very highly interactive place for the football fans.

Now, let me be first to give thanks to Roger Mosey, the director of BBC sport, for launching such a blog that provides instant news of world cup to the readers. The blog publishes article on various topics including the news of teams, fans, host nation Germany and many more. Moreover, another thing that made me feel very happy is that readers can through some questions and BBC blog officials give answers to these questions later on.

Among the all articles, one article titled "Ominous words" written by the editor of the blog, Alex Rickett, attracted me much where the writer focuses on the places where the world cup teams are practicing and he also predicts that England would perform well even if they do not get Wayne Rooney. I should give thanks to Mr. Alex for his well-thought article.

Besides, there are some interesting links of world cup diaries of some star players like Michael Owen, David Beckham, Ronaldinho etc.
where they talk about their views, thought, opinion, goals regarding the world cup. So, I find this article very interesting and informative. Readers can know about the pre-tournament views and thought of their favorite players.

At last, I would like to say that irrespective of football fans, blog writer and journalists can go through this blog. Have you visited the blog? Not yet, then why are you getting late?

BBC blog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldcup/

Betting and World Cup Football 2006

(by Biplob Kishore Deb)
English fans are eagerly waiting for the 25 May to know about the Rooney's injury because his injured leg will be scanned on the day and his fate will be decided. Moreover, fans are also expecting to see some magic from the 17 year-old Theo Walcott, a surprise inclusion in the squad. Yes Fans are eagerly waiting for them but bookies are even more eagerly waiting for them because the participation of players like Rooney and Walcott will attract more people to participate into betting or gambling.

Well, betting is a common phenomenon in the English society but these days it is becoming very important ahead of world cup. There are different kinds of bets on different matters including "Golden Boot" winner, the number of corner kicks in a game, which hair style will be chosen by the England captain David Beckham in Germany etc. Besides these subjects, sometimes people bet on some very interesting topics. For exmaple, a 32 year-old warehouse manager, Mr. Harvey bet with bookmakers William Hill placing £20 on a funny thing that on July 9, his wife, Diana, will give birth their first child and England will win the world cup. The company allotted him an odd of 150/1, interesting isn’t it?

Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams, a senior gambling adviser to the government, told Reuters, "Britain is the world centre for bookmaking, and the world's biggest betting exchanges are based in Britain; that's where most of the money on the World Cup will be spent."

Betting is an every day part of British society but the craze for bet has been started since government excluded vat on the gambler and bookmaker companies. This exclusion of vat and using online bet made a boom in the annual revenue of the industry which has a market size of just 15 billion dollar in 2002 and now it has become 100 billion dollar industry.

Now, people can also bet staying at home through telephone and interactive television. So, betting becomes easier than it was before. In the past, people could bet only before the match but now people have access to bet throughout the match because of online technology.


However, this chance of betting throughout the match, sometimes decreases the probability of a match to be fair. Last year in Germany, a referee Robert Hoyzer was accused of fixing matches in 2 million euro (1.4 million pounds). FIFA launched a new company to detect the suspicious betting pattern.

In this regard, Vaughn Williums said that, "The game is more transaprent than ever before. Everything you do now is monitored. They know where you bet, how much you bet. Before, when it was just in a shop, it could never be controlled. (Cheating) was there before, you just didn't know about it."

What is your view about it?

Source:
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=765662006

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=RP2225397J&news_headline=footie_fans_daddy_of_all_world_cup_bets

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003680262

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=sportsNews&storyID=2006-05-23T130230Z_01_L23310617_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SOCCER-WORLD-BETTING.xml
http://www.southasiabiz.com/world_cup_football_2006/

TEAM UNICEF and FIFA to play for children and peace

We all dream that superstars from different countries could play in one team instead of fighting with each other. Well that is going to come true soon.
Dear readers, what are you thinking? No, I am not making any story or I am not daydreaming and for sure, I am not joking with you. Believe me; a team titled "Team UNICEF" will play in the next world cup where 15 players from 15 different countries will play within a team. However, they will not play in the field rather they will play for the well being of children of the world and for the promotion of peace.

FIFA and UNICEF, have jointly launched a campaign with the slogan of "Unite for children, unite for peace." The goal of this campaign is to promote football as a tool of helping the children. We all, love football and if something is done in the name of football the children will love it and the adults too.

In this regard, UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said, "whether they are playing on busy streets, in crowded refugee camps or amidst the chaos of conflict, children find joy through sport. But sport is more than just a game -- it is also one of the best ways for children to learn teamwork, tolerance and the value of play." He also added, "UNICEF and FIFA share a common commitment to transforming young athletes into upstanding citizens."

The activities of this campaign include public service announcement (PSA) on UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham and other 14 menbers of the TEAM UNICEF, a website, 11 case studies of children throughout the world with video profile of some children who have benefited from Football.

FIFA president Seep Blatter said that "FIFA is pleased to be working with UNICEF to carry the message that sport - and particularly football - is a peace-building exercise and the core of childhood, and one that can contribute to making the world a better place,"

Often, we hear about the lavish life style of and record breaking salaries of football players. So, naturally, this news is welcome break for us.
What do you think about it?

Source:
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=May&x=200605221204001xeneerg0.4379846&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003656776
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/other_sports/14622205.htm
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060521/NEWS/605210346/1004/EDUCATION05

Siemens signs up to provide GSM-R network in China

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Siemens communication group has made an agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Railways. According to the report published in Marketwatch.com “The contract is worth a double-digit million euro sum.” Siemen will provide GSM- R network on 115 kilometer long railway from Beijing to Tianjin.

GSM---Global System for Mobile Communication, a widely used digital mobile phone standard and R- stands for Railway. The system integrates voice and data communication in the rail line system. The project is expected to finish by the beginning of August 2008. This is a pilot project taken in order to start the high standard passenger train between Tianjin and Beijing. The track is designed for high speed trains (350 kilometer per hour). China is now looking forward to improve its existing railway communications and build up efficient railway transport. I am quoting from the report published in Wireless developer network.
GSM-R technology from Siemens provides the Chinese railway operator with the efficient and future-proof solutions it needs, preparing the way for a new era in rail transport. This project is the first time that Siemens Communications has offered a complete package for the Chinese rail sector. It includes signaling and dispatching technology, power supply, overhead lines, system integration and complete project management. Construction of the route is one of the key projects for the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
The order is the second major GSM-R project for Siemens Communications in China. Siemens entered the Chinese market with GSM-R when the Jinan-Qingdao line was equipped with communications technology for railways. These two projects are consolidating Siemens' position as the world market leader in GSM-R networks.
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Siemens makes agreement with Chinese telecommunication companies

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Today, Siemens Communication Unit announced that it has made a deal with the China Mobile Communications Corporation and China United Communications Corporation to provide second generation mobile network equipment and maintenance service. The deal was worth a total of 174 million US dollar. I am quoting from the report published in Marketwatch.com
BEIJING (MarketWatch) -- Siemens AG's (SI) communications unit said Monday it will supply CNY1.4 billion ($174.42 million) worth of second-generation mobile network equipment and maintenance services to China's two mobile-phone operators this year.
The deal with China Mobile Communications Corp. (MCC.YY) is worth CNY900 million, while that with China United Communications Corp. is worth CNY500 million, said Charles Wang, head of marketing at Siemens Communications Group in China.
The equipment, including base stations, is based on the Global System for Mobile Communications standard, or GSM, he said.
China Mobile Communications, the larger of China's two mobile phone operators by subscribers, is the parent company of China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CHL).
China United Communications is the parent company of China Unicom Ltd. (CHU) and China United Telecommunications Co. (600050.SH).
Siemens also signed several contracts with different Chinese organizations. It signed a deal to provide technical cooperation to China’s Ministry of Railways.

Chongqing Haifu Technology, a medical equipment producer, based in Chongging city, has also signed an agreement with Siemens.

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was visiting Beijjing when these deals were made. The Chancellor will leave Beijing on Tuesday.

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Toyota and FAW Group Corporation jointly set up new dying plant in China

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Toyota Motor Corporation and China FAW Group Corporation have jointly set up a new plant to produce stamping dies for Toyota vehicles. According to the report of Inverstors.com--
Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC; TSE:7203) announced today that Toyota FAW (Tianjin) Dies CO., LTD. (TFTD), its stamping die-production joint venture with China FAW Group Corporation (FAW) in China, can now produce automotive stamping dies (such as for automobile body panels) for six vehicle models a year, up from three. In addition to production for the Chinese market, TMC also said TFTD has started production for export, initiating the first ever export of Toyota automotive stamping dies made outside Japan.
The total cost for setting up the plant was 50 million US dollar. This is the second dying plant of Toyota. The plant uses latest technology to produce car stamping dyes known as “cloning,” which would not only shorten the production time but also enable the production of dies digitally in batches. Along with increasing production and shortening the production cycle the plant will also work with environment friendly and fully recyclable materials to produce stamping dyes for cars. The plant is built in “Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA).” A ceremony was held today to mark the plant’s first day of production. Li Yong, Chairman, Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) Administrative Commission; Taminori Yanagisawa, President, TFTD; Qin Huanming, Vice President, FAW; Akio Toyoda, Executive Vice President TMC; Nobuyoshi Hisada, Managing Officer TMC; and a large number of guests from Tianjin government attended the ceremony.

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China sanctions $ 1billion in loan to Nigeria

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
China has sanctioned one billion dollar loan to Nigeria in order to fix the country’s damaged railway tracks. China in earlier days, sent many engineers and doctors on the ground of ‘Revolutionary Third World Unity’ and now business interest is at the forefront of providing financial aid. According to the report published in Fin24.co.za Nigerian Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala disclosed about the deal on Sunday in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, at a two-day international conference. She said that provision of infrastructure is critical for economic development.

Last week, China Railway Construction Corporation and CITIC group won a tender to build 528 km highway in Algeria. The Chinese consortium beat German, US and Japanese bidders. In January 2005 China made an offer of $2bn loan to Angola for repairing its infrastructure. In January 2006 CNOOC LTD, China’s top offshore oil producing company bought a stake in a Nigerian oil and gas field. It looks like China has become worried about its rising needs for oil due to rapid industrialization and African countries always attracted the world for their minerals and oil reserves.

The report also says that China has decided not to provide loans and monetary aids for improving human rights. Last April, on a visit to Morocco, Nigeria, and Kenya, Chinese President Hu Jintao, in Nigerian Parliament, said that China respected Africa’s “Independent and Sovereignty”. On the other hand, China’s diplomatic approach with Sudan has come under serious criticism from the Western countries. They are saying that China is making the situation worse through putting more emphasis on their economic interest. However, an official of the ruling party of Sudan, visiting China mentioned China as a “Close friend” of Sudan.

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Blogs from Asia: Blogfam- the meeting place for Indonesia bloggers

(By Razib Ahmed)

Before anything, I must admit that I do not know Indonesian language and that is why my review of Blogfam (Blogger Family) is not the best of my writings. Actually, it is not a blog but a forum for Indonesian bloggers living home and abroad. The url is: http://www.blogfam.com/forum/index.php.
If you are interested about Indonesia please visit the forum.

In home page, I found that until today, the forum has 2176 registered users and the users have posted ' a total of 107618 articles within 5884 topics'. The design of the forum is very nice and I liked the layout and color. I browsed the staff page and found that many of the moderators were living outside of Indonesia.

The South East Asian financial crisis of 1997 destroyed the economic backbone of Indonesia and within just few weeks, millions of Indonesian people lost everything and became poor. I still remember those days as I used to write about Asian business in a newspaper in my city.

Indonesia is a great country and I am always fascinated with it because of its cultural similarity with South Asia. To the outside world Indonesia is mainly known as an attractive tourist destination but Indonesia is more than that. Indonesia is rich in natural resources and Indonesia is the only member of OPEC from East Asia.

The members of Blogfam can surely contribute in building a different image of Indonesia in Internet. However, for that they have to write a bit more about English language in net. I hope that Blogfam will have more content in English language in the coming days.

Bosch invests 160 million dollars in Chinese factories

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Last Friday, German Automotive supplying company Bosch has revealed a plan to invest 160 million euros (US$203million) into two of its Chinese plants in Changsha and Suzohu by 2008. Bosch, which is now world’s top automotive parts supplier has all its manufacturing plants situated in China and the present goal of investment is to increase the production capacity of the two plants. The company will invest60 million euros in Changsha, its largest investment in central China. In future Changsha will become the main centre of the companies Engergy and Body System Division. The report published in Automotive Spectator says, “In Changsha, Bosch will be spending roughly 60 million euros between now and 2008, in order to create new facilities for the development and manufacture of products such as starters and alternators. Following the extension work, the site will have doubled in size to more than 210,000 square meters.” On the other hand, the company will invest 100 million euros (US$127) in Suzohu within 2008. As a result of the expansion the company’s workforce will grow from 160 to 2000. The company bosses said that they are actually planning to invest a total of 620 million euros (US$ 787) by the next two years. Until 2005 Bosch invested around 620 million euros (787 million US dollars) in its Chinese plants. The number of its manufacturing facilities has increased from 10 to 20 and last year the company sold products worth 1.2 billion euros in China which is 15% more than its previous year’s sales. Rudolf Colm, Bosch board member said, “Presently China accounts for three percent of our global market. Our target is to increase that to five percent by 2008." He also said that by 2008 China will surpass Japan, becoming the company's largest market in Asia.
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Online Dating Industry: Another BIG BOOM in Chinese Cyber World

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Although I do not know much about dating on the net, I can say that internet has always been very popular among the youths in all the countries of the world for meeting with opposite sex and talking with them. No wonder, that it would become a very profitable business. I found out that China’s online dating industry is expected to grow to 81 million US dollars by 2008. According to the report of iresearch, a firm specialized in online marketing and opinion research, the annual growth rate of the Chinese online dating industry will become 60%. I am quoting from the article:
The report values the online dating market at 37 million yuan (some 4.5 million dollars) for 2004 and 91 million yuan (11.2 million dollars) for 2005 and predicts it will grow to 653 million yuan, 4.8 percent of the entire dating market in China.
In comparison, the US market was 520 million dollars for 2005, and the European market was 110 million dollars, both expanding at double-digit rates, the report said.
The report was released at an international friends-making forum held in Beijing last week. Participants held that online dating will become a more important channel for bachelors to seek spouses as there are more men than women in China's 1.3-billion population.
Baihe, the biggest on line dating website received 11 million dollars in 2005 after attracting 5 million users. The participants in the forum are expecting that internet dating will become a valuable source for the Chinese males to find their soulmates as there are more men than women in China. However, Baihe’s CEO, Tian Fanjiang said that finding a soulmate on the net is not a very easy job, it requires lots of patience and building up a healthy trustful environment.
I would also like to add a little more about the dating websites. As I was browsing the net I found a good article about online dating websites in wikipedia. According to the essay the main problem of these dating websites is that in order to increase the number of users many websites sometimes build up fake profiles of women or men. It reminded me of the movie ‘S1m0ne’ where Al Pacino, a movie producer, creates a computer image of a beautiful woman and made her so famous. There are many people who would become a victim of such fake women or men. So my suggestion to you dear readers, do whatever you do. Just be careful and make sure that the other person is not a fake one.

Related Links:
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Generation of Star Wars

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Do not worry readers. I am not going to write about films. Those of you who have been regularly reading asianbiz have noticed that I write review on other blogs. Until now I have written two reviews-- Facture Express: Blog with a different Touch and Blogs from Asia- The fun Sunday School Blog. Today, I am going to write about another blog entitled Generation of Star Wars. This blog is not related to my subject but I find this blog pretty interesting. This blog is about movies and games. The writer of the blog John Hood, lives in England. John did his BA in Media production from The Media School of Bournemouth University. Generation of Star Wars comes with a good number of news about movies, computer games, gaming consoles and latest music (Western Music). Among his latest posts I enjoyed reading Planet Play station – a review on Sony’s latest third generation gaming console Play Station 3 (I think John is a big fan of Sony’s gaming consoles). The article contains every details of PS3. I hope those who love gaming will enjoy reading the article. I also enjoyed reading Nothing Compares 2 U—an article that talks about the dynamic quality of the web world and the story of how John hood started this blog and has been continuing it for two years. On May 11th Generation Star Wars celebrated its second anniversary (CONGRATULATIONS John!!!! AND WISH YOU A GREAT SUCCESS!). I found it really interesting that John Hood started this blog being suggested by his friend Tom (I WISH HIM GOOD LUCK TOO BECAUSE WITHOUT HIM WE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SEE ALL THESE NICE POSTS). Another great feature of this blog is that readers can download and listen to the audio version of each of the articles. I really liked this feature. Those of you who want to visit the blog can use this link. I hope you would enjoy visiting the blog and please after visiting if you find anything new which I have not mentioned please write in your comments.

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A quiz competition for the orphans using the World Cup Football

(by Biplob Kishore Deb)
Yesterday, I read an article on the Nepalese children in which Razib Ahmed talked about the 2 million children of Nepal who are suffering hunger. I was sad after I read the report. Now, World Cup Football 2006 is coming and these children will have nothing to celebrate. Well, children are suffering in many countries except Nepal.

On the other hand, a report written by Ben Pindar made me very happy which says that the official charity of the FIFA world cup has organized a quiz competition based on world cup matches hoping to raise a £1 million to spend for the orphans throughout the world.

This fundraising has been taken by the SOS children's village who are working for the orphans around the world. About 59000 orphans at 440 children's villages are living under the care of SOS children's village. A website addressed 'www.sosfootball.org' has been created for this competition.

A participant has to log on with a fee of £3 and all the money coming through this quiz competition will be added to the charity. Participants have to decide the winning team of every world cup matches. The highest scorer will be given great prize by SOS.

The founder of XOR limited, Jhon Sullivan expects that the £3 fee will not be a problem for the participants.

This is really a positive step towards the humanity and this kind of program can be taken by other countries and NGOS where children as well as adult people are struggling with poverty.

Source:http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=383203

World Cup Football makes a boom in the TV industry in England

England's young star Theo Walcot has bought a luxurious car for his girl friend after being selected inthe England world cup squad. If you indicate it as the extreeme joy of Walcot then what would you say after hearing the information that 20% of adult poluation in UK are planning to buy a new television, DVD player, set-top box or another gadget for World Cup 2006?

Yes, people of England are now eagerly waiting to see another 1966 (in 1966 England won the world cup for the first time and last time until now) in Germany. On the occasion of world cup, the English are spending a lot in buying new TV sets and other audio visual equipments and their budget is nearly £1 billion.

Similar craze for buying television can be seen in South Korea too and Razib Ahmed covered this topic in this blog earlier this week.
So, no doubt, England companies have already made a victory before the world cup. Isn't it?

To know more, please visit:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4993274.stm
http://www.southasiabiz.com/2006/05/world_cup_football_2006_fever.html
(Biplob Kishore Deb)

More news on China’s culture product export Fair

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
I was browsing Google for China news and I saw this after publishing my first post on Chinese cultural products import. According to this report, China has opened up 921 cultural projects amounted to 8.75 billion US dollar. I am quoting from the report published in China view
The projects cover seven fields, such as publishing, movie and TV, entertainment, industrial arts and cultural tourism, involving20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
They are listed in a handbook for investing in the cultural sector, the first of its kind in China, which was issued by the Ministry of Culture at an ongoing international cultural expo held in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

The four day export exhibition (Wenbonhui) started on last Thursday. The main problem with such projects is that many of the projects do not attract any investment.

The cultural even which is according to an official was a 4 in event said, "an exhibition for cultural development ... a promotion event for creative products and projects, an international procurement event for Chinese cultural products and an exchange event for the application of new technologies in the cultural industry." It is supported by the government but run by the private sector.”

However, the funny thing is China is not targeting America, or European countries. The main guests were the culture ministers from Cuba, Serbia, Cambodia and several African states and the Guest of Honor was the chairman of Taiwan’s new party.

Different Chinese and foreign websites reported on this export exhibition. It seems that China like America is becoming interested to promote their product in other countries.


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China planning to export its Cultural products

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
If you ask any third world educated citizen to name a developed country in the world, there is 90% chance that the name of The United States of America will come up first. USA with its books, television channels and movies are dominating around the world. I think there is no other country so successful in creating such a successful image, an popularize their cultural products world wide At present, China has the largest population and a flourishing economy and the top manufacturer in the world. Now it is thinking of building up its own image like USA.
Recently, Chinese media organizations and government jointly organized ‘Wenbonhui,’ The Second China Shenzhen International Cultural Industry Fair, at Special Economic Zone of Shenzen (SEZ), in Guangdong. Representatives foreign and domestic from both official and print media appeared in this show. The main idea of the show was to export the Chinese cultural products in abroad and building up a brand image of China. I am quoting from Chris Gill’s article-
“The main problem for Chinese companies wanting to produce global creative brands, according to Liu Binjie, Deputy Director of GAPP, is "you need to spend money if you want to create a global brand."
China has decided to export Chinese national cultural products, to the global market, Liu said. If China's cultural industry wants to create global brands and internationally-famous names, a brand industry is needed, Liu said. He sees China currently as a manufacturer with no brands, and it will be impossible for China to emulate Hollywood, Harry Potter, or Intel without a brand industry.
To create a (global) cultural brand there needs to be a transfer of Chinese characteristics abroad, but China's cultural product industry is not ready yet, Liu said.
Hammering home his point, Liu said, "Cultural trade needs brands."
China needs to deal with internal problems before it can create a Hollywood, companies need an understanding of (global) marketing and branding to enter global markets.”
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Japan planning to increase its present oil reserve

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Japan has decided to increase its oil reserve from 90 days to 95 days. Due to increasing oil price and on going political instability in the Middle Eastern countries the government has taken this decision.
Japan has the second largest economy in the world and like other economically developed countries it has lots of industries which run on oil. Last Friday, Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai, in a press conference said that the ministry is examining the possibilities to raise the amount of oil reserve in order to boost the country’s resistance. On Thursday, a panel of oil experts and senior business officials submitted a draft on the country’s oil policy.
Japan will need extra 15million barrels worth a total of 100 billion yen for five days. Each barrel would cost $60. In addition, the new draft on Japan’s oil policy submitted also recommends diversifying its reserve. At present, Japan only buys unrefined crude oil and refines it in domestic plants. The draft suggested that government should now think about buying refined products such as, gasoline and Kerosene. Nikai also said that if Japan increases its oil reserve than at least one day’s supply would consist of Kerosene and gasoline.

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Toyota setting up another new plant in North America

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Toyota is now planning to set up another new plant in Southern American states, including Texas, of North America. Due to excessive demand of its products the company is planning to set up this new automotive plant which is expected to go on operation in 2009. The new plant will have a production capacity of 200,000 units.

At present, USA is Toyota’s biggest market and the demand is growing. Toyota has planned to begin production in its new plant located in Texas and Subaru of Indiana Automotive Incorporation Located in Lafayette, Indiana. The Subaru plant is actually owned by Fuji Heavy Industries Limited. Recently, Toyota acquired 7% equity stake in Fuji.

Last year, Toyota produced 800,000 units and if things go well then with the existing factories and the new ones Toyota would be able to produce two million units annually.

On the other hand, Toyota’s rival Honda is also planning to build a new factory in North America. Now days, Japanese companies are planning to set up new plants in USA in order to avert the complaints. I am quoting from the report published in The Standard
By creating jobs, Toyota appears to be trying to deflect US complaints that Japanese automakers have unfairly benefited from a weak yen.
This is good news for American people because more jobs will be created but bad news for Japanese workers because they will loose their jobs.

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Dream came true for Great Dreams

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Great dreams, a Chinese animation company has started a joint venture project with Sequoia Capital, a US based venture capital firm. Sequoia invested 7.5 million dollar in Hunan Great dreams Cartoon Media. Under this joint venture they will set up a new company on cartoon production. I am quoting from the article:
'Great dreams Cartoon and Sequoia Capital will set up a new company engaging in cartoon derivative products,' said Wang Hong, Greatdreams' chairman. Wang said the company plans to open 3,000 franchised stores this year, and plans to seek a Nasdaq listing by 2008.
Shen Nanpeng, Sequoia’s Chinese partner is expecting further investment in the project after the completion of 7.5 million dollar investment. Animation making is a service oriented industry and unlike manufacturing industry it requires skilled manpower. Animation and cartoon making now days, require computers and softwares and China has lots of skilled IT professionals.
China’s internet sector is also increasing at a very fast pace. According to Shanghai Daily report, Sequoia Capital also invested $4 million in 51.com, a Shanghai based website. The website is a Chinese version of the popular My space internet community. At present, the website has 10 million users most of which are young people between 20 and 22. I am quoting from the report,
The local Website, which has 10 million members, most of whom are age 20 to 22, has created an online platform that allows users to upload pictures and diaries. The Website company plans to list on Nasdaq within three to five years, according to Pang Shengdong, 51.com's chairman and chief executive.
Sequoia Capital, which launched a US$200 million investment fund in China last year and in the past has channeled funds into Google and Cisco, will invest a total 150 million yuan (US$18.75 million) in 51.com, industry sources said on condition of anonymity. But partners to the deal declined to comment on the issue or divulge 51.com's share structure after yesterday's investment announcement.


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World Cup Football Injuries: It's the fans who suffer from physical and mental hazards most

Written by: Biplob Kishore Deb
As world cup is drawing near, the injuries of star players like Michel Owen are getting a lot of media coverage and the sponsors are even more worried that the coach. However, you will be amazed to hear that it is the fans who suffer much more injuries in their health and mind than the players. The fans do not play directly but still it is they who suffer most.
According to an article published in a Chinese daily, watching football may cause some serious health and mental hazards like cardiac arrests, drunk-driving, fan violence, wife-beating, smoking, getting addicted to fatty foods, depression and even suicide.
(http://english.people.com.cn/200605/18/eng20060518_266653.html) .

A study of the British Medical Journal (BJM) found 25% increase in the number of heart attacks after the defeat of England to their ever rival team Argentina during the 1998 world cup. In 1950 world cup some Brazilians killed themselves after their team lost to Uruguay. The most interesting news has been found in the article is of the opinion of a researcher at Cardiff University in Wales, Vas Sivarajasingam who says that the possibility of making clash by the fans is higher after winning the match than after losing the match because after winning fans are more likely to celebrate and get drunk and lose control on themselves and thus bad accidents and incidents may happen. During the last world cup Thailand's deputy public health minister, Surapong Suebwonglee and his Ministry tried to make fans aware of the serious health risks from eating too much snacks and beer.

I have noticed one thing. People in Asia and South America are too much crazy for World Cup Football. The craze of Asian people is really a surprising matter. No Asian team has even reached the final of World Cup Football. Except, Korea no team has consistent performance in World Cup. Still, people in almost in every Asian country are crazy for World Cup Football. So, Asian fan- please, watch out this time. Don't risk your health. If you have any heart disease then do not watch any tie breaker. Finally, I think that FIFA should have a special fund for supporting those person's families who die during World Cup from excitement or depression.
Do you agree with me? What is your own condition during World Cup Football?
Source: http://english.people.com.cn/200605/18/eng20060518_266653.html

Goleo: Loveable lion or loveable looser

Written by: Biplob Kishore Deb
An official Mascot is made for every world cup football so that people can easily remember a particular world cup, and its host nation just seeing the mascot. One of the main attractions of every World Cup football is its mascot. The first mascot appeared in the 1966 world cup, ‘Willie’ a British lion, wearing the Union Jack. Surprisingly, the 2006 FIFA World Cup mascot is also a lion, “Goleo”.
I do not know whether the designer was an Englander or a die hard English football fan or the whole thing is a coincidence, the main point is that “Goleo” is struggling for its own existence as its manufacturing company Bavarian toy maker Nici AG has appealed to the court for its own insolvency. The lion shaped toy could not make a boom in its selling. In the market it is sold at 19.95 euros. For some reason, it could not attract much football fans.
A report published in the BBC website says that this mascot does not go with the German culture because the national symbol of Germany is Eagle and the most important thing is that lion is the symbol of England, one of the most rival groups of Germany. Moreover, the mascot wears a football shirt with the number 6 but with no trousers or shorts. So it does not reveal the image of a perfect football player. According to Brendan Trembath’s report, another reason behind the failure of the mascot is that lion has been used as a mascot for other sports (the most prestigious cycling sport Tour de France’s mascot is a lion). FIFA has tried very hard to promote the lion and they dubbed it as a “Lovable Lion” but in the end it has become a “Lovable looser.”
The German toy making company has incurred huge loss and it is blaming the poor demand for the mascot. However, it did not disclose any information about how many units it actually sold.
The World Cup is six months away from now and it is the most prestigious and most popular event in the world. I am hopeful that, FIFA would come up with some good ideas to solve this problem.

Related Articles:
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THE WORLD TODAY

If you want to know about the mascots of the previous world cups you can visit this link:
2002 World Cup

Ring! Ring! This is Google: Google search in Japanese mobile phones

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Google.com, the world’s most popular search engine company, has joined with KDDI, Japan’s second largest mobile phone service provider, to promote search engine content in mobile phones. This type of service will be the first of its kind in Japan. The service will be activated from July.

After NTT Docomo, KDDI is the biggest cell phone company in Japan. It has more than 22 million mobile phone subscribers. At present, Google is the most popular search engine in Japan and through this service Google will make a firm position in the Japanese search engine industry.

The search service will be available on KDDI’s EZ web Internet service. The search
content is not only aimed at mobile phones but also for personal computers. In addition, there will be text advertisements appearing beside the search results which are related to the search word.

One of the main features of this new search service is that users will be able to access the search results directly. I am quoting from the report:
In addition, KDDI's content information management will enable users more direct access to the information they seek. Consider, for example, a search for information about an artist: In the past, a search would turn up links to relevant content in officially designated categories, forcing the user to perform further searches in each category. However, the new service will provide direct access to music, applications, books and magazines, shopping and other information related to the artist.
In Japan technology in all spheres evolves and changes at a very quick pace and people are also very tech savvy. They are always eager to accept and test new technologies. I think this new service will observe a huge popularity in Japan.

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World Cup Football 2006 in Mobile Phone

Written by: Biplob Kishore Deb
Can you imagine that you are at work in your office and watching world cup match even though there is no television? No, I am not joking with you. I also became astonished after reading an article titled “World Cup Mobile TV- will anyone be watching?” written by Jan Libbenga. He wrote that mobile TV can be launched in the twelve venues of this world cup.

One of the biggest electronic companies in the world, Samsung Electronics has made terrestrial multimedia broadcasting (T-DMB) phone earlier this year, mainly, for the commercial use but they have not started marketing their product hoping to get the license of launching it in the world cup in Germany.

Other DMB phone makers expect that this service will have a great demand during the world cup 2006. Debitel, the biggest German GSM service provider, and Dusseldorf-based Company Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland GmbH are interested to launch this service in the next world cup. In this service viewers will enjoy German channels ZDF, N24, MTV and a comedy and entertainment channel German Satellite Broadcaster ProSieben. Viewers have to pay €9.90 a month after the completion of the games.

Now football fans have nothing but waiting to see whether mobile TV will be available during the world cup 2006.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/12/dmb_at_soccer_games
http://www.southasiabiz.com/2006/05/world_cup_football_2006_fever.html

World Cup Football 2006: Germany opens a window of traveling and acquiring knowledge

Written by: Biplob Kishore Deb
After reading the title you may think that, what is the relation between world cup football and acquiring knowledge? Yes, this is true. Football is a source of entertainment and knowledge is something different but on the occasion of world cup football millions of football fans will have a chance to travel the historical places, museum, observe the cathedrals, churches and many other attractive sights that will help them to know about the German culture and history.

Thinking about the huge number of football fans from different countries and their traveling interests, German government and private travel organizations have already taken some programs for cheap accommodations and meals. Communication system is also praiseworthy because travelers can rent mobiles and cars which are available in the German society. Almost all types of transportation system including air, train, and bus are available in Germany. Bars, clubs and internet cafes are also very cheap.

This is really a great step taken by German government. Yesterday when I read the article written by my teacher on World Cup Football and Tourism I felt bad for those who are interested to visit Germany but would not be able to do so because of the high prices of tickets and hotel rooms. This program will attract those travelers and help them to enrich their knowledge. Through such programs the organizers are expecting some financial boom in the sector of tourism. So friends! Start your preparation for Germany. Wish you all a nice travel!

Sources:
http://www.soccerphile.com/soccerphile/wc2006/city_guide/freiburg.html http://wm2006.deutschland.de/EN/Content/Host-Country-Germany/Germany-in-brief/germany-your-travel-destination.html
http://www.southasiabiz.com/2006/05/world_cup_football_2006_fever.html

Starbucks freshening up Japanese consumers more

(By Razib Ahmed)
I always knew that Japanese the country of tea. Even Japanese girls learn serving tea in a decorative way. Well, that seems to be related to old Japan. The new Japan adores coffee and not just any kind of coffee but Starbucks coffee. Starbucks is a company which owns retail coffee shops in many parts of the world. I visited the website of Starbucks Japan and at first, I felt a bit afraid to see everything was in Japanese language. However, I discovered that there was an English language version. I am quoting from the website:
" Since the opening of our first store on August 2, 1996, in the Ginza district of Tokyo, our network has expanded rapidly throughout the country. Starbucks has reached the milestone of 500 stores with the opening of Nagoya Fushimi AT Building store in November, 2003."
(Source: http://www.starbucks.co.jp/en/company_info.htm )
Now Starbucks has nearly 600 stories in Japan and today Starbucks Japan posted 51.4% increase in its profit in fiscal year 2005-06. That is a huge jump in profit and Starbucks Japan officials are upbeat about the current fiscal year too. In the last fiscal year, the company opened 51 new outlets while this year it has a target of opening 75 stores. Starbucks Japan is selling tea too in addition to coffee. Actually in the website of Starbucks Japan, I could find the following items of tea in its menu:
" Tazo® Chai Tea Latte (Hot/Iced)
Black tea and spiced in steamed milk or milk and ice
S:340yen T:390yen G:440yen V:490yen

Freshly Brewed Tazo® Tea
A selection of black and herbal infusions
T:290yen G:360yen

Iced Tea
Today's iced tea or herbal infusion
S:260yen T:310yen G:360yen V:410"

I am happy that Starbucks bosses have acted very smartly to integrate tea with coffee in its operations in Japan. A few days ago, I wrote about the falling profit of McDonald's Japan in Japan and I suggested that they should introduce more fish and vegetable items in Japan. Today, I like to appreciate the wisdom of Starbucks in integrating tea very well in their menu in Japan.

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Digitalization of Cable TV: It's show time for China

Digital cable television service will be the standard norm within in a short time. Chinese government just finished a three-year pilot program of digital cable television in 49 areas. The switch to digital cable TV from analogue has been very successful and the Chinese government feels confident about introducing digital cable TV in all the major cities of China. Right now, the number of digital cable TV users is around 1 million and there will surely be a multifold increase in the number of such users. There are now 120 pay television channels that provide service to digital cable TV users.

You can understand that digital cable TV is becoming popular from the financial results of China Digital Media Corporation. In the first quarter of this year, the company had:
" * Revenue increased 272% to $3.7 million from $1.0 million
* Net income before tax improved 65% to $734,000 from $438,000
* Net Income grew 1.5% to $445,000 from $438,000"
(Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060516/lntu008.html?.v=9)

The figure quoted above is more than impressive and I am sure that there is too much potential for growth as these are the very early days for digital television in China.

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China: Foreign companies are surpassing Chinese companies in mobile phone market

(By Razib Ahmed)
China has now the world's largest mobile phone user base and the market is growing very fast. For example, in the first quarter of this year around 25 million mobile phones were sold in China. It is a 15.3% increase compared to the same time last year and even it is higher 8.5% than the previous quarter. Sales revenue in the first quarter was $4.6billion and it is a good improvement too. The market is growing but the market share of Chine mobile phone producers is shrinking. Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have the top 3 spots in the Chinese market and their market shares are:
Nokia: 26.9%
Motorola: 13.4%
Samsung: 9.02%
The market share of Chinese mobile phone producers is 36.9%. The market shares of top Chinese companies are:
Bird: 7.71%
Lenovo: 7.04%

Kongka and TCL- two old and previously popular Chinese brands did not perform up to the mark and lost their market share significantly.

China's mobile phone market grew very fast in the last few years and the market is going to show sign of slowing down within a year or two.

The interesting thing is that while people in the rest of the world are afraid of Chinese products flooding their market and costing their jobs, Chinese mobile phone companies are losing grounds in their own backyard.

What is your idea about it?
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Thousands of World Cup tickets unsold: FIFA proposes fans disposes

(By Razib Ahmed)

As World Cup Football draws near the excitement is only increasing around the world. Many people in Asia are sad that they could not buy tickets of world cup matches and now when I saw the report titled, ' Thousands of World Cup tickets unsold; hotels complain' in a website naturally I felt sympathetic for those fans around the world. Let me quote from the report here:
" The newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said a total of 70,000 tickets bought by the Swiss marketing company ISE for 170 million euros (215 million dollars) had not been sold.
The World Cup Organizing Committee has urged ISE to return unsold tickets so they can be sold on the open market, averting empty rows of seats at the World Cup stadiums.
The newspaper said ISE had been left sitting on 13,000-15,000 VIP tickets for Germany's three group stage matches, beginning with the game against Costa Rica in Munich on June 9.
The hospitality tickets, which include meals and drinks, were offered by ISE at prices ranging from 2,199 to 3,299 euros."
(Source: http://sport.monstersandcritics.com/worldcup2006/news/article_1164656.php/Thousands_of_World_Cup_tickets_unsold_hotels_complain)

A world cup ticket for 3,299 euros- wow, FIFA and ISE bosses must be out of their mind. Unfortunately, they are not out of their mind. Their plan was make a good profit by selling the image of World Cup Football. There is nothing wrong in doing business as whether you like it or not only because of the generous support of the sponsors we can enjoy World Cup Football both in the Stadium and through our television sets. However, I think that this time FIFA has gone too far. Football is the most popular and richest sport in the world simply because millions of ordinary people around the world are crazy for it. There is no justification to reserve some tickets only for rich people.

FIFA officials did not only try to make high profit from ticket sales but also they wanted to make very high profit through hotel bookings. I am quoting here from the same report:
"Meanwhile, FIFA came under fire Wednesday from Berlin's hoteliers after cancelling thousands of World Cup bookings.

FIFA made a block booking for 8,000 rooms in the capital, but cancelled the reservations for 5,000 of them this week, leaving hotels to scramble for customers.

'Some major mistakes have been made,' said Berlin's tourism director Hanns Peter Nerger, adding room occupancy during the World Cup threated to drop to only 60 per cent, well below the normal summer levels.

Nerger said FIFA had marketed the rooms through its own marketing agency WCAS at prices that were far too high.

The average rate for a room in a Berlin four star hotel is 127 euros - less than half that for similar accommodation in London, Milan or Paris.

'It didn't pay off to try and use the World Cup to increase room prices,' Nerger said."

Poor the hotel owners. They have fallen victims of FIFA's excessive greed. For the fans who are traveling to Berlin, it is a sad and painful experience. I do not know why FIFA is so eager to turn Football into a rich men's sport. It's completely ok to bargain to the end of the world about TV rights, billboard ads, and jerseys but it is simply not acceptable to mess up with ticket prices and hotel bookings. If FIFA does not learn its lesson from this fiasco then it will only suffer greater disaster in future.

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Australia export Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) to China

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
China has signed a 25 year contract with Woodside Petroleum Ltd, an Australian company, which runs the 14 billion Australian dollar North West Shelf gas project, to import LNG. It is the biggest contract made between any Australian company and China. The contract was finalized in 2002. Under the agreement the first shipment of LNG has been loaded at Karratha in the Pilbara region of West Australia. The shipment aboard the Northwest Sea Eagle will head to Shenzhen, one of the thriving industrial centers of China, situated next to Hongkong.
The contract is worth $ 25 billion and under the agreement Australia will supply 3.3 million tons of LNG within the next 25 years. The major export products of Australia to China are: iron, ore and wool and now LNG. It has become the country’s third major export item. The first shipment will reach China by the end of this month to the Dapeng Terminal, built jointly by eleven corporations which includes domestic Chinese corporations and companies like British Petroleum, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
Australia’s Acting Prime Minister and Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, who is at Karratha now is very excited about this contract. He said that their LNG companies had won a reputation for reliability and quality second to none and this contract reinforced that reputation. He also said that the shipment was a milestone in Australia's economic relationship with China and also helped Australia to acquire the top position among LNG supplying countries.
At present, the Australian LNG executives are in China, preparing for the celebration. Australia and China has been doing trading for quite some time. However, until now there was a wide trade deficit between the two countries and the benefits were tilted towards China. According to the report of News.com.au, last year, the deficit was amounted to $6 billion. Australian officials are expecting that this contract will help to reduce the widening gap in trading between the two countries.

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China sees a 40% increase in websites

(By Razib Ahmed)
Even just 10 years ago, Internet was considered to be mainly a technology for scientists and scholars and most of the internet users and websites were limited to USA only. However, things are changing very fast in Asia and China is perhaps taking the lead role in the increase of number of websites from Asia. The number of websites registered in China crossed 2.6 million in 2005 and this figure is 40% more than the previous year. 60% of the websites are owned by the private companies whereas 21.9% are owned by individual users and the rest are educational websites or government owned sites.
There is huge potential for growth in China as far as the market of websites is concerned. Now, these 2.6 million websites are mainly limited to 9-10 cities and the rest of the country are yet to witness Internet boom. Thus western companies should consider investing in this field in China right now and perhaps this is the best time to have the best return for investment in China in web hosting.
The number of Chinese web pages is 2.4 billion and this is growing very fast every day. I was interested to find any statistics about the number of web pages in English language in China. If you know any such statistics please send me the link.

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Devastating drought becoming a major challenge for Chinese Economy

(By Razib Ahmed)

The ongoing drought is taking a devastating turn in China. Many parts of western and northern China have been badly affected by the prolonging drought and the suffering of the people is only increasing day by day. Normal life in Yunnan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Hebei provinces has come to a halt and the farmers have almost lost their harvest. When I said 'prolonging drought' it does not mean merely that the drought is going on for 3-4 months but in some places of China the drought has been going on for nearly two years. In some parts of Ningxia, there has not been any significant rainfall for the last 20 months. Shortage of food is looming over many parts of Western and Northern China. However, I feel that the worst thing to be worried is the shortage of water. Many huge reservoirs and wells have dried up because of low or no rainfall. According to The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), many people are now forced to take 2 meals a day instead of 3 meals.

I went through the report of FAO and I am quoting here from the report:
'The affected areas are among China’s poorest regions, with 2004 per capita annual incomes of rural households of $227 in Yunnan, $226 in Gansu, and $283 in Ningxia. Over half of rural households live under the poverty line and have limited access to food.
The drought will have a serious impact on vulnerable groups, particularly in affected mountain areas, where there are few alternative sources of income. Rural populations, including elementary school children in Ningxia, have reportedly reduced the number of daily meals from three to two, according to the FAO alert."

(Source: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000294/index.html)

The large cities, where industrial activities are carried out are yet to suffer badly. However, the capital Beijing is suffering from shortage of water and the government is trying to fight with this problem. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has visited the drought affected regions.

If the drought continues for another few months then the Chinese economy will face a challenging time next year. The Chinese government seems to be taking the drought situation very seriously and soon we will see the state machinery supporting the people in drought affected areas. Fighting with the shortage of food will perhaps not be difficult for the Chinese government as the country can afford to import food from aboard. However, fighting with shortage of water will be a mammoth task for the government as you cannot simply import water. In the rural areas, people depend on agriculture for their livelihood and thus the drought may have a negative effect in the Economic growth of the country this time.

Neighboring Pakistan is also suffering from drought and this winter Pakistan saw 40% below average rainfall and 20-25% less snowfall. China's condition is not better than it either. I just hope that the Chinese government comes forward very generously to support the farmers and villages.

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China’s booming mobile phone and Internet industry: What Next?

At present, China has more than four hundred million mobile phone subscribers which is the highest in the world. China Mobile Group, a state owned company, is the world’s largest mobile phone operator. China’s capital, Beijing is the largest mobile phone market but it is also the most expensive in call rate (.4 yuan per minute for both incoming and outgoing). Until recently, government had tight control over the mobile phone call charge. According to CCTV.COM recently a new system has been introduced by the authority.

Along with mobile subscribers the mobile phone production of the country has increased as well. According to the Ministry of Information Industry, more than 340 million units of mobile phone will be produced in the mainland of China and out of that 250 million will be exported. According to the report published in Telecome.Global Sources.com, last year Mainland China produced about 304 million units which is 30% more compared to 2004.

In addition, the number of internet users is also rising in China. According to Robin Li, Chairman and CEO China’s leading search engine, Baidu.com most of the mobile phone users are becoming internet users. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Information Industry there are around 100 million internet subscribers in China . Li said that the number would increase with the introduction of the third generation mobile phone with internet facilities and predicted that in the next two or three years the number of mobile phone users would rich to 100 million.
The future for mobile phone in Asian seems to be bright. India is going to pass USA and Russia to become the 2nd largest market for mobile phone by 2008.
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World Cup Football 2006: Coaching staffs fight for LG and Samsung in Korea

When it comes to Football, very few nations perhaps can compete with the Koreans. Koreans love football and why not! In World Cup Football 2002, Korean national football team reached the semi final- the best ever performance by any Asian country in World Cup Football. This time too, Team Korea looks formidable and impressive and Korean football fans are expecting with all their heart that their team will again repeat the success of 2002. There can be doubt and debate about this matter but there is no doubt that football craze is now in its all time high in Korea. Well, since 2006 tournament is going to be staged in Germany most Koreans will have to be satisfied with watching the matches in Televisions. So, now the top television companies are in a battle to promote their products and are expecting a huge boom in the next 3 weeks in their sale. You may think- Korea is a rich country and every family has a television set or even more than one sets and so why there can be a boom in TV sales?

Yes, you are right and I thought about it too when I saw the headline, 'Samsung, LG stake TV sales on football coaches' in Korea.net website. Then, I remembered my experience of 2002 tournament. Was there many large screen TV sets? How about LCD monitors, Plasma TV, flat-screen, HDTV? Even large screen TV sets were beyond the capacity of most people in a rich country like Korea 4 years ago as these TV sets were in their early days and naturally they were too expensive. Watching World Cup football matches in ordinary TV sets with small screen is not fun if you can afford the modern ones. When it comes to football, many Koreans can afford a lot more than that. So, LG and Samsung are now trying their best to make the best use of the football craze among the entire Korean population. Dutch manager, Dick Advocaat has been hired by Samsung to promote its flat-screen TV sets. Dick Advocaat got enough money from the company to appear in a busy street "at a busy shopping street near the COEX, southern Seoul, for a special promotion event by Samsung. He was mobbed by hundreds of people rushing to get an autograph or have their picture taken with him." Samsung has also managed to get Guus Hiddink, who was the manager of Korea in 2002 tournament. On the other hand, LG has Hong Myung-bo, one of the three assistant coaches of the Korean team now. Well, you may think that Samsung is ahead in this race as the company has got the current coach and former coach while LG could only manage an assistant coach. Well, not really because Hong Myung-bo was the captain of Korean football team in World Cup 2002 and he is respected like a living legend in Korea. Secondly, LG got the endorsement of another great Korean player Park Ji-sung playing for Manchester United and perhaps the most famous Korean player in Europe.

Because of World Cup football, LG has already seen dramatic improvement in the sale of plasma TVs and in the first 3 months of this year, LG could ship 730,000 plasma sets and this figure is 13% higher than the same period of 2005. On the other hand, Samsung bosses are expecting to have $10 billion from TV sales this year- an all time record for Samsung.

Tariffs on foreign auto parts in China: EU and America unhappy but big parts makers happy

(By Razib Ahmed)
The economic interest of a country does not always necessarily follow the interest of large companies. When, I read the report of Reuters with the headline, 'Big car parts makers unfazed by China tax row', (http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2006-05-15T055230Z_01_SHA1064_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-AUTOS-CHINA-PARTS-DC.XML) I again realized this matter very well again. The condition is like this. China has now a tariff of nearly 28% 'on parts if they account for 60 percent or more of a vehicle's value.' America and EU are both very unhappy over this matter and they are planning to have a serious fight with China in WTO. Well, this matter has been covered in this blog earlier (http://asianbiz.blogspot.com/2006/04/dispute-on-auto-part-tariff-among.html) and I am quoting from that article:
"First EU filed a complaint followed by the United States. They are saying that by putting higher tariff on imported auto parts China is breaking its resolutions as a member of the WTO. China has imposed higher tariffs on whole vehicles and spare auto parts that make up 60% or more of the value of a final vehicle. In April last year, this figure was 30% for the whole vehicle and 15% for auto parts."

Although EU and America are extremely unhappy with China about this matter, big motor parts maker companies like Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp. are happy with this matter. They do not see the tariff on foreign auto parts as a threat to their business for two reasons: firstly, they have manufacturing facilities in China and that is why often their products are not subjected to the tariff and then, high tariff keeps smaller companies of USA and Europe out of the Chinese market and thus these big companies do not have to worry about facing competition. The Chinese auto market is growing and as a result, companies like Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp. are thriving too. The Chinese government is happy to see that these companies have invested in China and have contributed in generating employment.

So, what's next! Can EU and America force China to lower its tariff through WTO?
What do you think?

Korea and Egypt building up bilateral trade relationship

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
On 10th May, a 17 member delegate from Egypt visited South Korea with a goal to develop bilateral trade relationship.

According to the report of The Korea Times the delegation was headed by Mahmoud Fathi Atallah, Vice chairman, General Authority for Investment and Free Zones. Before this, the South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun went on a visit to Egypt after being invited by the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Korean officials received them on Friday at the Egyptian embassy. The delegation attended a seminar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Friday. The two parties held meetings and signed business deals.

On behalf of the South Korea representatives from various government and private organizations participated in the meeting. According to the Egyptian Ambassador, Reda El-Taify, President Roh’s visit has opened up a new source for the Korean businessmen to explore trade and commerce in Egypt. Egypt is among the top emerging markets in the world. Last year Korean firms invested 200 million dollars
in Egypt.

In the meeting GS Engineering and Construction, a Korean company, signed a construction order to build a natural gas plant in Alexandria which is worth $ 350 million. Korea is one of the most developed countries in Asia and Egypt is a country rich in cultural heritage and natural resources. Hence, through such business deals both the countries will be able to exchange knowledge and technology.

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"Made in America" automobiles: Myth versus Reality

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
I know the title looks a bit awkward but my intention was to reflect the identity crisis that the North American Automobile Makers are now going through. You may know that Ford, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler are the leaders in USA automobile market. These companies cash on American’s patriotic emotion to sell their cars but the funny thing is that a good portion of production of their cars takes place outside America. According to an article published in Monterey Herald.com a good portion of the auto parts are brought from abroad. I am quoting from the article,
A Free Press analysis of federal data found that vehicles built by Detroit automakers have steadily increased their proportion of parts from outside the United States and Canada. By the same measure, vehicles built in North America by Japan's largest automakers increasingly use U.S. and Canadian parts.
Detroit automakers still build a far higher share of their vehicles in the United States than foreign automakers, and most of their models draw more than three-fourths of their parts value from U.S. or Canadian sources. But some popular Japanese models now surpass their U.S. competitors for content made in the United States or Canada, the government records show.
I hope now you understand the reason of my title. American automobile market has been a very competitive market and now days, not only the domestic car makers but also foreign car makers especially, from Asia and Europe are producing and selling cars in America. This has added to the existing conditions and made it more critical. As a result, to increase their profit margin automobile producers are forced to look for cheaper and cost effective alternatives which resulted in outsourcing the production of auto parts to other countries where the labor cost is cheaper and assemble those parts in the home country plant. This type of outsourcing has become a trend among American Automobile companies. The out come is shut down of plants and a huge number of people becoming jobless. Moreover, the auto parts made in other countries are not of that high quality.
According to an article published in the Duluth Tribune Ford has launched a campaign that appeals to patriotism and their catchphrase is “Red, White, and Bold.” Ford’s Executive Vice President in his recent speech said that Americans really did want to buy American brands. My question is: What is really the “American Brand”?
Level Field Institute, an organization founded by retired officials of the top three American automobile producing companies held a news conference in Washington on 11th May. In the conference the officials of the firm said that judging whether a car should be said to be “Made in USA” or “More American” based on its contents made in North America is not an effective determiner. Jim Doyle, Head of Level Field said that a better way to determine was to consider the number of jobs from research and development to manufacturing and retailing, created by each automaker inside the country.
In my previous posts on automobiles I have written about Asian automobile especially, the Japanese automobile producers: Toyota. At present USA is Toyota’s biggest market. Last month it outpaced the Daimler Chrysler in terms of sales and moved in the third position in American Auto market. The striking thing about the Japanese automobile companies: Toyota, Honda, Nissan operating in USA is that these companies are known as ‘TRANSPLANTS’ that does not produce anything only assemble parts but the truth is these companies have their fully operational plants in USA where they are producing their own parts. In terms of North American content Japanese competitors may surpass their American rivals.
Last but not the least, if we consider consumer’s point of view then we would see that there are vast categories of consumers based on different needs and priorities. There is one group who thinks that through buying a car produced by Ford, or General Motors they are upholding their devotion toward their country and contributing to the country’s economy. ‘Made in USA’ gives them a sense of joy and pride. However, the car may not be produced in USA. On the other hand there are those who are concerned with safety, fuel efficiency and price. The bottom line is in order to survive and to grow in a highly competitive automobile industry as that of the United States, automobile makers always have to adopt cost effective ways to produce and sell cars and increase their profit margin which may result in shutting down plants and outsourcing works in the neighboring country or other countries.

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Chopstick shortage: Should Japanese people start eating with their hands?

(By Razib Ahmed)
When I think of Japanese food, the first image that comes to mind is that of chop stick. I am not a big fan of Japanese food although I admire their healthy eating style and like them, I also consume a lot of fish every year but my fish curries are cooked with a lot of spice. The Japanese are crazy for their chopsticks and they mainly eat with wooden disposable chopsticks that are mainly imported from China. Needless to say that wooden chopsticks are good for health. 25 billion of pairs or chopsticks- that is the size of this industry in Japan and 97% of this amount is imported from China. Now, China has imposed a tax of 5% to save its forests and if you are an environmentalist then surely you would appreciate this move by China. Coupled with increase in transport cost because of rising price oil in the international market, the price of chopsticks have increased 50%-70% in Japan. However, the Japanese people can still afford a chopstick as its price is merely 1.5 to 1.7 yean (well under 2 cent) a pair. However, the main fear is not of price increase but of stoppage in supply from China. Chinese government is seriously considering the idea of stopping export of wooden chopsticks to save its trees. So, the Japanese importers are now thinking of importing chopsticks made of bamboo instead of wood. They are also trying to find alternative markets like Vietnam, Indonesia and even Russia.

Food habit is really a serious thing to change and it is impossible to change your eating habit overnight. I wish the Japanese can learn to eat with their hands more like South Asian people. That can save them a lot of problems.
What do you think?

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Poverty Reduction: Chinese Government becoming serious

(By Razib Ahmed)
So much we head about China's rise as a world economic super power but compared to this, we hardly can see anything about the miserable poverty that millions of people in China are suffering. Actually, if you leave out some major cities, the rest of the country is still a long way behind than having a decent life standard. That is why I am so happy that the Chinese government is now planning to set up a special fund to alleviate poverty in the country. From 2001 and 2005, China's government allocated $ 7.15 billion for poverty reduction and now the government is going to be very active in trying to improve the condition of life in the poor regions in the country. I am quoting here from Xinhua:

"Between 2001 and 2005, China's central coffer arranged 57.2 billion yuan (7.15 billion U.S. dollars) of poverty relief fund, with an annual increase of 6.45 percent.
"This is utterly insufficient for the huge poverty-stricken population, which stood at 23.65 million in the rural areas at the end of last year," Tian told Xinhua in an exclusive interview Sunday.
Nor is there enough fund from China's financial institutions, he said. "None of the four big state-owned commercial banks has a branch in the needy areas."
An industrial fund for poverty reduction purposes would therefore be an effective way to raise funds for the benefits of the poverty-stricken population and the investors alike, as it is expected to yield higher returns, said Tian."
(Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/14/content_4544473.htm)

This is a very good initiative taken by the Chinese government. The reality is that if all the people in a country do not enjoy the benefit of economic development, then the development cannot be continued for a long time.

I hope that the Indian government now come forward to follow China. A few days ago, I wrote a post in my another blog with the headline, " 60 million malnourished and underweight children: Is it India?"

Toyota’s Profit raise in fourth Quarter

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
I have been writing news for the last few days for Toyota and now this type of news does not surprise me any more. Toyota, world’s tenth largest automobile producing company has observed a 53% rise in their fourth quarterly profit (January- March). According to Reuters’s report the operating profit for the fourth quarter is 586.70 billion yen and the market estimate was 493.7 billion yen. Net profit increased by 39 percent and revenue 17.8 percent. The companies main advantage is that it can produce cars that are user friendly and saves money. At present, the company boasts of a capital worth 217 billion dollar, higher than the South African economy. The company has decided to increase their Research and Development spending to launch their third generation Hybrid cars. The company also forecasted its next year operating profit, which will end in March 2007. It expects a 1.2 percent rise in operating profit. America is Toyota’s biggest market and last month it outsold Daimler Chrysler. Not only the Daimler Chrysler, Ford and General Motors also incurred lose which resulted into job cuts and shutting down of plants. Toyota has decided to produce 8.45 million vehicles including trucks and cars this year.

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Growing Trade relationship between South Korea and UAE

South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been maintaining a great trading relationship for quite sometime. In order to continue it South Korea is now planning to make a free trade agreement with UAE. Korea imports huge amount of crude oil, naphtha and LPG from the country. So until now UAE mainly benefited from the trade. In 2004 the amount was 9.8 billion dollar and in 2005 it increased to 12.7 billion dollar. On 12 May, 2006 the South Korean President, Roh Moo-Hyun went to UAE on a two day visit.

According to a spokes woman the main goal of this visit is to strengthen the on going commercial relationship between the two countries. President Roh is the first President from South Korea to visit the country. A business delegation is also visiting with the President. The President said that during the visit various trade agreements will be signed between the two countries.
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Aging population: The big threat to Chinese Economy?

(By Razib Ahmed)


China has now 143 million of people over the age of 60. For a population of more than 1 billion this figure may not look to be too much but the horrifying factor is that this figure is increasing very rapidly and if this trend continues then by 2050 30% of Chinese population will belong to the category of aging (elderly) people or senior citizens. Well, these days, media is discussing mainly about the fact that by 2050, Chinese economy will surpass US economy and emerge as the largest economy in the world. These days, China is literally unstoppable in the manufacturing world and many workers are losing jobs in Europe, America and even other parts of Asia, as cheap Chinese products are flooding their markets but When I read the article in People's Daily Online with the headline, 'China's elderly population reaches 143 million', then I realized one thing that aging population is going to be the biggest threat to the continuous growth in Chinese economy within a decade or two. I am quoting from the report here:
"By the year 2030, the proportion of the elderly and children and working people will rise sharply to over 50 percent as the elderly population is increasing drastically. By then, every 100 working people will have to support 50 children and the elderly.
China is still ranking as a relatively low income country with per capita GDP just surpassing 1000 US dollars, China does not have enough strength to cope with the aging challenge yet as the economy is still weak."
(Source: http://english.people.com.cn/200605/13/eng20060513_265381.html)

That is a troublesome picture- isn't it? On other hand, this is a world wide phenomenon and there should be more research on helping people active until the age of 70-75.

Toyota taking Chinese market very seriously: 900,000 'Made in China' Toyota cars by 2010

(By Razib Ahmed)


Toyota is planning to sell 1 million cars in the Chinese market by 2010. This figure may sound to be 'over ambitious' considering the fact the target of sale for 2006 is 280,000 units and even this target is nearly 50% higher than the sales figure of 2005. In 2005, Toyota sold 180,000 units in China and all of these cars except 20,000 were locally produced in China. This is where Toyota is now advancing very aggressively. Right now, Toyota plants in China have an annual production capacity of 360,000 cars and by 2010, company wants to have annual production capacity of 900,000 in China. Wow, that means that Toyota has set a target of almost tripling its production capacity in China in the next 4 years. Two new plants will be set up in China soon and the capacity of existing plants will be also increased. Thus in 2010, if Toyota can really sell 1 million cars then 900,000 (90%) will be 'made in China'. That is cool- isn't it?

I have mentioned so many stats in this post that I am getting a bit confused. Well, the fact of the matter is that China is a very fast growing market for the car makers and Toyota bosses have realized it very well. I just wonder that why they could not understand the full potential of the Indian market yet.

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Falling birth rate for Korea: What to do?

(By Razib Ahmed
South Korea has one of the lowest birth rate in the world and it is all the time decreasing. In 2004 it was 1.16 per woman and then some people thought that from here you cannot go lower. Well, a few days ago, the statistics for 2005 was published and for 2005 it has become 1.08 per woman. In 2004, 476,000 babies were born in Korea whereas in 2005 the figure dropped down to 438,000 These days, women are giving more importance to continue higher education and then have a career. So, getting married or having children are not in the top priority for most Korean people. Many couples simply consider having children as a very expensive and time consuming work. The Korean decision makers are worried about this condition and are contemplating on how to encourage young couples to have more children. The government will give some incentives so that couples feel more encouraged to have children.

Falling birth rates mean that there would be fewer young people to work and pay taxes and more old people to go on retire and require welfare benefits. This is a dangerous trend for any economy. I think that the Korean government should take this issue most seriously now and address it from now. The government should carry a massive promotional campaign in the media and in the universities to motivate young people about the importance of having children. To keep the economy competitive, Korea should start allowing skilled professionals of other countries to immigrate here. Australia and Canada both have seen good benefit from such a scheme.

Do you have any more suggestion?
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Japanese decision makers worried with strong Yen

(By Razib Ahmed)
Japanese Minister of Finance Sadakazu Tanigaki is now a very worried man as he can see that the price of his currency Yen is going up while the index of his share market Nikkei is going down. The price of Yen has increased substantially against US dollar in the last few weeks and in less than one month, the price of dollar has decreased by 8 yens. Today, the price of dollar fell below the 110 yen mark and it caused concern among Japanese decision makers. A strong Yen means that the price of Japanese products will become more expensive in the international market and Japanese exporters get badly affected. Japanese exporters are already enough worried about competing with China. The Chinese government has maintained a tight grip over the price of its currency and thus Chinese exporters are getting good support from their government.

Now, the main interesting thing for the observers to see is that whether the Japanese Government intervenes in the currency market or not to help the Japanese exporters. The government has more or less has refrained itself from intervening in the currency market for the last two years.

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McDonald's Japan profit tumbles: Should McDonald's serve Asian menu more!

(By Razib Ahmed)
In the first quarter of this year, McDonald's Japan suffered 99% decrease in profit compared to same time of the previous year. McDonald's Japan is the number one fast food chain in Japan and McDonald's Corp. has just under half the share and the other half is owner by McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan). You can read the financial statement of the company for Q1 of 2006 by visiting this link. I am quoting from its website here:

"McDonald's Company (Japan), Ltd., a consolidated subsidiary, has been successfully pursuing its New Value Strategy started in April 2005. It achieved an increase in the transaction count at existing restaurants for the quarter by 6.9% over the same period last year, while it also increased the sales at existing restaurants by 0.8% over the same period last year.
As the result, the financial performance for the quarter turned out 86,036 million yen for the consolidated sales and 2,096 million yen for the consolidated ordinary income. However, the net profit for the period turned out 22 million yen as the extraordinary loss of 2,086 million yen was recorded due to the introduction of the asset-impairment accounting system.
At this point, there is no change in the consolidated business forecast for the fiscal year released on February 10, 2006."
(Source: http://www.mcd-holdings.co.jp/english/news/2006/release-060512.html)

I do not want to go into details about these numbers. I just want to point out one matter here. I really think that McDonald's should change its focus in Asian countries like Japan. Starting from Bangladesh, the more eastward you go in Asia, you can find that people are more fan of fish and vegetables instead of meat. Of course, fast food is popular now in every country because of their taste, use of too much oil and meat and finally it takes less time to eat fast food. However, in South East and East Asia, people are more fan of rice, fish and vegetables and I believe that McDonald's should try to keep this fact in their mind and invest some money in developing new recipes and food items centering on these 3 materials (rice, fish and vegetable).

Many people in South East and East Asia are Buddhists and they are not exactly big fans of meat. So, if McDonald's can come up with delicious food items attract this market, this can indeed turn out to be a huge market for the fast food chain.

Just two days ago, I saw a report in Chicago Tribune, " McDonald's sales post biggest jump in year" and I came to know:
" McDonald's Corp. on Tuesday reported its largest monthly sales increase in more than a year, boosted by the biggest gain in Europe in at least three years.
The Oak Brook-based burger giant said global sales at restaurants open at least 13 months climbed 6.2 percent in April. Such same-store sales are considered the best indicator of a retailer's health.
European sales jumped 9.3 percent from a year earlier, while U.S. sales rose 4.1 percent. Sales in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region posted a 6.5 percent gain."

(Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0605100173may10,1,2033601.story?coll=chi-business-hed)
So, McDonald bosses should try to cater the Japanese market more with the foods and taste they are habituated too.


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South Korea looking for energy from Azerbaijan

(By Razib Ahmed)
These days, we often see media reports that become of having continuous high economic growth; India and China are aggressively pursuing energy sources in various parts of the world. China is even pursuing oil fields in Africa. One place is very attractive to both China and India- Central Asia. It seems that now Korea has joined the game. Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun and Azeri President Ilham Heydar Aliyev have signed a number of deals and the most important of them all is that Korea National Oil Corp. will jointly develop oil fields in Azerbaijan with Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR.

This is a significant deal between the two countries. Korea imports 100% of its crude oil and 98% of gas from aboard. Korea is trying to find new sources of energy from which it can import. Azerbaijan will be a good destination in this regard. On the other hand, Azerbaijan has been actively seeking foreign investment in its energy sector for the last few years. Korea is a rich country with state of the art technology and thus Azerbaijan will be hopeful to get a good price for its oil. Thus it is a win-win situation for both the countries.

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Tsuneji Uchida becoming president and COO of Canon in Japan

(By Razib Ahmed)

Right now, Tsuneji Uchida is executive vice president of Canon Inc. one of the leading manufacturers of camera and precision equipment in the world. He is going to be promoted to President and COO of Canon on 23 May 2006. Fujio Mitarai is currently the Chairman, President and CEO of Canon and soon he is going to lead Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, the most powerful business body in Japan. So, naturally, Mr. Mitarai will have less time to look after Canon and that is perhaps why Tsuneji Uchida is going to be promoted as President and COO.

Tsuneji Uchida ha shown great efficiency for Canon over the years. He has worked in the camera business of the company and has worked to make Canon as a successful name in the world of digital camera. These days, Canon doing great in digital camera business and posting healthy amount of earnings from quarter to quarter in the last few years.

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Japan looking for stable supply of gas from Brunei

(By Razib Ahmed)
Brunei is a small but very rich country in Asia. The Sultan of Brunei often comes to media headlines for his lavish lifestyle. Do you know the secret behind his riches? Japan gets 10% of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Brunei and for Brunei it is 90% of its gas export. So, LNG of Brunei is equally important for both of these countries. Japan is eager to have stable supply of LNG from Brunei and Brunei's energy minister, Yahya bin Begawan has assured Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshihiro Nikai of stable supply of natural gas. Brunei is trying to develop new gas fields to meet the rising demand of LNG from Japan and Korea.

Brunei has been exporting LNG to Japan for more than 3 decades and now Korea is getting interested about importing more LNG from the country. The rise of oil in international market has made Brunei an even important source of energy to Japan and Korea.
So, we can expect of more headlines news of the riches of Brunei's Sultan in the coming years.

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China: Devastating drought looming over the economy

China is more famous for floods than drought. However, this year, it is drought that catching all the media attention in China. The city dwellers in Chinese capital Beijing are suffering the worst condition in the last 50 years as the rainfall is too low compared to average. However, it is the farmers who have been affected most by the on going drought. Supply of drinking water is a big problem in many parts of China now. The farmers are also suffering to get the necessary amount of water for their farming.

The economic impact of drought may be devastating as in the rural areas people depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Hopefully, the Chinese government will come forward to support the farmers affected by the drought. Neighboring Pakistan is suffering from severe drought too.

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(By Razib Ahmed)

China’s success in Automobile export

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Once again China has proved that it is one of the biggest manufacturers in the world. In the first quarter of this year China’s car export has exceeded its goal. It exported more than 62000 cars. Compared to last year it has increased 139%- definitely a great success for the automobile industry of China. According to Monster and Critics from January to March of this year China exported 62,628 units of vehicles which include: 16,813 sedans and 565 land rovers, and so on. Out of this, 27% were passenger cars and most of them were exported to Russia, Middle East and Southeast Asia. The total export was worth 647 million dollars. The Chinese government has ambitious plans for its automobile sector. It is expecting a 40% growth on year to year basis till 2010. If things go well planned then no doubt China will be one of the biggest automobile producers in the world within the next two decades.


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Another great year for Toyota

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Last Week, Toyota has announced its fiscal results of 2006. According to the report Toyota’s earning has raised 17.2%. There is a rise in the company dividend. Company’s net income increased to 1.37 trillion yen from 1.17 trillion yen last year. Since the company made a huge profit it has made a proposal to buy back its shares worth 200 billion yen. This year the majority of the company sales 71.4% were overseas sales. This includes: North America 36.6%, Europe 12.4% and Asia 9.5%. The interesting thing is that overall sales of cars increased in USA, 2.556 million vehicles and decreased in Japan 2.364 million vehicles. The company also performed well in Europe. Sales grew by 44 thousand vehicles to 1.023 million. The major reason behind higher sales in USA is the steady sales of new models including the hybrid Prius. In addition, the company also introduced IMV (Innovative International Multi-purpose Vehicle) models. A great year for a great car company. Wish Toyota All the best!

The time has come for Toyota to be aggressive in the Indian market. Indian market is growing very fast and Nissan is setting up an assembly plant in India now so that it can make good use of cheap labor in India.

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Toyota looking for its new plant location in Europe

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
According to BBC news, last year Toyota has sold 964,000 cars in Europe. This is definitely a great achievement and this year it is planning to sell 1 million cars. No doubt that Europe, like America is also becoming a big market for Toyota. Another Autoblog post published on March 8, 2006 Toyota was zeroing in on Germany, Europe’s biggest automobile producing country with its revamped Lexus GS hybrid model. The Japanese automobile giant Toyota is now looking for sites to set up its new plant in Europe. Toyota has already passed the budget for setting up the plant. According to Forbes news France and Germany are the first choice. The plant will be operational within the next five years and it will have the capacity to produce 100,000 passenger cars per year.
Toyota is stealing the show in USA lately. In this blog, I have reported you earlier that Toyota had shaken the American automobile companies by moving into the top three in the US automobile market. I think that Toyota has to now focus on the Indian market more. India is turning into one of the biggest markets of automobiles both as a producer and consumer.

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Asian Currency Unit (ACU): Great Expectations but Paradise lost?

In the last 2 weeks, there have been a number of reports, articles and interviews in the Asian Media about the creation of Asian currency unit (ACU), a single Asian currency. By going through these articles, I could understand one thing that ACU will not take place anytime soon, not even in the next 5 years- the earliest time I see is 2015. ASEAN+3 group of countries are behind the idea of ACU and soon these countries are going to start a research project about ACU.

Well, I am not in favor of calling it as 'Asian Currency Unit' as it is mainly limited to some East Asian countries and all the countries of South Asia, Central Asia, Middle East and West Asia are left out in it. However, the same goes for Euro too as most of the European countries are still not included.

Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and China belong to ASEAN+3. I do not know why they are leaving the rest of Asia behind. No doubt, that Japan. Korea, Malaysia and Singapore have the best economies in Asia and China is now a huge economic giant. So, this may be one reason of leaving alone the rest of Asia as most of the countries in the rest of Asia do not have modern economic system. Well, on the other hand, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia have weak economies.

The road to ACU will be surely of an economic reforms and adjustment for these 13 countries. The European countries who took the initiative of forming a single currency (Euro) had more or less similar backgrounds- they were rich industrial countries that followed free market economic system. On the other hand, in AEAN+3 group of countries, Japan and Korea are rich industrial countries. Malaysia can be included in this category and even now China is here. But courtiers like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have hardly any significant industry and they have still agriculture based economy. The economic prosperity of Brunei is based on its selling of gas to Japan.

More than economic diversity, political diversity is the major cause of concern. During the Second World War, Japan occupied many of the countries in this region and war time memories still create very bitter passion in China and Korea about Japanese occupation during the Second World War. So, I really like to see how these countries can adjust to a common currency. And, I also like to observe the political leaders and common people about the tough adjustments they have to make for ACU. Especially, the tragic memories the 1997 financial crisis are still fresh in the mind of the people.

It seems that too much expectation is in the air among ASEAN+3 countries about ACU. However, the ground reality is completely different and there is hardly anything now to feel optimistic about the creation of ACU in near future.
(By Razib Ahmed)

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Chrysler tie up with Chinese company

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Chrysler, the German automobile producing company is now planning to join with a Chinese automobile company, Chery Automobile, to build small cars. According to the report the spokes person for Chrysler said that Chrysler is planning to build up small cars like the Dodge Hornet which was displayed in the Geneva auto show. However, it is looking for a partner. There was no specific mention of Chery Automobile but from different sources it was confirmed that Chrysler is planning to make a move. The car produced will be named either Chrysler or Dodge. This news has upset the Chrysler workers in America. On the other hand, China has become famous for manufacturing at low price. As a result, lots of foreign companies are now investing in China. Chrysler is planning to follow the trend.

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Malaysia planning to join with Foreign Automobile Producers

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Malaysian national auto company Proton has been facing serious trouble. After the country had let foreign automobile producers to market their products the company started to lose its market. In 2002 the Malaysian auto company controlled 62% of the domestic market but it came down to 42% last year. Now it has become desperate to regain its position in the market. So it is trying to tie up with foreign companies. Recently, Proton has talked with Peugeot, a French auto company. Peugeot is the second largest automobile producer in Europe. I found that ForbesAsia.com has published three news on this topic and according to the latest one the two companies has not reached any final decision yet. The two companies are planning to jointly develop models for the Southeast Asian market. Within the next few months the companies are about to sign a MOU (Memorandum of understanding). The new model developed by the companies will be either named Proton or Peugeot or Citroen. Proton is also talking with another German company Volkswagen AG to develop a model and market it in Southeast Asia and India.
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Some old news about Japanese Automobiles

May 3, 2006 - Toyota’s Big Plans to Be #1
April 24, 2006- Nissan to Begin Car Production in Russia
January 10, 2006- Toyota Dominates Japan’s Domestic Auto Market — Market Share Ranking (TM, NSANY, HMC, DCX)

January 6, 2006- Japanese Autos Increase Investment and Activity in China and India; Lexus Tops in South Korea (HMC, NSANY, TM)

January 6, 2006- Japan’s 2005 Domestic Auto Sales Figures, “K ? Cars Lead All (HMC, NSANY, TM)

December 28, 2005- Asbestos still used liberally in Japanese automobile Manufacturing

December 22, 2005- Japan's Carmakers Find China's Fast Lane

Ivory Coast: Football is the great Healer

(Written by Biplob Kishore Deb)
I have heard that United Nations sometimes send their soldiers to those countries where war is a part and parcel of their daily lives. In some cases UN also sends celebrity persons to try for peace. In Ivory Coast football is going to take the place of the soldiers and celebrity persons in bringing peace. How?

This African country got the ticket of the world cup football for the first time and it is like a dream come true for the people of Ivory Coast. The country has been plagued with civil war like many other African countries. Regional conflict and bitterness among people belonging to two different regions have cost many lives in the last few years.

But in the final match of African Nations Cup where Ivorian lost against host Egypt, the leaders of the both sides came together in one point being inspired by patriotism to support their country and also rallied around the streets.

Now many Ivorians are hopeful that an environment will be created while their players will be playing together in Germany. Though they were grouped in a hard group where other three teams are; Argentina, Netherlands and Serbia- Montenegro, people of Ivory Coast are united behind their national football team.

Can you imagine that being a mean of entertainment, how football is working to unite the people of Ivory Coast?
If you want to know more please visit the link:
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1927564,00.html

http://www.southasiabiz.com/2006/05/world_cup_football_2006_fever.html

World Cup Football 2006: Injury and Sponsors

(By Biplob Kishore Deb)
English superstar Wayne Rooney is out of the field and England Coach Soven Goran Erricson said that a miracle only could allow him to participate in the World cup final 2006 Germany. He got serious injury in his leg recently while playing in English Premier League. This is a big blow on the hope of English to make this world cup another 1966 (England won world cup for the first and last time in 1966).

All of the football fans of the world have already known about this shocking news. But if I ask you that who are feeling sorrow for Rooney’s falling in injury most then you will reply that all of his fans world wide, English supporters, players as well as their Swedish coach. Well, you are right but not totally. To me, the companies who have sponsorship deal with Rooney and this is more than 8 million pound per year. Now they are facing a nightmare on the promotion of their product. They will not be able to cash in from his star image if he does not play in tournament.

World’s biggest sports company, Nike, has £5 million per year and another company ASDA has £3 million sponsorship with Rooney and he was supposed to introduce this company as a supermarket of the world cup. Official partner of world cup sponsor Coca-cola has also a deed of £1 million. Thus, I think that it is the sponsors who are sad most for the injuries as they are going to suffer huge losses.
What do you think?
Source:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1765750,00.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/01/nroon01.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/01/ixnewstop.html

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060505/asp/sports/story_6186111.asp

Toyota gives incentives on Tundra

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Toyota may have outpaced the Daimler Chrysler in small cars but it could not out pace Ford. Ford is still in the number one spot in trucks and pick ups and Toyota is in fourth position. Last month because of the raising gas price Toyota’s new pick up truck Tudra, had a 16% decrease in sales. The company is still holding on to its goal of producing 200,000 units of Tundra per year. Now it has targeted Ford buyers to buy its cars. To increase the sales the company is giving incentives: $2,000 cash back or 0 percent financing and low lease rate. Toyota is also restructuring its present Tundra model. However, shifting the attention of the consumers is not an easy job because many consumers are loyal to their brand. They do not want to buy anything but Ford. Jesse Toprak, Director, www.edmunds.com, an automotive website said that last month the overall sales of trucks were less. It is true that fuel price have raised but trucks are immune to this because of their sheer size and most of them are used by big firms and companies. I am hopeful that in this case Toyota will have success because Toyota has a good reputation of understanding the public demand and provide the expected product.

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Toyota is included in the top three in US auto market

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan

Few days ago, I wrote a post on American cars loosing their market to Asian cars. Well, last month Toyota has shaken the American automobile companies by moving into the top three in the US automobile market. In April, it replaced the Daimler Chrysler from the third position. Daimler Chrysler, a German auto company is one of the leading companies in the United States. Daimler Chrysler, Ford, and General Motor are considered as the top three companies in America. Now, that condition has changed. Last month Toyota observed a 4.5 percent raise in sales, while Daimler Chrysler fell 6.2 percent and General Motors, the top company f 10.7 percent on an unadjusted basis to 339,796, while Ford Motor, the No.1 automaker, experienced a 7 percent decline. I think this is a great achievement for an Asian Automobile company. America is one of the most developed countries and Toyota’s largest market. According to the CNN report, Toyota would not be able to hold this position although the year but Dave Lucas, Vice President, Autodata, an auto sales tracking firm thinks that this condition would not change because Toyota offers a great product line of fuel efficient cars like Camry and Prius, Hybrid car. The recent price hike in fuel has shift the attention of the American consumers to fuel efficient cars. Well I think Toyota deserves a great THUMBS UP!!!

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Factureexpress: blog with a different touch

written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan

Today, I visited a new blog Factuurexpress. It is published by Gaby De Wilde, a person (I would like to say a well wisher) from Netherlands. Factureexpress contains posts about website and Internet. Internet, at present day, especially, in the Western countries, has become a big business. People are using internet for various purposes. Everyday, hundreds and thousands of websites are being published on the net. Factureexpress mainly focuses about various aspects of websites. I think Gaby has used a very intelligent approach. He links various articles published on other websites and some articles he publishes himself. It increases the number of posts in a blog and also gives the blogger a chance to cover a wide array of subjects at a short span of time. Writing on different subjects at one time is a very time consuming job. I think this is the main strength of factureexpress.
Second thing I liked about this blog is that one can also find old article links on various issues. One of the articles I read was Who Can You Trust? Google, Yahoo! or Overture published in 2003) The article talks about how the search engine websites Google, Yahoo, and others make money through searches and how they implement different techniques to influence the searching behavior of the people and how the search engine use advertising of different products.
The blog also contains posts related to other fields such as environment, (Capitalism, the ecological truth).
Gaby de Wilde has published seven blogs and each one on different subjects. If you are interested you can have access to all his blogs through his google homepage.

HA! HA! HA! REALLY FUNNY FUNSY! The Yahoo Answer Service: What is the purpose?

written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
In December of last year Yahoo launched its new service Yahoo answers. It is a service where a person can ask a question and post it in the website. Then different people will give answer to the question. Each of the answers also has a voting system. The questions are divided into different categories such as: education, arts, politics, dining out and so on. I think it is really a nice service. If used properly, it can be another new wikipedia. However, after surfing the net and reading a few reviews on this new service I found out some problems. One of the major problems is that there are many people who do not take the service seriously. They ask silly questions which has no accurate answer. For example, what was the meanest thing that you have ever done to a person? This is really funny. After seeing the answer service I felt very good because it has opened another possibility of getting new information and more communication between people but now I agree with blogger Mike Love that the service is not achieving the goal for which it was created. I visited the website and found a list of undecided questions which includes:
Should I play with a couple?
What was the meanest thing that you ever did to another person?
Now what is the purpose of asking these type of silly questions. However, out of all these questions I found this one really funny:
Why does Super man wear his underwear on top of his clothes?

To know About Yahoo's this service in India read the post: Yahoo brings Yahoo! Answers to India

India Automobile: Moving towards Success

written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan

Among the South Asian countries India has the most flourishing economy. In automobile sector the country is doing very well. I was going through this article written by TN Ninan on Indian automobile sector and I was really impressed by the statistics it has given. If such is the case then within next five or ten years India will become a big name for automobile production and export. The funny thing is that Western automakers do not take India seriously because it is considered as an under developed country. However, it is true that India has a flourishing automobile market. In India small cars have huge demand. According to the article, last year India has earned 2 and half billion through exporting automobiles but with the ongoing restructuring and modifications within the next ten years Indian automobile producers will 35 billion dollars.
Here are some statistics of Indian automobile market:

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ccfd5c3e-d98f-11da-8b06-0000779e2340.html

Malaysia and Korea accepting the Free Trade Agreement

written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan

Malaysia and Korea auto market have remained closed all this time to the foreign markets. Now the two countries are moving toward free trade agreement. The United States will be holding free trade talks with Malaysia on the month of June. In that meeting the United States will pursue Malaysia to open up its auto market to the foreign companies.
According to Stephen Collins, President, Automotive Trade Policy Council Malaysia has a very unique market. It has the biggest automobile market in Southeast Asia. Until now Malaysia was producing and using automobiles that were produced by the domestic companies. Proton and Perdua are the two major domestic models. Twenty years ago, it was decided to build up automobile company which will be fully owned and operated by Malaysia. Since then they shut down all possibilities for the foreign market to do business through protective tax barriers and various policies. However, things have started to change after Malaysia participated in the world trade organization. It also signed an FTA agreement with its neighboring countries.
Korea like Malaysia, produce its own cars and protected its domestic companies through various taxes on foreign automobiles and protective policies. The United States has been pressing the Korean Government for the last ten years to reduce their taxes on foreign auto parts. The two governments signed Memorandum of Understanding in 1995 and then 1998 opened its automobile markets to foreign companies but the import figure did not raise that much because of taxing policies. The Korean citizens were brought under taxation when they bought foreign vehicles but now days that rule has changed.
Both Korea and Malaysia have a flourishing economy which makes it a market with great potential for the western automakers. Hence, they are interested to export their products. I think at this present age of free market economy and globalization it is tough for a country to cut off foreign investors and traders because it will also affect that country, as it export products to other countries as well. So Malaysia and Korea should accept free trade agreement.


Related Links:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1918879
http://newsblaze.com/story/20060503112051tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Story.html http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200605/kt2006050417430111910.htm

Increased auto sales puts pressure on fuel in Asia

written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Today when I was surfing the net for automobile news I found that this news was covered by several news websites. Asian countries especially, in India and China the rising sales of automobile is creating huge pressure on fuel. In India now days, because of easy bank loans many people are buying cars. The economic boom of the country is also another big contributor behind this. India has made great progress in IT related services. Foreign investors are investing in different sectors of the country which has flourished the country’s economy. Now a lot of people are looking forward to have their own car. Same thing is happening in China. Due to economic prosperity more and more people are now interested in buying cars. This sudden rise in automobile sales will create huge demand on fuel and will increase air pollution and different types of environmental degradation. The governments of the two countries have already made this issue a priority. In China last year, the government introduced fuel efficiency standards for cars and SUVs and raised automobile taxes to promote small fuel efficient vehicle. Also it is planning to adopt Ethanol as an alternative for fuel. India which imports oil is also planning to use Ethanol as an alternative for fuel oil. The Indian government has also taken initiatives to build an Ethanol plant in Jhatropa. At present, in India, three wheeled vehicles- Auto Rickshaws, are using CNG(Compressed Natural Gas). According to a spokes man of India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas because of using CNG the air in the cities are cleaner than earlier.

Related links:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/financial_markets/14461419.htm
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060429/car_crazy_in_asia.html?.v=2
http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8H9QLMG0.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1905229&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312&business=true
http://my.earthlink.net/article/bus?guid=20060429/4452e4c0_3421_1334520060429-863412601
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0406/323501.html

Ford, GM, are losing market to Honda, Toyota

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan

As I was going through the automotive news my eyes stuck on one article saying that American buyers are now becoming more interested in buying cars made by Asian companies especially, Japanese companies. Isn’t it surprising? American Automakers companies produce top quality cars then why the Asian cars? Because of the rising oil price buyers are now looking for fuel efficient cars. The main problem of American automobile makers is that they produce big cars for higher profits. Famous American automobile company The General Motors saw a decline in their sales in April. In April The General Motors observed a 7% decline in their sales. However, their Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) did good business. Another famous automobile producer, Ford, saw a 42% drop in their sale. On the other hand, Japanese cars for the first time in the last ten years and grabbed the top position in the U.S. auto market. Japanese car producing company Honda acquired the top position with its four new cars. It introduced two new cars Honda civic and Honda ridgeline. Toyota with its two gasoline-hybrid electric cars Toyota Pirus and Toyota Highlander Hybrid topped the list. American automobile companies lost a good part of their markets after foreign producers came to the market. It is really surprising that Americans believe that Japanese cars are superior quality to that of the Americans.

Related links:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Autos/story?id=1675993&page=1
http://www.nysun.com/article/32098
http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20060502-000768-1609
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/08-05-2004/5509-cars-0

(To read about South Asian Business visit: http://www.southasiabiz.com/)

Blogs From Asia: The fun Sunday School blog

(From now, you can expect reviews of quality Asian blogs in my blog. We will try to review of Asian blogs on Literature, culture, business and economy, music and movies, history and heritage, science and technology etc. We will give importance to those blogs which contain original content and everyone can read them. So, blogs containing adult contents, political and racial hate messages and content against religions will not be reviewed.)
This review has been done by S M Mehdi Hassan

The http://funsundayschool.blogspot.com/ school is a blog for teachers especially, for those who are teaching nursery or playgroup children. Written by a teacher who teaches in a school at Jakarta in Indonesia, the blog talks about communicating with the children in the class, school etiquette and various other important issues for teaching children.

From my point of view, teaching small children is the toughest job of all. Young children who are grown up and matured are not that problematic but small children especially below ten is really tough. I remember when I was young my mom used to take me to the school. When she was about to leave I started to cry. I do not know why this happened but after sometimes I became normal. Looking back, I understand that there are many such issues that make teaching small children a very complex and challenging job. It requires lots of patience and hard work. Some children in the class may not listen to the teacher some may start crying, handling such situation requires lots of patience.

At the same time a good teacher should know how to make the class interesting and motivate children to study. I think other people who are engaged in teaching would learn a lot from this blog.

(To know about South Asia and outsourcing visit http://www.southasiabiz.com/. This blog is updated 4-5 times everyday.)

Popular Japanese Toy products for adults and Elderly people

(Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan)


Recently, Bandai company has made a toy belt for adult Japanese male. The belt is made based on a popular cartoon character of the 1970’s Kamen Rider (Masked Rider). The belt costs thirty thousand yen ($ 270).
Another famous toy producing company Tommy, has made baby doll which has become very popular among adult women. The President of the company, Kanataro Tomiyama, says that, they are redefining the definition of toys and zeroing on teenagers and people in their twenties or thirties which includes male and female workers, house wives and so on. Kanataro says, “It's a strange culture but we are very lucky.”
Nintendo, the famous video game producing company has released its product for elderly people. It is called, “Brain Training Game.” The game is a big hit among elders of Japan. People over 60 are the main buyers. They think that by playing such mind game will help to keep their brains active.
Links on Japanese toy companies:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-04-12-toybelt_x.htm
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=2122&si=121
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003209566
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003389660
http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/japan-making-no-more-toys-for-babies/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4919606.stm
http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_26787.shtml
http://uniorb.com/ATREND/Japanwatch/adulttoys.htm
http://rennaisance.blogspot.com/2006/05/adult-toys-low-birth-rate-forces.html
http://steelturman.typepad.com/thesteeldeal/2006/04/adult_toys.html

Japanese Toy industry: a brief overview

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
After the Second World War, Japanese toy companies used to build items to export to foreign countries to earn foreign exchange. The industry started to pick up its pace in the 1950’s. At present, the Japanese toy companies produce plastic models, character toys and various other products. In addition, TV games, game consoles, and handheld game products produced by Japanese gaming companies have a high demand all over the world for their affordable price.
Bandai Company is the third largest toy producing company in the world. It has office located in major cities of the world. According to a report published in The USA Today because of the present situation of the Japanese population the company has merged with Namco, another game producing company, which produced the famous game ‘Pac Man.’
Then there are the flourishing gaming industries. Nintendo, maker of the famous game Mario Brothers, Sony, are among the top video game and gaming console producers of the world. Sony’s Play Station 2 is a big hit world wide (One of my previous posts is about Sony’s play station).
The low birth rate of Japan has forced the Japanese toy company to shift their attention to teenagers and elderly people. Related Links:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/35794/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clover_(toy_company)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandai
http://www.virtualtoychest.com/voltron/voltron.html
http://www.toymuseum.co.jp/body1-1.en.htm l
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/FR/AWG/recs/JPServi0034345.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DB1139F932A35753C1A966958260

If you want to know more go to this webpage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=japanese+toy+company&go=Go

Also you can download two pdf documents on Japanese toy Companies from these links:
http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/market/trend/industrial/pdf/jem0502-2e.pdf
http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/market/trend/industrial/pdf/jem0503-2e.pdf

The Future of Japan’s workforce: Too many old adults?

Written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Japanese economy is now becoming more dependent on aged people. According to an article written by Martin Mühleisen and Hamid Faruqee, at present, people of Japan live long than most of the countries of the world and by 2025 there will be one elderly person in every two young person in Japanese workforce. The raising complexities in marriage have led to less childbirth. As a result, there are not too many young people entering into work. This will create huge pressure on the economy because the aged work force will have less productivity. There will be lower employment as well. The elderly people will also create huge pressure on the country’s social security system. At present, the country offers a generous social security system which is why the elderly people are not dependent on their sons or daughters but in future when the number of elderly people increases it will create serious problem for the government.
Related Link:http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-06-02-japan-women-usat_x.htm

Condition of Modern Japanese Women

written by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan
Japanese men expect Japanese women to take care of the kids and the house. Men work for long hours and after work they come home and talk with their friends. Modern Japanese women can not handle the pressure of work and rearing children. As a result, there is less marriage and less child birth. On the other hand, Japanese men do not have the time to spend time with their girlfriends or wives; they have to work long hours. This situation has created lots of complexities for marriage. Japanese men now seek pleasure by going to the brothel or having a virtual girlfriend. In addition, the divorce rate is growing steadily. However, it is surprising that the single men and women are happy with their lives.
Related links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3694230.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3694230.stm
http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue4/karen.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/26/content_419717.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-06-02-japan-women-usat_x.htm
http://wom-jp.org/e/JWOMEN/kaigo.html http://www.gender.go.jp/women2001/s1.html

The present condition of Japanese Population: Too many adult people, too few children

(By S M Mehdi Hassan)


Yesterday I posted on Japan’s toy for adult people. After reading about it I got a little more interested to know about the toy industry of Japan, Japan population, and Japanese women. After browsing the net for three hours I found out different things about Japan. During the Second World War Japan lost a huge number of young people, also after the war the birth rate of Japan has started to decline. As more and more women are getting educated and independent they are losing interest in marriage. According to an article published in ‘Finance and Development’ a quarterly magazine, of IMF there are three factors that are related to this lower marriage rate: lowering gap between the salary of male and female workers, difficulty to balance between work and taking care of the family and a very good social security system. Japan today is known as one of the most developed countries of the world but pretty soon it will be facing a serious crisis of work force.
Related Links:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/muhleise.htm
http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/pop_cou_392.pdf
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4142.htm
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/muhleise.htm

You can also find important statistics in this pdf documenthttp://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/pop_cou_392.pdf