In The News

China Eases Foreign Entry into Bank Sector

James Kynge December 1, 2003
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), announced a loosening of regulations on foreign banks and finance companies on Monday. These changes are largely assumed to be a response to US and EU accusations that China engages in unfair trading practices, which violate their commitment to the WTO. Wen Jiabao is traveling to Washington...

Japan Has Some Bold Ideas for Talks with ASEAN

Anthony Rowley November 26, 2003
After China's president made his successful ASEAN trip last month, Japan is now gearing up for December's ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit meeting in Tokyo, as well as a meeting of Asean+3 finance ministers early next year. To push further for a common Asian bond market is one of the priorities for Japan at these meetings, says this article in Singapore's Business Times, but Prime...

Teochews Can Take Pride in Successes

Lee Hsien Loong November 24, 2003
Since at least the 1800s, Chinese immigrants speaking the Teochew dialect have moved to many regions of Southeast Asia in search of a better life. Many of them have become the most successful groups in their adopted countries, says Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Sometimes they seem "more than proportionately represented" in top-notch positions such as the Thai...

Antiglobalism's Jewish Problem

Mark Strauss November 12, 2003
Anti-Semitism is again on the rise, says Mark Strauss, a senior editor for Foreign Policy. Globalization is being pinned on the Jews – the traditional 'villain' of capitalism – and thus the Jewish people are being blamed for all perceived negative effects of increased market integration, Strauss writes. In the Middle East especially, where economies are stagnant everywhere but Israel,...

A Winter of Discontent?

Robert A. Kapp November 3, 2003
The recent trade and currency disputes between the United States and China have given some in Washington the impression that a crisis is developing in US-China relations. The entire US Congress seems to be raging about China's unfair trade policies and manipulation of its currency. Robert A. Kapp, the President of the US-China Business Council, says here that the current stable US-China...

Malaysia Gains from HSBC Jobs Shift

K.P. Lee October 18, 2003
HSBC is the latest in a series of financial institutions that are moving certain functions out of the US and UK and into areas that provide cheaper labor. Malaysia and India have become some of the most attractive relocation sites, given the preponderance of English speakers. Banks, as well as other businesses, are eager to cut costs by moving "call center" and "backroom...

Privatization vs. Democracy

Salah Hemeid October 13, 2003
The chief US Administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, recently announced that Iraq's state-owned industries will be sold off to private investors in an effort to boost the country's struggling economy. The new policy also allows for 100 percent foreign ownership of all industries except for oil, which will remain under government control for the time being. Iraqis view their oil reserves as...