ShareJunction - Member Posts

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Dead German finally flown home – as ashes (AP image)

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SINGAPORE

This applies to future enlistees and those still in service as of Aug 29, the day Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the National Service Recognition Award (NSRA) to show that citizens come first.— If you are a Singaporean serving as a full-time or operationally ready National Serviceman, you will receive between $3,000 and $10,500 in recognition of your defence contribution.

The award is to show our appreciation and to recognise our citizen servicemen in a sustained manner.

Minister of State for Defence Koo Tsai Kee

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Recognising citizen servicemen
What is the NSRA?
It’s a monetary award of up to $10,500 for each citizen National Serviceman by the time he completes his Operationally Ready National Service training cycle.
Will citizens who have completed their reservist training cycle be eligible?
No.
Will full-time NSmen whose ORD (operationally-ready date) was on or after Aug 29, but brought forward due to the two-month fitness incentive, be eligible?
Yes, they will be.
What happens to the sum in the Post-Secondary Education Account if a full-time NSman does not use it for studies?
All unused funds in the account will be transferred to the Central Provident Fund Ordinary Account when the member reaches 30.
Will all active servicemen, regardless of Physical Employment Status, be eligible?
Yes.
Details available at

www.mindef.gov.sg/nsra

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Sample of pricing plans by telcos D ownload speeds M onthly pricing B undled services M1 25Mbps-1000Mbps $39-$399 F ree incoming and outgoing calls on M1’s new fixed line service SingTel 150Mbps/200Mbps $85.90-$109.90 U nlimited local calls on fixed line, video chat, online storage, TV Apps store, mioTV

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Next Generation Broadband Network
• 5 service providers onboard: LGA, M1, SingTel, StarHub and SuperInternet
• Consumers can sign up from today; with the earliest services to be available from next week.
• Offers ultra-high broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps

• By end of the year, 60% coverage of island; By 2012, 95%

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Next-gen broadband: More choices for consumers

Hedirman Supian and

Millet Enriquez

hedirman@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

The providers comprise the three local telcos — M1, SingTel and StarHub — as well as two smaller operators, SuperInternet and LGA.

The added competition has translated into cheaper Internet subscription rates.

SingTel is offering a 150Mbps service for $85.90 per month while M1 is offering a 100Mbps service for $59 a month.

SuperInternet managing director Benjamin Tan said his firm plans to offer a 100Mbps service for $49.80 a month.

LGA, a firm that’s targeting enterprises, SMEs and business consumers, will announce its pricing plans next month, while a StarHub spokesperson said the telco will reveal its plans tomorrow.

These five retail service providers (RSPs) buy bandwidth wholesale from Nucleus Connect, the operating company for the new broadband network, and offer Internet access and services to consumers and enterprises.

Nucleus Connect chief executive David Storrie said he expects five more RSPs to enter the market by the end of the year.

While prices will get more competitive as the NGNBN is rolled out to more areas, Ms Sherlin Pang, an analyst from research firm IDC, does not expect Internet subscription rates to hit rock bottom.

“Instead of a price war that is seen in Hong Kong (where prices drop to $35 per month for 1Gbps), I don’t think it will happen here as the Singapore market is not as competitive and is still somewhat regulated,” she said.

Meanwhile, SingTel has unveiled a slew of new broadband services targeted at retail consumers and small businesses that will leverage on the NGNBN and its own extensive fibre infrastructure.

This includes a new consumer offering, exStream, which offers download speeds of up to 200Mbps, uplinks of up to 100Mbps and international bandwidth of up to 25Mbps.

This will be a “game changer for SingTel”, said Mr Allen Lew, SingTel’s chief executive officer for its Singapore operations.

For SMEs, the telco has introduced eVolve, which will use its own infrastructure and will only carry business traffic. Telco analyst Alfred Low of Phillip Securities said it is too early to tell whether the new initiatives will bode well for Sing-Tel but he expects competition to further heat up among the telcos as StarHub also launches its own set of products.

When it comes to choosing telcos, broadband speed is not the only consideration for consumers like teacher Gibbson Ang, 27.

Mr Ang, who is currently paying $70 a month for his 12Mbps service, said: “For me, the top factor in my decision would be a provider that can offer the best pricing and package in other services as well.”— The wait for faster and cheaper broadband is over. Consumers can soon sign up for Internet access on the Next Generation National Broadband Network (NGNBN) from five providers, with more to come later this year.

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S’pore population grew 1.8% to 5.08 million

Singapore’s total population grew 1.8 per cent to 5.08 million as at end June, the Department of Statistics said in its first release from the 2010 Population Census.

According to the department, Singapore registered a lower population growth due to the slower growth in the number of permanent residents and non-residents.

The number of permanent residents grew by 1.5 per cent, down from at least 6 per cent growth annually between 2005 and last year.

Growth in the number of non-residents slowed to 4.1 per cent, down from the peak of 19 per cent in 2008. The number of citizens increased by 0.9 per cent between last year and this year.

The Chinese formed 74 per cent of the population, while the Malays and Indians took up 13 per cent and 9.2 per cent.

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S’pore population grew 1.8% to 5.08 million
Singapore’s total population grew 1.8 per cent to 5.08 million as at end June, the Department of Statistics said in its first release from the 2010 Population Census.
According to the department, Singapore registered a lower population growth due to the slower growth in the number of permanent residents and non-residents.
The number of permanent residents grew by 1.5 per cent, down from at least 6 per cent growth annually between 2005 and last year.
Growth in the number of non-residents slowed to 4.1 per cent, down from the peak of 19 per cent in 2008. The number of citizens increased by 0.9 per cent between last year and this year.

The Chinese formed 74 per cent of the population, while the Malays and Indians took up 13 per cent and 9.2 per cent.

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Three years enough
Letter from Maxie Tay
AS A property agent handling private and HDB resale transactions, I’ve observed that speculators are sub-letting HDB flats (some illegally) for the high rental yields while staying in their private properties, or vice versa.
At the same time, private resale volume is declining — the fear of a double-dip recession seems to be making an impact.
While I applaud the move to curb runaway HDB prices and soften private resale prices to help first-time buyers, I feel a three-year MOP with the condition of no subletting and no investing in private property would be sufficient.

Five years might put the private property market on ice, and send the entire market into a downward spiral.

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Nest egg delayed
Letter from Chi Han-Hsuan
THE latest regulations came as a shock to my wife and me. Why can’t HDB flat owners stay in their flats and invest in private property without a five-year MOP?
Private properties are a long-term investments, like blue chip stocks or precious commodities such as gold — they appreciate in value over time and are a good hedge against inflation.
I believe the Government’s stance all along has been to curb the use of HDB flats for speculation, and those who want to invest should buy private property.
So, why discourage flat-owners from investing in private property?
A five-year MOP is too long and restrictive.
My wife and I recently bought an HDB flat without a loan and plan to invest in a condominium for our retirement. But now we’ll have to wait before we can do so.
The Government shouldn’t be discouraging HDB owners with excess cash from buying private property as a safe, long-term investment in their nest egg.

Rather, it should be imposing restrictions on foreigners buying private residential properties.

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Minimum Occupation Period [MOP] doesn’t hit the spOt

What about retirees?

Letter from Yin Poh Leng

I APPLAUD the new rules to cool the property market and think the measures will encourage financial prudence and curb speculative activity.

But there are some gaps.

First, there are no curbs in the private property market on foreign investors who play a part in driving prices up.

Will Singaporeans be priced out of prime areas?

Then, there’s the new rule that private property owners must sell off their property if they want to own an HDB flat.

That means a retired couple who want to downgrade to a flat, but rent out their private apartment for living expenses, would not be able to do so.

On the other hand, a young couple that has fulfilled the five-year minimum occupation period (MOP) can rent out their flat while they move to a private property.

Would not the case of the retired couple better fulfil the mantra that an HDB flat should be for staying in and not for generating income?

Similarly, we should look at those who currently own both an HDB flat and a private home. Should they decide to live in their private property, they should be required to sell off their flat.

Releasing these units back into the market will help to meet the demand by young couples who need a place to live.

pharoah88 ( Date: 31-Aug-2010 15:18) Posted:

Minimum occupation period [MOP] now 5 years

Esther Ng

estherng@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

Now, buyers of non-subsidised public resale flats must wait at least five years before they can sell or sub-let their unit.

The lengthening of the MOP, announced yesterday, is a contrast to the previous approach of reducing the time that flat owners needed to occupy their flats.

And Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah, deputy chairperson of the Government Parliamentary Committee (National Development), believes the “pressure” had grown on the Housing and Development Board to take action on this policy.

“We’ve had feedback from the ground that people were buying HDB flats to rent them out and not live in them,” Ms Lee told MediaCorp.

The policy change was coupled with an announcement on dual ownership of public and private housing.

[#### It is analogous tO dual cItIzenshIp ? receIvIng benefIts frOm sIdes ? ####]

Private residential property owners who buy a non-subsidised HDB flat must sell their private property within six months from the date of purchase of their HDB flat.

Owners of non-subsidised flats are also not allowed to buy a private residential property during the MOP of their flat.

Analysts agreed the moves were meant to keep HDB flats for home ownership rather than as investment vehicles.

Reducing the MOP had liberalised the market and allowed flat owners to “monetise their asset”, but there were “undesirable” consequences, for instance, investors driving up Cash-Over-Valuation levels, resale prices and rentals, Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak said.

“It’s the right time to do something about it, and not when polls are expected in, say, two months’ time,” Mr Mak said.

In the past, flat owners could rent their flats only after 10 years if they had paid up their loan and 15 years if they had not. This was reduced to five years in 2007, for flats bought directly from HDB or from the open market with a Central Provident Fund Housing Grant, and three years for owners of non-subsidised flats.

When asked about the reversal, the HDB said: “Despite the introduction of measures in March, sentiment to buy resale HDB flats has remained strong in tandem with the improved economic outlook.

The HDB resale price index has risen sharply, showing quarter-on-quarter increases of 2.8 per cent in the first quarter and 4.1 per cent in the second quarter.

”The additional measures reinforces the Government’s commitment to provide affordable and adequate public housing supply for first-timer households as it is designed to curtail demand from those who do not need housing urgently.

Households who buy their flats with the intent of occupying them will not be affected by this change.”

Property experts agreed that the measures would reduce speculation and short-term investment, but not without ramifications.

“Based on our recent records, about 10 per cent of all HDB resale purchases are by private property dwellers.

These may be investors who will now not be able to purchase HDB flats and keep their private property for investment purposes,” PropNex CEO Mohamed Ismail said.— It used to be one to 2.5 years. Then, the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) was increased in March to three years.

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It is my hope that China’s comparative advantage as a low-wage producer does disappear — the sooner the better.

But why should I, a Chinese economist, wish to see China’s competitiveness reduced through rising labour costs?

After all, when a country still lacks real advantages, such as higher education, efficient markets and enterprises, and a capacity for innovation, it needs something like low wages to maintain growth.

While cheap labour has been a key factor in generating high growth over the past three decades, it has also contributed to profound income disparities, especially in recent years. And persistent, widening inequality might cause social crises that could interrupt growth and damage competitiveness.

China must avoid such a scenario, and if wages could increase in some meaningful way, it would indicate that the economy might finally reach the next stage of development, during which income disparities would be narrowed.

Unfortunately, China has not yet reached that point — and will not any time soon. Agriculture remains the main source of income for more than 30 per cent of China’s labour force, compared to less than 2 per cent in the United States or 6 per cent in South Korea.Reports about labour shortages, wage disputes and wage increases for migrant workers in China have abounded of late. They naturally raised concerns, or expectations, that China’s labour-cost advantages may be disappearing.

Another 30 per cent of the labour force comprises migrant workers, who have doubled their incomes by moving from agriculture to the industrial and service sectors.

Although migrant workers earn only about US$1,500 ($2,034) per year on average, the income gap between them and agricultural labourers provides a powerful incentive for the latter to try to find better-paid non-farm jobs. Naturally, this competition in the labour market suppresses non-farm wages: Whereas labour productivity in non-farm sectors increased by 10 to 12 per cent annually in the past 15 years, migrant workers’ real wages have increased by only 4 to 6 per cent per year. As a result, income disparity between low-end labour, on the one hand, and professionals and investors, on the other, has also increased.

All this means that the process of industrialisation in China still has a long way to go. To reduce farm labour to 10 per cent of the labour force (the point at which, judging by historical experience elsewhere, China may achieve worker-farmer wage equilibrium), the economy needs to create about 150 million new non-farm jobs.

Even if the economy continues to grow at 8 per cent per year, China might need 20 to 30 years to reallocate agricultural labourers and reach “full employment”. But this requires generating 8 million new jobs every year, including 5 million for farmers leaving the countryside.

During this long process of industrialisation, wages will increase gradually, but it is very unlikely that they will grow at the same rate as labour productivity. This is bad news for reducing income inequality, as capital gains and high-end wages may grow much faster. But it should be the good news for competitiveness, because Chinese wages will remain relatively low in terms of “wage efficiency”.

Indeed, the wage increases of recent years have not changed the basic cost structure of Chinese companies. An analysis by Goldman Sachs shows that, despite real wage gains, the share of labour costs in total manufacturing costs is lower than it was in 2001 — a trend that continued in the first half of this year.

To prevent serious social tension, China’s government (at various levels) has begun to intervene by enforcing higher minimum wages, in addition to investing in a social safety net for the poor.

In some provinces, minimum wages have increased by more than 30 per cent.

But the minimum wage is normally much lower than the effective wage, and thus has not changed the fundamental relationship between wages and labour productivity.

Nevertheless, artificial wage increases enforced by government policies could slow down the process of labour reallocation and make some “surplus labour” permanent. Income disparities will not be fundamentally altered until the market equilibrium wage inches upwards sufficiently to create labour demand at decent wage levels.

So, will companies, both multinationals and Chinese, leave for Vietnam, Bangladesh or Mozambique?

Perhaps. But that will happen only if the other countries’ wages are relatively more efficient (i.e. productivity there is ultimately higher than in China) and not just because Chinese nominal wages go up. For now, however, this does not seem to be the case in general.

Evidence that China’s wage efficiency remains high relative to other developing countries comes in the form of continued growth in inflows of foreign direct investment over the past 12 months, despite wage increases.

In July, for example, FDI increased by 29.2 per cent year on year, much higher than the global average. There may be many factors behind China’s strong FDI performance but it does mean that the nominal wage increase itself may not lower the capital gains that concern investors most.

In any case, the Chinese wage story is much more complicated than it might seem. Nominal wages may increase, while real wages stagnate, owing to higher inflation.

Even if real wages increase in some coastal cities, “surplus labour” could keep the national average flat. And even a real wage increase on the national level will not undermine competitiveness if labour productivity grows still faster.

So, the conclusion seems to be that wage growth will not threaten China’s competitiveness in the next 10 or even 20 years.

As China will not complete the process of reallocating workers from agriculture to

more modern economic sectors any time soon, it should remain a cost-competitive economy for the foreseeable future.

Fan Gang is professor of Economics at Beijing University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, director of China’s National Economic Research Institute, secretary-general of the China Reform Foundation, and a former member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China. This commentary is exclusive to Today in Singapore.

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Is low-wage China disappearing?

Cheap labour has contributed to profound income disparities

fan gang

If wages could increase in some meaningful way, it would indicate that the economy might finally reach the next stage of development.

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Okay, forget meritocracy, but what about professionalism?

ooi kee beng

Perhaps because the man’s main concern is to be confrontational, and in the blogosphere the competition on that score is relentless, many of his entries have tested the boundaries of rationality.
Very often, these are full of contradictions and are not worth commenting on.
However, a recent one where Dr Mahathir claims that proponents of meritocracy are as racists as anyone else does require a reaction.
For starters, just because most of us have racist tendencies does
It is also undeniable that political slogans always conceal a political agenda, and not always in an opaque manner either.
This goes for “Malaysian Malaysia” as much as it does for “Ketuanan Melayu”; and for “Middle Malaysia” as much as it does for “One Malaysia”.
However, that is not the real issue.
Although Dr Mahathir recognises that meritocracy, imposed without consideration for social inequalities, will merely favour those who are already privileged economically or otherwise, he does not draw the obvious conclusion that we are talking about a condition we may provocatively call a class struggle.
This brings us back to 1970.
During the days when the New Economic Policy (NEP) was being drafted, it was obvious that the issue was poverty. The official insight gained from the May 13 riots was that the Malay community was not getting any richer despite independence.
After three elections, there were no signs that their lot would improve dramatically, and if that situation was not remedied, the country could not possibly enjoy political stability and economic growth.
And so, the attempt was made to remodel Malaysian society.
Once class inequalities were lessened, inter-ethnic tension would follow suit, and so the NEP would succeed by making race passé as a political tool. The poor had to be helped, and the Malays had to be helped. That was the dilemma, which had to be solved within the ultimate project of turning Malaysia into a prosperous and stable country. Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has been making a name for himself as a blogger after he retired in 2003.ooi kee beng not make racism all right, especially in public policy. That point need not be belaboured.
Criteria For Success
Thus, three criteria for success competed with each other.
First, the lot of the Malay community as a whole had to improve dramatically.
Second, the income gap among Malaysians as a whole must diminish.
Third, the national economy as a whole must experience impressive economic growth.
Since the political structure had always been racebased, it was easy for the system to continue along those lines, and the implementation of the NEP favoured racial interests over class concerns. This created a system of patronage which over time encouraged mediocrity over excellence, quota strictness over merit, and political concerns over judicial correctness.
What is sad is that after 40 years of the NEP, it is still the racial aspect, now evolved into Malay Supremacy, which continues to be taken by Dr Mahathir and others as the most effective political tool at their disposal.
Other crucial values are overshadowed. The income gap, also within the Malay community, remains enormous, leading to a host of social problems that the country can do without, such as a low level of education, criminality, corruption and, worst of all, a sustained weakness for racial politics.
The only gap that seems to have lessened impressively is the one between party and state.
Malaysia may have managed relatively well economically, but the signs are now many that the goods times are over, and the developmental and resource edge that it had over most other Asian countries is now gone.
The rule of law, especially important in a country as heterogeneous as Malaysia, has been increasingly compromised, as has the quality of education in schools and universities. The key project of uniting the nation has also been disregarded other than in occasional sloganeering exercises.
Meritocratic values can no doubt be misused in the service of vested interests, but what a country with self-esteem and ambition cannot do without is professionalism, be this in the civil service, the education system, the police or the managerial and entrepreneurial classes.
As a result, governance in general has lost credibility and legitimacy. Indeed, the area where professionalism is most needed today is in governance.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies. His latest book is In Lieu of Ideology: An Intellectual Biography of Goh Keng Swee (Iseas).

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Okay, forget meritocracy, but what about professionalism?

ooi kee beng

Perhaps because the man’s main concern is to be confrontational, and in the blogosphere the competition on that score is relentless, many of his entries have tested the boundaries of rationality.
Very often, these are full of contradictions and are not worth commenting on.
However, a recent one where Dr Mahathir claims that proponents of meritocracy are as racists as anyone else does require a reaction.
For starters, just because most of us have racist tendencies does
It is also undeniable that political slogans always conceal a political agenda, and not always in an opaque manner either.
This goes for “Malaysian Malaysia” as much as it does for “Ketuanan Melayu”; and for “Middle Malaysia” as much as it does for “One Malaysia”.
However, that is not the real issue.
Although Dr Mahathir recognises that meritocracy, imposed without consideration for social inequalities, will merely favour those who are already privileged economically or otherwise, he does not draw the obvious conclusion that we are talking about a condition we may provocatively call a class struggle.
This brings us back to 1970.
During the days when the New Economic Policy (NEP) was being drafted, it was obvious that the issue was poverty. The official insight gained from the May 13 riots was that the Malay community was not getting any richer despite independence.
After three elections, there were no signs that their lot would improve dramatically, and if that situation was not remedied, the country could not possibly enjoy political stability and economic growth.
And so, the attempt was made to remodel Malaysian society.
Once class inequalities were lessened, inter-ethnic tension would follow suit, and so the NEP would succeed by making race passé as a political tool. The poor had to be helped, and the Malays had to be helped. That was the dilemma, which had to be solved within the ultimate project of turning Malaysia into a prosperous and stable country. Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has been making a name for himself as a blogger after he retired in 2003.ooi kee beng not make racism all right, especially in public policy. That point need not be belaboured.
Criteria For Success
Thus, three criteria for success competed with each other.
First, the lot of the Malay community as a whole had to improve dramatically.
Second, the income gap among Malaysians as a whole must diminish.
Third, the national economy as a whole must experience impressive economic growth.
Since the political structure had always been racebased, it was easy for the system to continue along those lines, and the implementation of the NEP favoured racial interests over class concerns. This created a system of patronage which over time encouraged mediocrity over excellence, quota strictness over merit, and political concerns over judicial correctness.
What is sad is that after 40 years of the NEP, it is still the racial aspect, now evolved into Malay Supremacy, which continues to be taken by Dr Mahathir and others as the most effective political tool at their disposal.
Other crucial values are overshadowed. The income gap, also within the Malay community, remains enormous, leading to a host of social problems that the country can do without, such as a low level of education, criminality, corruption and, worst of all, a sustained weakness for racial politics.
The only gap that seems to have lessened impressively is the one between party and state.
Malaysia may have managed relatively well economically, but the signs are now many that the goods times are over, and the developmental and resource edge that it had over most other Asian countries is now gone.
The rule of law, especially important in a country as heterogeneous as Malaysia, has been increasingly compromised, as has the quality of education in schools and universities. The key project of uniting the nation has also been disregarded other than in occasional sloganeering exercises.
Meritocratic values can no doubt be misused in the service of vested interests, but what a country with self-esteem and ambition cannot do without is professionalism, be this in the civil service, the education system, the police or the managerial and entrepreneurial classes.
As a result, governance in general has lost credibility and legitimacy. Indeed, the area where professionalism is most needed today is in governance.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies. His latest book is In Lieu of Ideology: An Intellectual Biography of Goh Keng Swee (Iseas).

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When luxury brands outsource, should they tell?

tan soo jiuan

Italy’s Parliament has passed a law that imposes, among other things, the requirement that Italian manufacturers be able to prove that their products were primarily made in Italy and, if any part of the work was carried out elsewhere, a traceable location must be shown.Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster.
The writer is an associate professor at the Department of Marketing, NUS Business School.
The ruling, which takes effect next month, would make Italy arguably the first country to regulate the “Made in xxx” label.
It could not have come sooner for some Italian clothing manufacturers who have complained that, for the last decade, they have been at the mercy of fellow designers buying cheaper fabric in China, Bulgaria and elsewhere and slapping on “Made in Italy” labels — even when those garments are merely sewn in Italy.
By definition, any behaviour within the marketing function that is illegal or morally unacceptable to the larger community is deemed unethical marketing behaviour.
Such behaviour has been associated with publicly reported practices such as Dow Corning’s release of potentially harmful silicon breast implants and Nike’s reported use of sweat-shop labour.
With the proliferation of global outsourcing of global brands, another type of unethical marketing behaviour appears to have emerged.
The potential cost savings and revenue advantages derived from outsourcing have enticed even the luxury fashion business into the act. The outsourcing of fabrics in the case of the Italian clothing designers is one such example. It has been reported that many luxury brand items are now made on assembly lines in developing nations, such as China, where labour is vastly cheaper.
These outsourced products, however, continue to be sold at very high prices because their “marketing executives played up the companies’ heritage and claimed that the items were still made in Europe by hand”, says fashion correspondent and author Dana Thomas in her best-selling book,
Such companies get away with it by hiding the “Made in China” label “in the bottom of an inside pocket or stamped black on black on the back side of a tiny logo flap”, she adds. “Some bypass the ‘provenance’ laws requiring labels that tell where goods are made by having 90 per cent of the bag, garment or shoes made in China, and then attaching the final bits — the handle, the buttons — in Italy, thus earning a ‘Made in Italy’ label.
“Or some just replace the original label with one stating it was made in Western Europe.”
Congruence Theory postulates that individuals tend to be more responsive to people and messages that are consistent with their own beliefs and attitudes.
In considering the outsourcing option, luxury brand marketers need to consider this: Do consumers consider as unethical the practice of outsourcing of luxury brands while marketing them at a premium as handmade by artisans?
Is it worthwhile to engage in global outsourcing while keeping consumers in the dark about such a practice?
Research has found that if corporate actions are perceived as unethical, the company stands to lose favour with even its most committed customers. In the long run, ethical judgments can lead consumers to accept or reject a company’s business activities entirely.
As outsourcing becomes a global phenomenon with unabated growth, it becomes imperative that luxury brand marketers confront these issues.

With the further influx of luxury brands making their way to major new shopping malls that have sprung up in Singapore over the past year, shouldn’t consumers know whether they are getting the “Made in xxx” value that they are paying a premium for?

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Yangzijiang

Outperform | $1.59

CIMB upgrades from Trading Buy and lifts the target price to $1.68 from $1.54 after increasing FY10-12 earnings estimates by 2 to 13 per cent to account for latest US$915 million worth of contracts.

The house says it expects the shipbuilder to clinch more orders for container vessels in the near term.

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Yangzijiang

Outperform | $1.59

CIMB upgrades from Trading Buy and lifts the target price to $1.68 from $1.54 after increasing FY10-12 earnings estimates by 2 to 13 per cent to account for latest US$915 million worth of contracts.

The house says it expects the shipbuilder to clinch more orders for container vessels in the near term.

tianloong86 ( Date: 01-Sep-2010 00:47) Posted:

DBS Vickers lifts Yangzijiang (BS6.SG) target price to $2.05 from $1.80, pegged at 14x FY10 P/E, after increasing FY10-11 earnings forecasts by 24%-26% to account for latest US$915 million ($1.2 billion) orders for 28 vessels, says Dow Jones.

“While we have anticipated some containership orders, Yangzijiang surprised us with the massive orders from bulk carriers as well, which was unexpected given the plunge of BDI in June-July,” says DBS Vickers.

Expects shipbuilder to clinch US$1.1 billion worth of contracts by end-2010 vs US$600 million forecast previously. Keeps Buy call.