The Wall Street Journal Asia - October 18 2012, Literatura, Gazety, Magazyny
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OPINION:
Liao Yiwu
Calls for a
China Split
Page 15
Despite Glut, Hoteliers
Keep Building in China
BUSINESS&FINANCE
Page 20
ASIA EDITION
VOL. XXXVII NO. 34
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012
Candidates
Trade Barbs
In Rematch
U.S. President Barack
Obama, seeking to regain mo-
mentum in his campaign, bat-
tled with former Massachu-
setts Gov. Mitt Romney
during a tense and highly an-
ticipated rematch Tuesday
marked by repeated confron-
tations.
BlocSeeks
ToLimit
Bailout
ForSpain
B
Y
M
ATTHEW
D
ALTON
BRUSSELS—Euro-zone
governments are hoping to
earmark significantly less
than €100 billion ($131 billion)
from their bailout fund for
the Spanish government when
it makes an expected request
for financing help, senior
euro-zone officials said.
Instead, most of the fire-
power for driving down the
Spanish government’s bor-
rowing costs would come
from the European Central
Bank through its unlimited
ability to buy bonds, officials
said.
They expect that the ECB
would agree to start its bond-
buying plan with modest fi-
nancing from the bailout
fund, provided that Spain
signs up for an ambitious pro-
gram of economic policy over-
hauls that could include
changes to the country’s labor
market and new controls on
Please turn to page 18
supporters to be more aggres-
sive after his lethargic per-
formance in the first one on
Oct. 3, began attacking Mr.
Romney less than four min-
utes into the debate, noting
his opposition to the federal
auto bailout. “Gov. Romney
says he’s got a five-point
plan.…He has a one-point
plan,” Mr. Obama said of Mr.
Romney’s economic agenda.
“And that plan is to make sure
that folks at the top play by a
different set of rules.”
Mr. Romney distilled his
argument against the presi-
dent to a simple theme: The
country can’t afford four
more years under Mr. Obama.
“If you were to elect President
Obama, you know what you’re
going to get—you’re going to
get a repeat of the last four
years,” he said. “The middle
class is getting crushed under
the policies of a president
who has not understood what
it takes to get the economy
working again.” He later
added, “The president has
tried, but his policies haven’t
Former Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama sparred in their second debate.
By
Carol E. Lee
,
Janet Hook
worked.”
The candidates fielded a
range of questions from unde-
cided voters, selected by the
Gallup Organization polling
company, in a 90-minute de-
bate at Hofstra University on
New York’s Long Island.
Mr. Obama took on Mr.
Romney’s positions on taxes,
trade, energy and women’s
health issues in an attempt to
cast him as more conservative
than the GOP candidate has
suggested in recent days. He
also noted the former gover-
nor’s 14% effective tax rate
and, in response to repeated
questions from Mr. Romney
about whether he had looked
at his pension, he said, “I
don’t look at my pension. It’s
not as big as yours.”
While the first debate was
a clear win for Mr. Romney,
the second was far more
mixed. Matthew Latimer, a
former speechwriter to
George W. Bush, called it
“very aggressive on both
sides” and said the constant
interruptions could turn off
some voters, especially the
dwindling number of those
who remain undecided. “Vot-
ers always say they want can-
didates who don’t squabble.
And there was a lot of squab-
bling.” Mr. Latimer said he
thought the questions picked
seemed to favor the presi-
dent.
“I’ve not found it inspir-
ing,” said Tim Shriver, chair-
man and CEO of Special Olym-
pics, and nephew of former
President John F. Kennedy. “It
feels like a boxing match with
attempted knockdowns rather
than political rhetoric with an
Please turn to page 16
and
Patrick O’Connor
Just three weeks before
the election, Messrs. Obama
and Romney disbanded the
debate’s town hall-style for-
mat in offering competing
plans for creating jobs, ex-
panding energy production
and taxes.
In contrast to their first
debate, they repeatedly inter-
rupted each other, accused
each other of lying and ap-
pealed to the moderator for
more time. Tension was evi-
dent as they paced toward
each other and pointed.
Mr. Obama, who was un-
der intense pressure from
China turns into a punching
bag for the contenders........ 17
Capital Journal: Changing the
campaign’s arc again........... 17
Squabbles viewed as turnoff
for the undecided.................... 17
Greece’s prime minister gets
a boost from his rival............. 7
EU summit is highlighting
the bloc’s financial divide.......8
Chinese Super League
Teams With U.S. Firm
IMG Worldwide
Inc. has
signed a deal to manage
China’s top soccer league,
highlighting the sports and
entertainment conglomerate’s
growing influence in the
wo
rld’s largest country.
Inside
ate the country’s first profes-
sional league, the Jia-A
League, in the early 1990s,
but the two entities parted
ways in 2003 when the league
turned to another company.
During the past decade,
however, Chinese soccer has
been racked with charges of
bribery and corruption, with
dozens of officials sent to jail.
The prosecutions sent a mes-
sage that having a respected
soccer league is a priority for
Chinese athletics. Several for-
mer leaders of the country’s
respected aquatics federation
have been reassigned to over-
see the Chinese Football Asso-
ciation.
Also, a new generation of
Chinese billionaires has taken
over the 16-team Chinese Su-
per League and has begun to
import some of the biggest
stars in the world. Last year
Argentinean player Dario
Conca, one of the top players
in the Brazilian league, joined
Guangzhou Evergrande, and
French star Nicolas Anelka
joined Shanghai Shenhua.
Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba
this year also joined the
Shanghai club, just weeks af-
ter helping Chelsea win the
European Football Champion-
ship.
Mr. Drogba’s move sig-
naled China’s emergence as a
growing force in international
soccer.
“The Drogba signing was
transformational,” said Jeffer-
son Slack, IMG’s senior vice
Please turn to page 18
China’s developers are
moving to serve the
low-end housing
market’s surging
demand, even as the
government cools the
luxury-home sector.
Business..................19
Matthew
Futterman
in New York and
Paul Mozur
By
in Beijing
The 10-year deal gives
IMG’s joint venture in China,
CCTV-IMG, a stake in the Chi-
nese Football Association Su-
per League and marks the
company’s return to a leader-
ship position in one of China’s
most popular sports.
IMG, which is based in
New York, helped China cre-
The arrests of two U.S.
Navy sailors in Japan
push diplomats to act.
Asia News.................3
2
| Thursday, October 18, 2012
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
PAGE TWO
What’s News—
Inside
World News:
Suspect
in Libya attack
remains at large.
6
Life & Style:
Taking
cross-training to
extremes.
11
Shinzo Abe, center, leader of Japan’s main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Wednesday. Mr. Abe’s visit to the war
shrine risks causing further friction with neighboring countries. Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals are honored there along with other war dead.
iii
Business & Finance
iii
World-Wide
the opposition who see the mea-
sure as a time-buying strategy to
avert an early election.
3
n
Nike terminated
its contract
with cycling’s Lance Armstrong
over doping allegations.
23
n
Indonesia defended
its business
reputation, saying that the battle
over the fate of London-listed
Bumi and its mining assets isn’t
likely to discourage investment.
19
n
South Korea detained
23 Chi-
nese fishermen following the
death of a crew member, in the
latest of a series of violent clashes
between the coast guard and Chi-
nese fishing fleets.
4
n
The Bank of Thailand cut
its
policy interest rate by a quarter of
a percentage point in a surprise
move, as weakening demand from
the West and China hits export-
oriented Asian economies.
5
n
Li Ning is selling
25% of the
company to sports-talent firm
Viva China.
18
n
China Cosco
and rival China
Shipping agreed to operate major
domestic routes jointly amid the
global downturn, fueling merger
speculation.
22
n
Bank of America’s
third-quarter
profit tumbled amid charges tied
to litigation over its acquisition of
Merrill Lynch, U.K. taxes and ac-
counting adjustments.
19
n
A teenage Pakistani girl
shot in
the head by the Taliban for pro-
moting girls’ education has re-
sponded well to treatment, the
British hospital where she is being
treated said.
n
Singapore’s exports fell
unex-
pectedly for the second straight
month as the decline in electronics
shipments accelerated.
5
Corporate News:
Airlines explore paths
less beaten.
22
n
Cable & Wireless is in talks
to
sell its 51% stake in a Macau tele-
com operator to a subsidiary of
Chinese conglomerate Citic Pacific
for around $800 million.
23
n
BP is near a pact
to sell its 50%
stake in Russian venture TNK-BP
to Rosneft for about $25 billion.
21
n
Chinese Premier Wen said
China’s economy was in relatively
good shape in the third quarter.
4
n
Hong Kong’s antigraft body
charged former Development Min-
ister Mak Chai-kwong and a cur-
rent official in the Highways De-
partment with conspiracy to
defraud the government.
4
n
Japanese Prime Minister
Noda
ordered his cabinet to draft an
economic-stimulus package, in a
move likely to further antagonize
n
Nine Entertainment’s
lenders
agreed to a multibillion-dollar
debt restructuring.
20
n
Crédit Agricole said
it would
sell its Greek banking arm Empo-
riki to Alpha Bank for $1.31.
27
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Thursday, October 18, 2012 |
3
WORLD NEWS: ASIA
Okinawa Arrests U.S. Sailors
B
Y
Y
UKA
H
AYASHI
military personnel and equipment
on Okinawa. The allegations are
likely to exacerbate local opposition
to the American military presence
on the island. Okinawa hosts the
bulk of U.S. troops in Japan despite
decades of local opposition.
For many in Japan, the attack
was a reminder of the rape of a 12-
year-old Japanese girl by three
American servicemen in 1995, an at-
tack that set off the largest anti-U.S.
base protests in recent decades. The
demonstrations forced Washington
and Tokyo to initiate a wide-ranging
plan to reduce the military footprint
on the small island, a complex pro-
cess that is still going on.
As a sign of U.S. concern about
the incident, and possible fallout,
the U.S. Embassy issued a statement
by Mr. Roos at 1:28 a.m. local time
Wednesday. Later, the ambassador
met with a senior foreign-ministry
official and Gov. Nakaima, who was
already in Tokyo this week to dis-
cuss broader steps to reduce the
U.S. military presence on the island.
“I do understand the anger that
many people feel,” Mr. Roos told re-
porters. “The United States govern-
ment, including our military, would
cooperate in any way possible and
in any way asked of us in order to
get to the bottom of this matter in
coming days and coming months.”
Jon Nylander, a U.S. Navy spokes-
man, said the sailors, who were off
duty at the time of the alleged rape,
haven’t been assigned lawyers. He
added the Japanese side is expected
to provide them with lawyers, indi-
cating the Navy would leave to the
Japanese authorities the investiga-
tions and legal procedures.
The arrests came at an especially
difficult time for the two govern-
ments. Japan is trying to build up its
military presence in its southwestern
seas with the help of U.S. troops in
response to a territorial dispute with
China over a group of uninhabited
East China Sea islands. The disputed
islands, known as the Senkaku in Ja-
pan and the Diaoyu in China, are con-
sidered part of Okinawa by Japan,
which administers them. Okinawa is
a critical regional hub for the U.S., as
it shifts its defense focus to the
Western Pacific to counter China’s
growing naval presence in the region.
Local opposition to the U.S. mili-
tary presence has strengthened
again in recent months amid the de-
ployment of a new generation of
Marines air transporter known as
the Osprey. Huge rallies have taken
place on Okinawa recently, including
one in September that attracted
tens of thousands of participants.
Among incidents sparking local an-
ger in recent years are the assault of
a middle schoolgirl in 2008 and an
attack on a local women by a junior
Marine officer in August this year.
“We do experience various types
of crimes but I can’t even express
how much anxiety and shock our
people here experience when we
face violence against women,” said
Susumu Matayoshi, a top aide to
Gov. Nakaima who is in charge of
base affairs. “I can assure you this
will cause many Okinawans—not
just activists—to question the very
existence of the bases here.”
—Julian E. Barnes in Washington
contributed to this article.
U.S. and Japanese officials
moved swiftly to limit potential
damage to their bilateral defense re-
lations Wednesday after two U.S.
Navy sailors were arrested on suspi-
cion of raping a local woman.
Japanese police arrested the two
sailors after a 27-year-old Okinawan
woman reported being attacked
early Tuesday in a parking lot near
her home as she returned from
work. She told police the assault
lasted for 45 minutes, during which
she suffered a minor neck injury.
U.S. Ambassador John Roos met
with top Japanese officials and
promised “full, complete and un-
equivocal cooperation” with Japa-
nese authorities in their inquiry.
Japanese media said charges
could be filed against the men as
soon as Wednesday evening. A po-
lice official said both men were sus-
pected of assaulting the woman.
Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima
described the alleged attack as
“madness,” and officials in Tokyo
expressed their own protests, saying
they would work closely with Wash-
ington to prevent further occur-
rences of such cases.
“This is an extremely heinous
and despicable case,” said Japanese
Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto.
“After a similar incident in Okinawa
in August, the U.S. military had just
promised preventative efforts. It is
very regrettable the latest case hap-
pened despite such a promise.”
U.S.-Japanese military relations
have been tested in recent weeks by
controversy over the deployment of
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, left, met with his cabinet ministers Wednesday.
Noda Orders
Cabinet to Seek
Stimulus Steps
B
Y
T
OKO
S
EKIGUCHI
“Funding is tight, so the plan is
just window-dressing,” said SMBC
Nikko Securities bond strategist
Mari Iwashita, adding that the mar-
ket will be focused on whether Mr.
Noda will be able to enact the bond-
issuance bill.
The bill to finance some 40% of
the budget for this fiscal year, which
began in April, has yet to pass par-
liament due to gridlock between the
Democratic Party of Japan-led gov-
ernment and opposition parties. If
the bill isn’t enacted by the end of
November, the government has said
it will run out of cash and will have
to halt spending originally allotted
in the budget, putting a stop to ad-
ditional spending.
“Passage of a deficit-funding bill
is absolutely necessary to imple-
ment economic-stimulus measures,”
Finance Minister Koriki Jojima told
reporters. “Passage of the bill with
support of the opposition must pre-
cede everything else.”
With the opposition controlling
one of the two chambers of parlia-
ment, their endorsement is essential
for the bill’s passage, but the main
opposition Liberal Democratic Party
is demanding that Mr. Noda promise
an election by the end of December
in exchange for agreeing to the bill.
The prime minister has refused,
and the standoff has the parties un-
able to decide on even the start of
the extraordinary parliamentary
session, which needs to be held to
debate the bond bill.
Opposition leaders charged that
Mr. Noda is trying to delay a snap
election by using time to compile
the latest stimulus package.
“This isn’t an economic-boosting
measure, it’s a measure to delay the
dissolution of parliament,” Masa-
hiko Komura, the LDP’s vice presi-
dent, told reporters.
“The best way to prop up the
economy is to hold an election and
set up a new government backed by
the people,” Mr. Komura said.
No general election needs to be
held until next summer, but the LDP
is calling for early polls, seeing that
they are ahead of the ruling DPJ in
voter support ratings.
—Mitsuru Obe
and Eleanor Warnock
contributed to this article.
TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minis-
ter Yoshihiko Noda ordered his cabi-
net to draft an economic stimulus
package Wednesday, in a move
likely to further antagonize the op-
position who see the measure as a
time-buying strategy by Mr. Noda to
avert an early election.
The spending steps will be fi-
nanced by reserve funds from the
budget rather than new government
borrowing, reflecting the dire condi-
tion of Japan’s finances.
But that will mean that unless
the ruling and opposition parties
manage to agree to a much-belated
passage of a bond-issuance bill to fi-
nance the budget, the new spending
will have little chance of being im-
plemented.
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YOU ONLY TRUST THE CHRONOMETRIC PRECISION
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WORLD’S BEST CHRONOGRAPH
."
The main opposition
party is demanding that
Noda promise an election
by end-December in
exchange for agreeing to
a deficit-funding bill.
“Given the weakened economy
and possibility of additional down-
ward risks, the measures will ad-
dress the need to end deflation and
accelerate the economy,” Chief Cabi-
net Secretary Osamu Fujimura told
a news conference, without giving
out details on the size or the spe-
cific scope of the measures.
Mr. Noda had maintained that he
would mobilize public spending as a
pump-priming measure with Japan’s
economy dragged down by the
strong yen, slowing global growth
and fallout from its diplomatic row
with China over disputed territories.
He also needs the economy to be
in better shape as a condition for
the implementation of his flagship
sales-tax increase planned from
April 2014.
Financial-market participants
largely shrugged off the package,
citing the vagueness of the an-
nouncement and skepticism over
whether it can ever be implemented.
CHRONOMAT
BREITLING.COM
4
| Thursday, October 18, 2012
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
WORLD NEWS: ASIA
South Korea Detains 23
After Deadly Sea Clash
China’s Wen Sees
Economy Stabilizing
BEIJING—Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao said the nation’s economy
was in relatively good shape in the
third quarter and he is confident
that full-year economic targets will
be reached.
In a statement posted on the
central government website
Wednesday, Mr. Wen also said the
key objective in the final quarter
would be to ensure that measures
already in place had their desired
effect, suggesting that no fresh pol-
icy tools would be used until that
was done.
“I’m now confident that eco-
nomic growth is stabilizing,” he
said. “With various policy measures
being implemented, the Chinese
economy will likely continue to sta-
bilize.”
Mr. Wen’s comments were made
during a series of meetings with in-
dustry executives and economists
on Oct. 12-15. But they were re-
leased just ahead of a news brief-
ing scheduled for Thursday in
which third-quarter economic data
will be disclosed.
China’s second-quarter eco-
nomic growth was a disappointing
7.6% year-to-year, the slowest pace
of growth in more than three years.
Economists have said they expect
the quarter’s growth to be even
worse, though they generally be-
lieve China will be able to reach its
full-year growth target of 7.5%.
Premier Wen noted that the
government has already put a num-
ber of policies in effect to aid the
economy, noting that some have
not been fully implemented. “We
have to examine how effectively
these are working,” he said.
Beijing has already speeded up
approvals for infrastructure proj-
ects, reduced a number of fees on
business, and offered tax breaks
and incentives to consumers to en-
courage spending.
Mr. Wen also noted a priority is
boosting trade and expanding do-
mestic consumption.
Export growth was a surpris-
ingly robust 9.9% year-to-year in
September, well above economists’
estimates of about 5% and a 2.7%
rise in August. But import growth
in the month was a less-than-stel-
lar 2.4%, after a drop of 2.6% in Au-
gust, pointing to weak domestic de-
mand.
B
Y
K
WANWOO
J
UN
SEOUL—South Korea detained 23
Chinese fishermen Wednesday fol-
lowing the death of a member of the
crew a day earlier, in the latest of a
series of violent clashes between the
South Korean coast guard and Chi-
nese fishing fleets seeking catches in
disputed waters in the Yellow Sea.
The 44-year-old Chinese fisher-
man died after being hit by a rubber
bullet while resisting the seizure of
his boat, coast guard officials said.
Confrontations between heavily
armed Chinese fishing boats and the
South Korean coast guard are com-
mon, particularly during the peak
fishing season toward the end of
each year. In December 2011, a South
Korean coast guard official died
from stab wounds following a strug-
gle with a Chinese fisherman.
In December 2010, a Chinese boat
overturned after ramming a South
Korean coast guard vessel. Two Chi-
nese crewmen drowned. In Septem-
ber 2008, a South Korean coast
guard member drowned in another
incident.
Beijing disputes areas that Seoul
considers to be its exclusive eco-
nomic zone off the west coast of the
Korean peninsula.
“China has requested that South
Korea launch a fair and responsible
China’s second-quarter
economic growth was a
disappointing 7.6%
on-year, the slowest pace
of growth in more than
three years.
Chinese sailors are escorted after their boat was seized for illegal fishing.
investigation and thoroughly investi-
gate the reason for the incident and
punish relevant personnel,” Chinese
foreign ministry spokesman Hong
Lei said at a regular news briefing
on Wednesday.
The coast guard seized two 100-
ton Chinese fishing boats and their
crew after the raid by 16 coast guard
commandos, a coast guard spokes-
man said. The fishermen are under-
going questioning.
The spokesman said the fisher-
men wielded knives, saws, spears,
shovels and axes in resisting the
coast guard after being spotted fish-
ing illegally off Hongdo, an island off
South Korea’s west coast.
Chinese fishermen and their
seized boats are typically released
after paying fines and serving jail
terms in South Korea.
The Korea Coast Guard said it
had seized a total of 123 Chinese
boats for illegal fishing in the first
nine months of this year.
—Wayne Ma
contributed to this article.
The premier also said the steel
sector is still struggling with over-
capacity.
He added that property con-
trols, now in place for more than
two years, have shown marked re-
sults and authorities must keep
them in place.
China has slapped curbs on
home purchases as well as bank
credits to developers in a campaign
to keep property prices from spi-
raling higher. Those controls have
contributed to slower growth, how-
ever, and there has been consider-
able pressure on Beijing to abandon
or water them down.
—William Kazer and Liyan Qi
Newly Upgraded Alto Is No Poor Man’s Car
and, although sales have
recovered in recent months, it
remains far behind the Alto. The
Nano’s sales have suffered due to
production delays and distribution
problems, but senior management
has also acknowledged that the
image of the car as cheap hurt the
brand’s potential.
While Tata’s Nano has
overcome some of its earlier
hiccups, its image as a cheap car
has continued to rankle Ratan
Tata, the company’s chairman.
Last month, Tata Motors sold
only about a quarter of Alto sales.
In January, Mr. Tata conceded
the car’s bargain-basement image
has hurt sales, but he denied this
was a problem of the company’s
making.
Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors
have often advertised their
products differently. While a
number of Nano ads positioned
the car as a step up from driving
a scooter or a motorcycle, Alto
ads showed a romantic couple
enjoying a drive. Maruti’s existing
network of dealerships, its
already-strong brand and a
reputation for economical mileage
also helped sales.
—Prasenjit Bhattacharya
and Santanu Choudhury
Hong Kong Antigraft Body
Charges Former Minister
Indians React to Pandit’s Exit
News of Vikram Pandit’s
resignation as chief executive of
Citigroup
Inc. came as much as a
shock to his fellow Indians as it
did to Wall Street.
Mr. Pandit became one of the
most prominent Indians in the
financial world when he was
appointed chief executive of the
banking giant in December 2007.
In India, where Mr. Pandit was
born, many have followed his
career and taken pride in his rise.
Some Indians said his stepping
down was a loss for Citigroup.
“I would give him an A rating
for his exceptional performance
under duress,” said Rana Kapoor,
chief executive of Mumbai-based
Yes Bank
Ltd.
Others said that while Mr.
Pandit has done an adequate job
of steering Citigroup through a
tough period, perhaps it was time
for change.
“Vikram Pandit is known to be
a little bit more risk-averse than
the typical CEO,” said
Krishnamurthy Subramanian, an
assistant finance professor at
Hyderabad’s Indian School of
Business. To take Citi to its next
phase of growth, “they need
someone to be actually more
aggressive,” he added.
—Shefali Anand
On Tuesday,
Maruti Suzuki
India
Ltd. launched a new version
of its popular Alto hatchback. One
word that wasn’t spoken at the
launch: “cheap.”
The Alto, initially brought onto
the market in 2000, is India’s
best-selling vehicle, accounting
for about one in every eight cars
purchased in the country. It is
also inexpensive, at just $4,600.
But casting a car as cheap in
India isn’t a smart idea, as
Tata
Motors
Ltd. found out in 2009
when it launched the Nano. At the
time, Tata, which also owns Land
Rover and Jaguar, marketed the
Nano as the world’s most
affordable car, at only $2,200.
The Nano sold poorly at first
B
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HESTER
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UNG
HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s anti-
graft body charged former Develop-
ment Minister Mak Chai-kwong and
a current official in the Highways
Department with conspiracy to de-
fraud the government.
Mr. Mak, 62 years old, resigned
as minister in July, less than two
weeks after he was sworn in, follow-
ing his arrest by the Independent
Commission Against Corruption.
The commission said Wednesday it
has now charged him and Tsang
King-man, 57, the current assistant
director of the Highways Depart-
ment, with improperly receiving civil-
servant housing benefits worth more
than 700,000 Hong Kong dollars
(US$90,000) the two claimed from
1985 to 1990—about HK$445,000 for
Mr. Mak and HK$260,000 for Mr.
Tsang.
Neither man could be reached to
comment on Wednesday. Mr. Mak
earlier denied breaching any regula-
tions.
Mr. Mak, who oversaw the bu-
reau that manages the city’s land
policy, said earlier he had leased his
flat to Mr. Tsang in the 1980s, while
claiming an allowance for another
unit he rented from Mr. Tsang. The
joint charge alleges that Messrs.
Mak and Tsang falsely claimed and
received government housing allow-
ances, not disclosing they each had
a financial or proprietary interest in
Mak Chai-kwong, 62 years old
the flat that they leased—which
made them ineligible for the allow-
ance.
Mr. Mak also faces two counts
of using documents with intent to
deceive, contrary to the Prevention
of Bribery Ordinance, while Mr.
Tsang faces three similar charges,
the commission said in a state-
ment.
They will appear in Magistrates’
Court on Thursday, pending transfer
to District Court, the commission
said. Both men have been released
on bail, the commission said.
Keep up on India minute by
minute with The Wall Street
Journal’s India Real Time at
Maruti Suzuki India launched a more powerful version of its Alto hatchback.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Thursday, October 18, 2012 |
5
WORLD NEWS: ASIA
Singapore Exports Fall Again
Thailand Cuts Policy Rates
B
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RANAN
P
AWEEWUN
A
ND
P
HISANU
P
HROMCHANYA
the bank to stay on hold.
“The easing monetary stance is
meant to cope with escalating risks”
from the global economic slowdown,
BOT Assistant Gov. Paiboon Kittisri-
kangwan said. “Going forward, the
impact from weak exports will even-
tually weigh on income, consump-
tion, and investment....Global eco-
nomic risks could reduce
[Thailand’s] economic momentum to
a level that may not be sufficient to
sustain growth.”
Weak global demand has
weighed on Asian economies like
Thailand’s that depend heavily on
exports, with the problem aggra-
vated by slowing growth in China.
The statement accompanying the
BOT’s decision also cited fiscal risks
in the U.S. and the fact that local in-
flation has been well-contained, giv-
ing the bank breathing room to cut.
The Monetary Policy Committee
said it expects the global economy
to gradually improve next year, but
still with a substantial degree of un-
certainty. Domestic spending and in-
vestment continue to be robust,
even as flood-related expenditure
has tapered off.
The central bank also noted that
credit growth remains high and
must be carefully monitored.
B
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AURAV
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AGHUVANSHI
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AN
W
ONG
tegrated circuits] and [personal
computer] parts and if you saw
IBM’s earnings, you will know that
global demand for that isn’t doing
too well,” said OCBC economist Sel-
ena Ling.
According to Credit Suisse, Sin-
gapore needs to post 15%-20%
month-on-month growth in its Sep-
tember industrial production in or-
der to avoid a potentially significant
downward revision of third-quarter
gross domestic product data when
the government releases fresh num-
bers next month.
GDP shrank by 1.5% in the third
quarter from the previous three
months, preliminary government es-
timates showed last week.
Despite the downbeat numbers,
Ms. Ling expects Singapore’s eco-
nomic performance to stabilize in
the fourth quarter as economic
stimulus measures taken globally
feed through to the city-state. She
has kept her forecast for Singapore’s
2012 GDP growth at about 2%.
Overall shipments to the Euro-
pean Union, Singapore’s largest ex-
port destination, fell 15.7% in Sep-
tember from a year earlier, but
slower than the 28.7% on-year fall in
August, IE Singapore said.
BANGKOK—The Bank of Thailand
cut its policy interest rate by a
quarter of a percentage point in a
surprise move Wednesday, making it
the latest Asian central bank to ease
policy as weakening demand from
the West and China hits the region’s
export-oriented economies.
The Thai central bank follows its
counterparts in South Korea and
Australia, which have also recently
cut rates. Analysts said the bank
would likely take time to evaluate
the effect of Wednesday’s move, and
the bank itself said it isn’t the start
of a protracted rate-cutting cycle.
The central bank’s Monetary Pol-
icy Committee lowered the one-day
repurchase rate to 2.75%, its third
cut in the past year but the first
since January. The moves have been
aimed at stimulating the economy
after massive floods reduced Thai-
land’s economic growth to just 0.1%
last year.
Five of seven committee mem-
bers voted to cut, while two voted
to hold. Only three of 12 economists
surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires
had correctly predicted the out-
come, while the rest were expecting
SINGAPORE—Singapore’s ex-
ports unexpectedly fell for the sec-
ond straight month in September as
the decline in electronics shipments
accelerated, with the city-state
missing out on the demand for con-
sumer gadgets that has helped other
parts of Asia.
The drop in exports suggests
Singapore’s economy may have con-
tracted in the third quarter at a
faster-than-expected pace, analysts
say, pointing to a difficult end to
2012 for the economy.
External trade dwarfs Singa-
pore’s nearly $270 billion economy
and the government focuses on
overseas investments and the finan-
cial sector to drive growth. It also
seeks to manufacture higher-value
goods such as cancer drugs and spe-
cialty chemicals to compensate for
the constraints posed by the na-
tion’s small size and population.
Exports of goods made in Singa-
pore fell 3.4% from a year earlier, af-
ter a revised decline of 10.7% in Au-
gust, trade promotion agency
International Enterprise Singapore
said. The exports missed market ex-
Singapore’s exports fell again.
pectations for a 2.3% rise, based on
the median estimate of 11 economists
in a Dow Jones Newswires poll.
For Singapore, electronics ex-
ports declined 16.4% on year in Sep-
tember after falling 11% in August,
while nonelectronics shipments
grew 4.2%, reversing a 10.5% fall the
prior month. Electronics make up
nearly 35% of all Singapore-manu-
factured products exported.
“Singapore mainly produces [in-
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