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Genting M’sia reveals plans for Miami resort
KUALA LUMPUR
The project, known as Resorts World Miami, will include four hotels, two residential towers and a 3.6-acre rooftop lagoon, on land it agreed to buy from Miami Herald publisher McClatchy in May, the Kuala Lumpur-based company said.
A casino will be included if Florida’s legislature and governor approve, Genting Malaysia said.
The new Miami resort will cover 30 acres of land overlooking Biscayne Bay, comprising both the Miami Herald site and adjacent Omni Center, for which Genting Malaysia said it had acquired all outstanding mortgages. The project will also include a convention centre, nightclubs and the largest ballroom in the United States, it said.
Genting Malaysia, which has operated Malaysia’s only gaming resort on a hilltop since 1968, has been seeking opportunities to break into the US market.
Its Resorts World Casino New York City development is nearing completion on the Aqueduct Racetrack.
It is already the largest casino operator in the United Kingdom.
Genting Malaysia is 47-per cent owned by Kuala Lumpur-based Genting Bhd, which is also the parent company of Genting Singapore, which runs the Resorts World Singapore gaming resort. — Casino operator Genting Malaysia yesterday unveiled plans for its proposed US$3 billion (S$3.7 billion) bayfront resort on land currently housing the Miami Herald Media’s headquarters.
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How the Internet destroyed the market
Digital piracy, greedy tech firms are crushing the life and innovation out of films, music, newspapers
As pressure builds to enforce copyright law online, technology companies and the activists they support have started to argue that any attempt to block pirate sites will ‘break the Internet’.
The truth is that the Internet is broken already:
It is simply too chaotic to provide the infrastructure for a 21st-century economy.
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Indonesia declines Singapore help to tackle haze
JAKARTA
Mr Arif Yuwono, the Deputy Minister of Environmental Degradation Control and Climate Change, told
SINGAPORE nEEds
tO tEll INDONESIA
tO pIss Of the fIre
and pAy cOmpensAtIOn to SINGAPOREANS
dO SINGAPOREANS nEEd
tO beAr wIth the HAZE
UntIl sIck and deAth ? ? ? ? — The Indonesian government has declined help from Singapore on tackling the haze situation and said it was capable of resolving the matter on its own.Jakarta Globe that the situation was under control although heavy haze continues to blanket parts of western Indonesia.
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Malaysia to repeal ISA
TRUE DEMOCRACY
No individual will ever be detained simply due to political ideology.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak
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Soulmates Down Under, in a world of weak leaders
As United States President Barrack Obama meets Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard in November, it will be hard not to wonder about the weak leadership imperilling not only their economies, but also the world at large.
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More disclosure, please, for property purchases
Letter from Jensen Chong
I RECENTLY became a proud home owner and, as a foreigner, I am used to a certain level of detail in sales and purchase contracts.
But property developers here do not seem to share the same practices as in neighbouring countries.
The most notable difference is the lack of dimension measurements in the layout of my condominium unit. This makes it difficult to estimate the size of each room or to verify, upon completion, that my unit was within the agreed size.
While the overall unit size was provided, this led me to feel that developers can manipulate the sizes in the floor plan. For example, making the air-con area a lot bigger than that in drawings.
Also, the estimated temporary occupation permit date is two years later than what the property agent estimated, which leaves no room to protect home owners in the event of a delay in completion.
Are these common practices in Singapore?
How are home owners protected as consumers when it comes to buying property?
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Let us keep our spouses by our sides
Letter from Aik Theng Chong
I REFER to the article “Without migration of some magnitude, Singapore’s population will decline, says IPS” (Sept 8) on the Institute of Policy Studies finding that up to 60,000 migrants a year may be needed to keep Singapore economically active.
Before we need to even consider such numbers, can we not first welcome foreign spouses of all Singaporeans?
It was disclosed in Parliament in May last year that on average, 6,700 foreign spouses of Singaporeans were denied long-term visit passes or permanent residency per year from 2005 to 2009.
Other than for reasons of national security, why do we reject Singaporeans’ foreign spouses?
The rejection of such PR applications makes it harder for the spouse to contribute financially and for the family to afford public housing.
Would this be fair to the children, the same young ones Singapore is trying hard to increase in number?
We should abandon this form of social engineering, which places less educated and/or lower-income individuals at a disadvantage, indirectly discouraging and limiting their right to have a lifetime partner of their preference.
OVERHEARD :
Less Educated ones support OppOsItION ? ? ? ?
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Population projections show us the choices
Letter from Ng Ya Ken
I REFER to the letter “Our population can’t keep rising” (Sept 14).
Projections made under different assumptions give us a quantitative idea of the possible results if certain actions are taken under certain circumstances. With these projections, we then choose what actions to take to achieve a desired result.
The population projections by the Institute of Policy Studies showed that, with an ageing population, increasing numbers of immigrants would be needed to sustain acceptable support ratios in the future.
If we do not accept these scenarios, then we have to contemplate the alternatives.
We could aim for three or four children per married couple, slow down economic growth to 2 per cent, raise productivity by working harder or longer, cut down nonessential consumption to save labour, boost self-help community services or downplay our role in international business, sports, culture and politics.
Instead of maintaining our status as a vibrant and modern city, we slow down the pace of life and cut down our expectations. We do not have to be the cleanest city or have the best airport in the world.
We do not have to promote Singapore as a tourist spot.
We shall not worry if our international standing drops or if we are not so attractive to foreign investments due to shortage of manpower and world-class facilities.
When the support ratio drops — which means fewer working persons per elderly — we could raise taxes or borrow money to finance public expenditure, like Japan had been doing all these years. Also, we could use our reserves.
Five years ago, the population parameter used for planning land use for the next 30 to 40 years was raised to 6.5 million.
Let us revert to the original 5.5 million and plan for fewer roads, schools, hospitals, houses, factories and shops, if we agree to have that as our maximum population.
Personally, I prefer to live in the Singapore of the mid-’80s.
But I know we cannot forever remain in the ’80s or ’90s. No country in the world could, without being sidelined.
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Why private banks are struggling
KEVIN BROWN
Specific numbers for individual businesses are hard to find because most wealth managers in Asia are privately owned or subsidiaries of larger banks. But data in confidential industry surveys provide a proxy for the sector as a whole.
BCG puts last year’s costs at 81 per cent of revenues, up from 57 per cent in 2007.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, in yet another survey, says it is likely to hit 90 per cent this year compared with 70 per cent in Switzerland.
“If your cost/income ratio is 90 per cent, you cannot be making any money,” says PwC’s Asia-Pacific private banking leader Justin Ong. Of course, this is an average.
Some banks will be doing better, others worse. But it illustrates the scale of a series of industry problems.
First, competition is intense. As growth in Europe has slowed, many banks have opened or expanded wealth management operations in Asia, keen to tap the local market and retain European clients by offering the Asian exposure many demand.
Switzerland’s Julius Baer, Lombard Odier, BSI and Clariden Leu are among these banks, along with Barclays Wealth and Standard Chartered of the UK, and Rothschild, the European bank. Banks that might have closed have been rescued, such as the Asian private bank of ING, acquired by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation after a fight with HSBC.
Second, many banks are finding it hard to squeeze revenues out of Asian clients, who tend to be savvy first- or second-generation entrepreneurs, used to making their own decisions. Many are unwilling to buy the banks’ preferred model of discretionary portfolio management, where a manager invests the customers’ money for an annual percentage fee.
That pushes the banks towards overreliance on transaction fees, which makes it hard to sustain revenues when markets are volatile or falling. Clients’ trust is also damaged by attempts to push them towards complex high-margin products.
RISING COSTS
Third, the banks are being squeezed by rising costs. One chief executive says remuneration for relationship managers, who deal directly with clients, has more than doubled in less than a decade. A shortage of talent means relationship managers are often poached from other banks, inflating salaries. But the business they bring in has fallen to 30 per cent of the assets they manage from 80 per cent 20 years ago.
Regulatory costs have surged since the financial crisis. Product compliance requirements are tougher in the wake of mis-selling scandals, and anti-money laundering regulations are tightly enforced.
Impending implementation of the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which will force foreign banks to police accounts held by US citizens, is causing significant concern.
There is a lot the banks can do. A prime candidate for cost-cutting is the back office, where a lot of work could be automated.
PwC found that a fifth of Asian banks were capable of totally automated processing of some 80 per cent of non-complex equity trades, compared with almost two-thirds in Switzerland.
The second is to get a grip on the cost and quality of key staff. Very few relationship managers have advanced financial qualifications, and more than half have less than five years’ experience. Bonus systems encourage many to chase transaction income rather than build long-term relationships with clients. Hiring more financial graduates and linking pay to long-term performance would help build trust and cut costs.
Some banks are tackling these issues.
But insiders think many top executives are blinded by forecast revenue growth. “Everyone wants a piece of the pie, especially the European banks, which have to diversify out of their own markets,” says a senior banker with experience in Singapore and Hong Kong.
“But there are too many private banks here now.
Eventually, some will have to close down.”
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
Kevin Brown is Asia regional correspondent at The Financial Times.
Many banks are finding it hard to squeeze revenues out of Asian clients, who tend to be savvy first- or second generation entrepreneurs, used to making their own decisions. Many are unwilling to buy the banks’ preferred model where a manager invests the customers’ money for an annual percentage fee.
Despite the rich pickings in Asia, competition is intense and the costs mounting
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One of the participants asked Mr Lee how Singapore can do better in population policy now that the country is facing an ageing population after the stop-at-two children policy.
Mr Lee said the policy had “nothing to do with what’s happened”. He noted ageing populations are seen in developed countries where women are educated and “do not see their future just bearers of children”.
“So the solution is immigration ... and as we age, and there are not enough young people to look after the old, then maybe the population will be receptive to taking in more immigrants,” Mr Lee said, and added Singapore could add about 20,000 to 25,000 immigrants annually to grow the population.
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Two-party system not good for Singapore, says Lee Kuan Yew
Ong Dai Lin
dailin@mediacorp.com.sg
Speaking at a forum during the 7th anniversary celebrations of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy yesterday, Mr Lee felt a two–party system will not be good for Singapore.
Mr Lee, who was Prime Minister for more than three decades, said that he had “simpler problems” to tackle when he was in charge of the Government. “We are in the First World and many highly-educated people believe we must have more competition, more pressure on the government,” he said.
“A generation that grows up in a period of affluence believes that we have arrived and as the saying goes the ‘First World Parliament’ must have a ‘First World Opposition’.
“So the restlessness, whether that leads to better governance, I am not able to say.
Mr Lee addressed a broad range of topics during yesterday’s 50-minute long dialogue.
They included how the European debt crisis would evolve to addressing widening income gaps. He said Singapore has no plans to buy bonds from European countries facing a debt crisis, and felt Europe’s monetary union will eventually break apart into two or three separate tiers because of economic differences among the member states.
EURO wIll be deAd ? ? ? ? SINGAPORE — The opposition should remain “competitive” in Singapore’s political landscape but former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew doubts if the country will be able to sustain a two-party political system.
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The US dollar rose as high as S$1.2517, its highest level since May 25, from S$1.2404 late in New York. The rise tracked a stronger dollar against other
Asian currencies yesterday.
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European countries are facing sovereign debt problems.
We’ve said countless times that China is willing o give a helping hand and we’ll continue to invest there.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
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Put houses in order, China urges euro zone leaders
DALIAN — China remains willing to invest in Europe but wants rich economies to show they are serious about tackling debt, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (picture) said yesterday, sending the troubled euro zone a mix of reassurances and demands from the world’s biggest foreign exchange holder.
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| DJ MARKET TALK: S'pore Shares Likely To Open Higher, Gains Limited |
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0054 GMT [Dow Jones] Singapore shares are likely to rise at the open following the relief rally on Wall Street Wednesday but are likely to pull back towards the end of the session.
" I think the market will open stronger because of short covering... but there has been no real change in the global macro outlook," an analyst at a local brokerage says.
He expects the STI to find medium-term support at the 2650 level, which it fell to during the onset of the eurozone's problems last year.
Resistance is likely to be around the 2780 level.
Stocks in focus today include Frasers Centrepoint Trust (J69U.SG) after its private placement.
Commodities plays such as Wilmar International (F34.SG), Olam International (O32.SG) and Golden Agri-Resources (E5H.SG) are also likely to continue to be the main directional leaders for the STI on swings in the global economic outlook. (samuel.holmes@dowjones.com)
Contact us in Singapore. 65 64154 140 MarketTalk@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 14, 2011 20:54 ET (00:54 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. |
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ENLIGHTENMENT
iPunter ( Date: 13-Sep-2011 20:31) Posted:
Even after the pipe is repaired,
the smell will linger on for a long time.
During the stink session, sub-atomic particles of the sewer
suspended in the air will settle on surfaces and be attached,
or is fused with the items. Hence the lingering aroma... 
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13/09/2011
Nude no problem if price is right: Kim Lee
The best thing to come out of colonial French Indochina tops FHM’s 100 Sexiest as a new entrant
Text & Photos: Tan Thiam Peng
Video: Teng Siew Eng
It's not difficult to see why Kim Lee's numero uno when you meet her.
Voted to the summit of this year's FHM 100 Sexiest Women In The World, Kim's a portrait of hotness - her curves almost an artwork - that probably can tame all men and shame all women.
Her assets are in such overkill, even prompting 987 deejays The Muttons, hosts at the FHM party last Friday, to confess their struggle of taking their eyes off her " trophies" , while presenting the actress-model with a trophy.
Trust me, they weren't alone at a St James Power Station's Powerhouse brimming with men, whose calling card of the day seemed to be the gape.
Flown in from Los Angeles for her coronation party, Kim Lee, the cover girl for January's FHM, gave xinmsn an exclusive lesson on the definition of sexy and teaser on why fans might get to see more of her in time to come.
" Depends on how much the deal is! (Laughs)," was the 23-year-old's semi-measured answer to suggestions of stripping down for a film. Kim recently scored a cameo in The Hangover Part II, sequel to the hit misadventure comedy.
But doing it for a magazine isn't part of her plans, at least for now.
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Point of view
All this talk about immigration serves to obscure the issue of productivity, which is a crucial part of the solution and which the Institute of Policy Studies should focus on instead of an old chestnut.
Chan Chi Yung
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Our population can’t keep rising
Letter from Tham Su-yin
I REFER to the study reported in “Without migration of some magnitude, Singapore’s population will decline, says IPS” (Sept 8).
With a low birth rate and longer life expectancy, it is obvious Singapore’s population is ageing.
This situation is faced by many developed countries, and it is easy to see that if we can raise the number of young people by migration or by birth, we will have more working people to support the elderly who are living longer due to better medical science.
I am not against immigration, as migrants have made positive contributions to Singapore. However, I am concerned that Singapore views it necessary to have ever more young people to look after the elderly.
This view is ecologically unsustainable, for the ever more young people will eventually grow old and will need yet more people to support them. This benefits only the present generation at the expense of the next.
We cannot increase our population indefinitely.
Resources such as food, water and land are finite.
Only non-physical things such as respect, spiritual growth, knowledge, health and quality of relationships can increase in a physically finite world.
Our census shows that Singapore’s total population has grown from 2.07 million in 1970 to 5.08 million last year.
As world population hits 7 billion this year and possibly 9 billion in time, and people in Singapore already complaining of overcrowding and congestion, I hope our leaders will look at ways to manage a stable population and make ageing affordable instead.
Longer, healthier lives mean we can work longer.
With more flexible job arrangements, more jobs can be done by older workers.
Given training and support, the fit old can care for the infirm older.
It is unwise to think we can continue adding more people into Singapore and, of course, the world.
As former United States President John F Kennedy’s environmental adviser Kenneth Boulding said 45 years ago:
“Anyone who believes in indefinite growth of anything physical on a physically finite planet is either a madman or an economist.”
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Making way for more roads not the solution
Letter from Goh Si Guim
I REFER to the article “New dual fourlane road in Bukit Brown to ease heavy traffic” (Sept 13).
I am dismayed that more land will be mowed down to accommodate the relentless and unsustainable car population growth in Singapore.
Bukit Brown was earmarked as a land bank for future housing development.
Unfortunately, an ugly stab will be made into its tranquillity as yet another stretch of land, large enough to provide eight lanes, would be conceded to vehicular traffic.
Many cars on the road end up carrying only one occupant and, hence, are not efficiently utilised. Instead, they take up land space and spew tons of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
With the expansion of the rail network, it is time to relook the current disincentives to curb car usage.
The measures taken to cope with car numbers in recent decades, such as Electronic Road Pricing, are nowhere successful thus far.
[Due to deSIRE to reap huge profits from COE, ERP, IMPORT DUTY, ROAD TAX, INSURANCE PREMIUM, GST ]
More persuasive action is needed to nudge more people to use the rail system, which is touted to be one of the best in the world but has still been found wanting. I hope that when the entire system is operational, the current undesirable conditions would ease.
As we have done in many other areas, let us lead the world in caring for our environment, such as by doing away with cars as much as possible and fully utilising the rail network.
In a small dot like Singapore, we can do better when we set a common goal.
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