News Highlights Monday 18 February 2008

The Business Times, P1

6-digit fees for place at international school
Demand for places at international schools in Singapore is showing no sign of letting up with some top institutions asking for six-digit fees in exchange for skipping the queue. For example, United World College South-east Asia (UWC) has started a programme targeted at companies: it guarantees children of their expatriate employees for $200,000 each. The lack of places at international schools is testament to the rising number of foreigners in Singapore, lured by a still strongly expanding economy. The number rose from 875,000 in 2006 to just over one million last year, according to Department of Statistics estimates.


The Business Times, P1

Brisk business likely at S’pore Airshow
More than 30,000 trade visitors and over 800 aerospace companies from 42 countries will gather this Feb 19 to 24 in Singapore for Asia’s largest airshow. The 2008 Singapore Airshow comes amid continuing upbeat projections by leading planemakers and industry specialists. European planemaker Airbus foresees demand for 24,300 new passenger and freighter planes, valued at US$2.8 triillion, between now and 2026. Its American rival Boeing is projecting the global aircraft fleet growing from 18,230 planes to 26,420 by 2026. Much of the demand will come from Asia and the Middle East. So all signs point to some brisk business and major announcements this week.


The Business Times, P2

Asian vitality a shield against US recession: MM
According to MM Lee, even if the US falls into recession during the first half of this year, the economic vitality of Asia – particularly its two giants, China and India – should keep the region from becoming flu-stricken when the US catches a cold. He believes that China and India’s economies will not fall below 10 per cent growth. He also added that the US fiscal stimulus and the Federal Reserve’s actions should see the US economy recovering by the second half.



The Straits Times, P9


Luxury living for rich S. Korean pensioners
In fast-ageing South Korea, some entrepreneurs have come up with a novel way to tap the silver dollar – offering serviced apartments for well-heeled senior citizens. Located in Seoul, the 15-month-old Grace Hill Serviced Apartments offer five-star amenities such as a buffet restaurant, swimming pool, fitness centre, mini-golf range, sauna and even an in-house clinic. A refundable deposit is between S$347,000 and S$767,000 depending on the size of the unit ranging from the equivalent of a two-room HDB flat to a five-room HDB flat. Many of the residents are former professors, lawyers, doctors and semi-retired businessmen who have deep pockets. The “silver” industry is likely to expand by an annual average of 13 per cent between 2010 and 2020. South Korea became an ageing society in 2000 and is set to become an aged one by 2024. Currently, 10 per cent of the South Korean population of 49 million are above 65.


The Straits Times, H20

UBS expects this year to be a better one
While investors fear the possibility of billions of dollars in new sub-prime write-downs, UBS does not expect this year to be like the last, when the Swiss bank wrote down US$18 billion (S$25.5 billion) in bad credits. It said that its investment banking business would this year concentrate on its strengths in customer business, such as equities and merges and acquisitions advisory business. UBS, the world’s largest manager of affluent people’s money, is Europe’s biggest casualty of the credit crunch so far. On Jan 30, UBS announced a 12.5 billion Swiss francs loss for the final three months of last year and a full-year loss of 4.4 billion Swiss francs. This was due to a higher-than-expected US$14 billion write-down on assets connected to sub-prime mortgages in the US.