News Highlights Saturday 1 March 2008

The Straits Times, P3

Makeover to add night buzz to S’pore River
The Singapore River will get its biggest makeover with $16 million spent to improve the pedestrian walkways there. Work will begin next month to create a night-time buzz along the historic, 3km stretch from the river mouth inland. The makeover will be anchored by new lighting. Trees on the water’s edge will be lit up and “jellyfish” lights will gleam on the river. Lights on the bridges will be programmable to match festivals or seasons. New street furniture and street signs will be put in place to create backdrop of river-centred activities. There are two phases of the makeover. Phase 1 involves work in Clarke Quay, Boat Quay and Empress Place, to start next month and end in August. Phase 2 includes Robertson Quay to Kim Seng Bridge and will start in October, end in March 2009.


The Straits Times, P4

World’s biggest airport terminal opens
Beijing yesterday opened its new airport Terminal 3, a stunning dragon-shaped complex designed to wow Olympic visitors. The terminal which costs US$3.6 billion (S$5 billion) is known as the biggest airport terminal in the world with a combined floor space of 986,000 sq m. T3 is able to handle 40 million passengers, which boost Beijing’s international airport’s annual capacity to 76 million passengers. In comparison, Singapore’s Changi Airport annual capacity is 70 million passengers with T3’s capacity at 22 million passengers.



The Straits Times, P14

HK amends land sales list to pull in hotel developers
It is the first time that Hong Kong adds sites for hotel development to its government land sales list, which reflects the government’s proactive approach to better compete in the regional tourism industry. Hong Kong, according to property firm DTZ, is the world’s second-most expensive city, after London, in terms of office occupancy costs. The hotel sites, which are estimated to gradually add 9,000 to 11,000 more rooms, will reduce room rates and boost Hong Kong’s tourism competitiveness. Hong Kong’s budget this year, announced on Wednesday, included committing HK$150 million to further market Hong Kong overseas. A waiver of 3% hotel accommodation tax had caused a loss of HK$470 million tax revenue, but boosted HK’s low-tax reputation.




The Straits Times, P22

India’s budget aimed at getting farmers’ votes
India’s budget will cancel the loans to 40 million farmers amounting to 600 billion rupees (S$21 billion), an election budget that aimed at the 30% population of India. A job guarantee scheme is introduced to cover all 596 rural districts in India. Income tax exemption limit is raised to 150,000 rupees from 110,000 rupees, with short-term capital gains tax raised to 15%. The government announced yesterday the US$1 trillion (S$1.4 trillion) economy’s growth slowed in December quarter to 8.4%, from 9.1% in the year-earlier period. There is no indication to cut peak Customs duty and little talk of infrastructure.



The Straits Times, P28

Vietnam ‘could be key travel destination’
President S Nathan who concluded his five-day visit to Vietnam yesterday, said Vietnam is in a good position to become a key destination for both leisure and business travelers. He said Singapore would be happy to explore partnership in promoting tourism. Vietnam is keen to put itself on the global tourism map with international events such as Miss Universe pageant to be held in July at Diamond Bay, Nha Trang, which will attract one billion television viewers. Meanwhile, Singapore’s National Heritage Board will organize a “Vietnam Festival 2008” from next month to July to mark 35 years of bilateral relations. It will feature the first ever major exhibition of Vietnamese contemporary art in Singapore.



The Straits Times, P34

New launch – Blu Coral Condominium
Phase 1 79-unit condominium, prices from $648 psf onwards
Location: Lorong L Telok Kurau (from Siglap Road, East Coast Parkway (ECP))
Land lease: Freehold




The Straits Times, S32


Listed firms’ profits soar 39% to $33.6b
Listed companies in Singapore enjoyed exceptional growth last year, with their combined profits surging 39.1% to $33.58 billion. Sizzling economy growth meant healthy growth across just about all sectors. CapitaLand sits on the top with a market value of about $17.7 billion, posted $2.76 billion in net profits. The rest of top 10s are DBS Group Holdings, UOB, OCBC Bank, Golden Agri-Resources, Keppel Corp, Wilmar Int’l, Keppel Land, UOL and Neptune Orient Lines. 227 companies of the 389 companies, or over 58% reported an increase in profits from 2006. Industry experts say last year was an unprecedented year of growth but cautioned growth will be much tamer this year.



The Straits Times, S34

Property development charges barely budge
The Government barely tweaked development charges in its semi-annual revision of fees yesterday. Average islandwide charges for office, hospital, hotel and non-landed housing sites merely inched up, while landed residential sites saw no change at all. The only major change was in the industrial sector, where charges jumped 16.8% compared to 2% previously. Development charges are set by the chief valuer based on recent land and property values, and are adjusted every six months, so their growth rate can be used to indicated market activity. Property watchers said yesterday’s small rises show limited transactions over the last six months and the pace of price growth had slowed. But, fees rose for areas on the city fringe, showing that activity is spilling out from prime spots. Development charges rose for non-landed residential sites in Upper Thomson, Tiong Bahru, Balestier, and Chancery, among others. This was probably due to some collective sales late last year.



The Straits Times, H6

S’poreans losing out in job boom? Not so: MOM
Reports released by Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday showed that Singaporeans landed a record number of the new jobs created in recent years. Most importantly the vast majority of the jobs went to professionals, manages, executives and technicians (PMETSs) with salary above the median income of $2,330 a month. Official figures show six in ten of the 236,600 new jobs last year went to foreigners. But this is mainly due to insufficient Singaporeans to fill job vacancies, according to the report. More PRs are working here, with the numbers rising by 8.4% between 1997 and 2006. Latest MOM showed 646,000 of the 756,000 foreigners working here are work permit holders doing lower level jobs like construction workers.

The Straits Times, H9


Govt to spend $70m on infocomm sector
The government will spend $70 million over the next five years to boost infocomm manpower, as well as sharpen Singapore’s technology edge by retaining top talent. The new funds will be spent partly on workshops and courses that will help produce 1,000 “techno-strategists” out of mid-tier professionals here. The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) will also nurture the top 20% of infocomm students at the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, and Singapore Management University. The IDA also released numbers that show small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are still shy to take up technology. While 72% have a computer and 66% use the Internet, only 31% have a website.



The Business Times, P9

More landed housing sites up for auction
The URA has launched the second phase of Sembawang Greenvale after auctioning all parcels in Phase One last October. Phase Two comprises 11 land parcels for a total of 90 dwellings. Most of these will be terrace houses. Knight Frank said new terrace houses in the area are now selling for $1.7 million to $2 million. The median unit price for landed housing in District 27, where Sembawang is located, increased 12% q-o-q in Q4 2007. KF expects that terrace plots will fetch about $320-380 psf of land, and semi-detached plots about $300-350 psf of land. In Phase One, 12 parcels of lands were auctioned for a total of $37.09 million, which works out to about $285 psf of land on average. Cushman & Wakefield thinks that bids could be 5-10% below those received in Phase One.


The Business Times, P13

Rising inflation HK’s main worry: John Tsang
In the budget announced on Wednesday, Hong Kong government would spend HK$33.9 billion (S$6.1 billion) from a forecast record budget surplus of HK$115.6 billion for 2007-08, to give personal, corporate and real estate tax breaks, subsidies for consumers’ electricity bills, and an abolition of duties on wine and beer. This year, Hong Kong is forecasting economic growth of 4% to 5%, compared with 6.3% in 2007. The biggest concern is the rising inflation, which may accelerate to 4.5%. Meanwhile, salaries and profits taxes are cut by 1% to 15% and 16.5% respectively. Rival Singapore has been cutting tax levels close to Hong Kong rates to attract more foreign countries.


The International Herald Tribune, P18


Thailand to lift curbs on foreign investment
The governor of the Thai central bank said Friday that the bank would lift restrictions on overseas capital entering the country on Monday to attract investment from abroad and strengthen economic growth. In December 2006, Thailand imposed limits on bringing money into the country, denting investor and consumer confidence in the Thai economy. Thai’s economy expanded 5.7% in the 4Q. The central bank has lifted its $100 million limit on overseas investment, allowing listed Thai companies to invest an “unlimited” amount in units abroad.