Thailand's capital Bangkok has been named the world's best city by influential US travel magazine Travel + Leisure.
Thai capital named 'World's Best City'
Announced as part of its World's Best 2011 Awards issue to be published July 22, the prestigious title was awarded based on the votes of thousands of Travel + Leisure readers who voted for cities around the world.
It is the second year in a row that Bangkok has been named in the top spot, despite a period of civil unrest last year which did considerable damage to Thailand's international reputation as a tourism haven.
The only other Asian city to make an appearance in the top ten was Siem Reap, a major tourist attraction for many on the backpacking trail around South East Asia thanks to its proximity to the famous Angkor Wat temple.
Europe was the major winner in the list of best cities, with five of the top ten, while Africa, America and Australia each gained one place (full list below).
Among a ranking of the world's best islands also in the issue, Santorini in Greece managed to secure first place, moving up considerably from the sixth-place spot it held in last year's rankings.
The paradise island of Bali in Indonesia managed second-place position, but the real shock was the fall of the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador, which dropped from top spot to tenth place in the rankings.
1. Bangkok, Thailand 2. Florence, Italy 3. Rome, Italy 4. New York City, USA 5. Istanbul, Turkey 6. Cape Town, South Africa 7. Siem Reap, Cambodia 8. Sydney, Australia 9. Barcelona, Spain 10. Paris, France
World's Best Islands
1. Santorini, Greece 2. Bali, Indonesia 3. Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada 4. Boracay, Philippines 5. Great Barrier Reef Islands, Australia 6. Sicily, Italy 7. Big Island, Hawaii, USA 8. Kauai, Hawaii, USA 9. Maui, Hawaii, USA 10. Galápagos, Ecuador
The American Bankers Association warned us that more shoppers were falling behind on their credit card bills in the first quarter of 2011, reporting, " Bank card delinquencies rose 12 basis points to 3.40 percent of all accounts compared to the previous quarter, but remain well below the 15-year average (3.95 percent) and below where they stood one year ago at 3.88 percent of all accounts."
According to ABA Chief Economist James Chessen: " Rising gas and food prices took a big bite out of family budgets in the first quarter of 2011... With a slow-growing economy and weak job growth, there will continue to be financial stress that will make it hard for some people to pay their bills on time."
I am dismayed that the transport operators are seeking an increase in public transport fares, especially when these were adjusted last year. I am more appalled that SBS Transit and SMRT have applied for the maximum increase of 2.8 per cent for all rail and bus fares.
# SBS & SMRT should be nOn-prOfIt pUblIc Organisations #
“Uncontrollable” and “significant” costs pressures have been cited as reasons.
Yet SMRT’s and SBS Transit’s net profits last year stood at a healthy S$161.1 million and S$54.3 million respectively, despite a marginal drop of 0.6 per cent to 1.1 per cent.
Is it justifiable for them to seek a fare increase when fares have risen steadily since 2007, bar 2009 when fares were reduced slightly due to the recession?
I can understand that due to inflation and other factors, a business has to raise prices to maintain
With the sector facing a barrage of criticism due to common lapses, an increase now will not sit well with many Singaporeans, especially the low-income families and NSFs, many of whom spend about a quarter of their allowance on transport.
Operators have to ensure the system is better run before they think to raise prices.
For example, despite the SMRT declaring that trains arrive at 1-minute to 2.5-minute intervals during peak periods, often I see trains arriving at 5-minute intervals [# late rides should be FREE # like fAst fOOd ?].
This is especially so on the North-South line, where alternate trains leaving from Marina Bay terminate at Yishun instead of Jurong East, leaving many passengers having to alight and board the next train to continue their journey.
It means trains leaving Yishun are so packed that commuters at subsequent stops like Admiralty cannot board.
Buses do not fare much better, with certain services perpetually overcrowded or prone to delays during peak hours. SMRT may have invested in new buses, but have these resulted in better frequencies?
If not, I believe most commuters would rather take an older model bus but reach their destination quicker.
Unless the operators tackle these problems and prove to us the fare hike is justifiable, the authorities should not approve their request.
their profit margin. However, since public transportation is a public good, the industry has to be better regulated such that the public does not feel exploited.
Chief among these “downsides” is that “commuters and taxpayers — yes, even those who don’t take public transport — are likely to end up paying more, and possibly, for a poorer level of service over time”, Mr Lui added.
Mr Lui’s remarks on his Facebook page came a day after the WP reiterated its call for a National Transport Corporation.
The Transport Minister pointed out that, an entity that depends on Government funding and which operates on a cost-recovery basis, “would have little incentive to keep costs down”.
Comfort & SMRT had never kept COST DOWN ? ? ? ?
becAUse bus and MRT fares had been rIsIng nOn-stOp ? ? ? ?
wOrst stIll ! SERVICE LEVEL and drOpped to the vAlley ? ? ? ?
OFFICE HOLDERS are getting INDECENT LEVELS of SALARIES ? ? ? ?
Singapore — The Workers’ Party’s (WP) suggestion to nationalise public transport “might seem like a very attractive idea” but it has “serious downsides” in reality, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said yesterday.
¨Recent corporate activity suggests that there will be major changes in the composition of the FBM KLCI and FBM100 over the next 6-12 months.
¨PLUS’ capital repayment and subsequent delisting is expected to occur in Sep as scheduled. With its delisting, we expect UEM Land as the largest stock in the reserve list currently to be added to the index.
UEM Land would have an index weight of 0.70% (vs. the outgoing PLUS which currently has an index weight of 1.74%. This implies that the change would be positive for the other constituents.
BullRun will jump start very soon. Be ready !
Japan.has started it rebuilding process. Demand will surge in aug.
US is recovering from its soft patch.
China will continue to grow with inflation rate likely to be around 5.4% this year. inflation will likely be.control by 2012 march.
China will support Europe zone with bond buying.
China has diversify its 3 trilion dollar reserve.
we like genting sp, sembcorp marine. kepcorp. singtel. DBS, UOB. OCBC. Wilmar. stxosv. noble grp. sembcorp industries. GLP. Cland and goldenagri
- Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said that the central bank is ready to supply more stimulus if the current US economy lull persists.
- IMF has called for decisive actions by Italy to cut its public debt as the country promised to strengthen its package of austerity measures.
- China’s YoY GDP growth eased to 9.5% for 2Q11, down from 9.7% in the preceding quarter.
- China’s June housing transaction increased 31% from May, defying government curbs on home purchases.
- Thailand raised interest rates for the sixth straight meeting by 0.25% to 3.25%.
- Two of Hong Kong’s largest companies Cheung Kong Holdings and Wharf Holdings raised more than S$1b from Singapore’s debt market as liquidity dried up at home.
- Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) announced that it is divesting stakes in two China breweries – Shanghai Asia Pacific Brewery Co and Jiangsu Dafuhao Breweries Co, and would stand to gain S$23.3m if the transaction goes through.
- Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co yesterday offered $1.40 per share for the entire stock of port terminal specialist Portek International (Portek) and has locked up a majority stake of 51.3% from Portek’s management.
- Transcu Group yesterday disclosed that it is facing immediate cash-flow concerns, resulting in the continued suspension of the company’s shares.
- Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said that the central bank is ready to supply more stimulus if the current US economy lull persists.
- IMF has called for decisive actions by Italy to cut its public debt as the country promised to strengthen its package of austerity measures.
- China’s YoY GDP growth eased to 9.5% for 2Q11, down from 9.7% in the preceding quarter.
- China’s June housing transaction increased 31% from May, defying government curbs on home purchases.
- Thailand raised interest rates for the sixth straight meeting by 0.25% to 3.25%.
- Two of Hong Kong’s largest companies Cheung Kong Holdings and Wharf Holdings raised more than S$1b from Singapore’s debt market as liquidity dried up at home.
- Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) announced that it is divesting stakes in two China breweries – Shanghai Asia Pacific Brewery Co and Jiangsu Dafuhao Breweries Co, and would stand to gain S$23.3m if the transaction goes through.
- Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co yesterday offered $1.40 per share for the entire stock of port terminal specialist Portek International (Portek) and has locked up a majority stake of 51.3% from Portek’s management.
- Transcu Group yesterday disclosed that it is facing immediate cash-flow concerns, resulting in the continued suspension of the company’s shares.
Macquarie is pleased to list the following new warrant this morning:
Genting Hong Kong, formerly known as Star Cruises Limited, is one of the leading global leisure, entertainment and hospitality enterprises, with a presence in cruise-related and gaming businesses. Its cruise-related business in Asia is under “Star Cruises” and in North America via its 50% stake in Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). Its gaming venture is through its 50% stake in Resorts World Manila (RWM) through the company Travellers International.
World’s 3rd largest cruise operator Star Cruises together with NCL is the 3rd largest cruise operator in the world, with a combined fleet of 18 ships, offering approximately 35,000 lower berths. Macquarie Equities Research (MER) has an Outperform rating on Genting HK, with a target price of US$0.56 based on Sum of Parts methodology. MER expects the company’s turnaround in earnings to be driven by RWM and NCL, with earnings rising from US$68mn in 2010 to US$201mn in 2012.
Click “more” for the summary of MER’s analyst report on 16th June:
RWM on course to deliver US$223m EBITDA: RWM, which is the monopoly private casino player in Philippines, is well on track to more than double its EBITDA in 2011 driven by increasing VIP and mass traffic as the property ramps up. MER believes that first quarter gross gaming revenue of US$1.5m/day should grow further once the new VIP Genting Club opens on 17 June and the new mass market hotel opens in 3Q11.
RWM available at 4x 2011E EV/EBITDA ex-cruise business: MER values GENHK’s cruise businesses (Star and Norwegian Cruise Line) at 9x 2011E EV/ EBITDA (in line with listed US cruise operators), resulting in an implied valuation for RWM of only 4.3x. Given the immense growth so far and potential of the Philippine gaming market and RWM’s monopoly positioning, MER believes the widening valuation gap between GENHK and its Macau and Singapore peers is unwarranted.
Cruise business also going strong: Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) reported robust EBITDA growth of 39% year-on-year in 1Q11 and is set to touch a record EBITDA level of US$503m in 2011, by MER’s estimates (up from US$400m in 2010). MER thinks that the robust growth should be driven by the addition of Norwegian EPIC to its fleet in 3Q10. NCL is also adding two new ships to its fleet by 2013.
Earnings growth in 2011: According to MER, GENHK earnings are set to grow by 141% year-on-year in 2011. MER expects the Star cruise business contribution to remain small (9% of GENHK earnings), with NCL (37%) and RWM (54%) as the key growth drivers.
Genting Hong Kong, formerly known as Star Cruises Limited, is one of the leading global leisure, entertainment and hospitality enterprises, with a presence in cruise-related and gaming businesses. Its cruise-related business in Asia is under “Star Cruises” and in North America via its 50% stake in Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). Its gaming venture is through its 50% stake in Resorts World Manila (RWM) through the company Travellers International.
World’s 3rd largest cruise operator Star Cruises together with NCL is the 3rd largest cruise operator in the world, with a combined fleet of 18 ships, offering approximately 35,000 lower berths.
Macquarie Equities Research (MER) has an Outperform rating on Genting HK, with a target price of US$0.56 based on Sum of Parts methodology. MER expects the company’s turnaround in earnings to be driven by RWM and NCL, with earnings rising from US$68mn in 2010 to US$201mn in 2012.
Click “more” for the summary of MER’s analyst report on 16th June:... More
Genting Hong Kong, formerly known as Star Cruises Limited, is one of the leading global leisure, entertainment and hospitality enterprises, with a presence in cruise-related and gaming businesses. Its cruise-related business in Asia is under “Star Cruises” and in North America via its 50% stake in Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). Its gaming venture is through its 50% stake in Resorts World Manila (RWM) through the company Travellers International.
World’s 3rd largest cruise operator Star Cruises together with NCL is the 3rd largest cruise operator in the world, with a combined fleet of 18 ships, offering approximately 35,000 lower berths.
Macquarie Equities Research (MER) has an Outperform rating on Genting HK, with a target price of US$0.56 based on Sum of Parts methodology. MER expects the company’s turnaround in earnings to be driven by RWM and NCL, with earnings rising from US$68mn in 2010 to US$201mn in 2012.
Click “more” for the summary of MER’s analyst report on 16th June:... More
What happened. Based on Bloomberg reports, the Thai-Tiger JV has been rejected by the Transport Ministry of Thailand, according to Thai Transport Ministry's perm-sec Supoj Saplorm. A key reason cited was due to lack of details in the Thai-Tiger proposal. What we think: Previously, the Thai-Tiger JV was impeded by political wrangling between the Transport Minister from the Bhum Jai Thai party and Prime Minister Abhisit from the Democrats. In our regional note, we saw some shreds of hope for Thai-Tiger following the watershed elections in Thailand, but also noted headwinds ahead for the venture. Tiger Australia's woes could be the main reason for the rejection. That said, we have yet to include JV assumptions in our estimates. What you should do: We believe the market should be rather neutral over this development, though we could see some knee-jerk selling in early-day trade. Tiger's future over the coming months remains enveloped in uncertainties, and we maintain our Trading Sell call. In spite of that, we could see some positives emerging from its latest woes, from a potentially stronger airline following a shake-up in management. We would stay away from Tiger for now, and revisit the stock in Oct-Nov.
I was watching at Robert Shiller's video on housing bubbles around the world. What strike me is the similarities in price rise and the subsequent bust among western countries. There were a few countries such as France where the govt intervened early to prevent a housing bubble that avoided much of the pain later. However, many other govts did not have the foresight and allowed the banks, developers and speculators to party on until the bubble burst and took the banking system down with it.
The charts above shows the 2nd bubble that occurred among countries with banking system intact after the financial crisis after the western housing bubble became deflated. If you compare the gradient of the price increase, the price increase in Singapore and Hong Kong is sharper that the price rise in all of the western countries on the left.
Late last year I met a housing agent who was promoting a new condo at the bus interchange. I was quite shock at the $1200 psf price for a condo quite far from the city. The agent said that housing prices will not drop in Singapore because more foreigners are coming. While it is true that the population expansion has lead to higher demand for housing, if you look at the chart on the right, housing prices also rose sharply in Australia and Hong Kong where there is no significant increase in population size and the govt there did not open the immigration floodgates. A second reason could be figured out from ex-Minister Mah's last set of cooling measures that include restriction on how much corporations can borrow to invest in property. Foreign speculators, both individuals and corporations looking for assets to buy in a low interest rate environment, added to the demand. There is a belief that cash rich Chinese restricted by China's property curbs, went to Hong Kong to buy causing prices there to shoot to the moon and some of the buying spilled into the Singapore housing market.
While there may be many factors associated with the current rise in property prices, there is only one factor that can hold up prices in the long term - rise in median income. Tharman has said that his goal is to increase median income by 30% in 10 years. Even if he miraculously achieve this goal in 5 years, the median income rise cannot support the current housing prices. The recent cooling measures have slowed the price increase and flatten prices in certain categories of housing. While it is hard to pin-point the peak of the market, there are downside risks that one should worry about. The high housing price has caused Singapore's competitiveness to fall as cost of living rose. The global economy does look too healthy with sovereign debt problems threatening to erupt into a new crisis ...and even if there is no severe economic crisis, inflation worries have led to govts tightening up and slowing growth.
Under the PAP govt, housing has become interlinked to retirement and a fall in housing prices will have an impact on Singaporena's ability to retire. Once prices rise too quickly, history shows there are few elegant painless solutions. We can learn fromn an earlier property bubble in 1996. The govt/MAS intervened too late and when the Asian crisis came along, the prices had a long way down to fall and that led widespread problems in the economy - at that time, Alan Greenspan still had many tricks in his bag to get the global economy out of the woods...3 rapid interest rate cuts and the global economy was back on its feet in 1999. However, we may not be so lucky the next time housing prices come down. As the cooling measures contain further gains in housing prices, this could be a market just waiting for something to happen. ....according some experts the debt levels due to property has already risen to dangerous levels:
Remember a while ago, Tharman went on CNA in a political forum with Gerald Giam and Vincent Wijeysingha plus other opposition members. When asked about the high housing cost, he said it still looked okay because the average debt servicing ratio of 28% of income is sustainable. However, if you watch the above video clip, this 28% is due purely to the articifially low interest rates we are seeing today and when interest rate rise this ratio will shoot up quickly. ...and problems can get very big very quickly.
Halimah Yacob: “unavoidable” that middle-aged degree holders end up driving taxis
December 31, 2009
Many Singapore workers who were retrenched during the global financial crisis last year are still unable to find a job which commensurate with their skills and qualifications.
Known as “under-employment”, it is becoming a major issue which NTUC will tackle in the coming year. Under-employment is said to be more common among older Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) who are the hardest hit during the economic downturn.
“He may be very qualified, very skilled, but the jobs that he wants to do and is willing to do is not available.
He ends up doing a job that does not make full capacity, productive use of his capabilities.
It also involves the case where jobs are not paying them the kind of salary or earning that they feel is commensurate with their qualifications and skills.”
Middle-aged degree-holders are hardest hit with some of them becoming taxi drivers when they lost their jobs during the economic downturn.
Madam Halimah said that this is unavoidable as with slow economic growth, job opportunities are limited.
Though the sluggish growth of the entire economy is a reason for under-employment, a key contributory factor is the relentless influx of cheap foreign workers into Singapore.
In the past, only highly qualified expats or blue collar workers are permitted to work in Singapore. In the past few years, foreign PMETs have flooded the Singapore labor market leading to intense competition with locals for jobs which can otherwise be taken up by them.
For example, IT engineers, assistant engineers and technicians are PMET positions which are now opened to foreigners leading to the stagnation of wages for Singapore workers.
Instead of encouraging companies to think of ways to increase their productivity and reduce their perennial reliance on cheap foreign labor, NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say exhorted Singapore workers to be “cheaper, faster and better.”
With the cost of living going up, especially that of public housing, transport and utility bills, many ordinary Singaporeans are feeling the squee.
There are no independent trade unions in Singapore to fight for the rights and interests of Singapore workers.
The largest umbrella trade union NTUC is a pseudo-government organization which is always headed by a PAP minister. Mr Lim Swee Say is a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office while Madam Halimah Yacob is a PAP MP.
Neither is there any opposition in parliament to check on the ruling party’s pro-foreigner policy either. Singapore PMETs have no choice but to put up with the current situation.
Even taxi-drivers are now facing stiff competition from cheaper workers from China and Vietnam.
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