China’s July industrial profit growth cools for third straight month
Profit growth for China’s industrial firms cooled for a third straight month in July in a further indication that demand in the world’s second-biggest economy is cooling even as U.S. trade pressure mounts.
Industrial profits in July rose 16.2 percent from a year earlier to 515.12 billion yuan ($74.94 billion), slowing from a 20 percent increase in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.
Profit growth eased in July as producer price inflation moderates, He Ping of the statistics bureau said in a statement accompanying the data.
For the first seven months of the year, industrial firms have reported profits of 3.9 trillion yuan, up 17.1 percent from the same period last year.
New Zealand to ban foreign home buyers – except Australians and Singaporeans
New Zealand’s Parliament passed a law on Wednesday (Aug 15) to ban many non-resident foreigners from buying existing homes, completing the Labour-led government’s election campaign pledge.
The ban only applies to non-residents. Australians and Singaporeans are exempted because of free-trade deals.
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s popular 38-year-old prime minister, campaigned before last September’s election on a promise to clamp down on house price growth and reduce high rates of homelessness, in part by banning foreign buyers.
(read more: The Straits Times)
Indonesian coal production at 37.11 percent of full-year target
Indonesian coal production was recorded at 180 million tons on Wednesday, or 37.11 percent of the government’s 485 million target this year.
However, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said he wanted Indonesia to further increase coal production to 585 million by year-end as part of efforts to narrow the current-account deficit (CAD).
“Yesterday [Tuesday], during the limited Cabinet meeting, the President said that we needed foreign exchange. He raised the possibility of increasing coal production by 100 million tons,” Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry spokesman Agung Pribadi said on Wednesday.
He claimed that one coal miner was ready to increase its production by 25 million tons worth around US$1.5 billion.
Speaking about the country’s meager coal production in the first half 2018, Agung claimed some companies had not reported their output and expressed confidence that coal miners would be able to meet the new production target.
(read more: The Jakarta Post)
Government calls on export heavyweights to help bolster rupiah
The government has asked major exporters to park their export revenue in Indonesia and convert it into rupiah to help bolster the currency’s exchange rate.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo made the call during his meeting with 40 top Indonesian exporters on Thursday at Bogor Palace in West Java. Also present at the meeting were Indonesia’s richest man, Robert Budi Hartono, Adaro Energy president director Garibaldi “Boy” Thohir and GarudaFood Group chairman Sudhamek Agoeng Waspodo Soenjoto.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the meeting was held to gather input from the businessmen on managing the prolonged global uncertainty. The government also asked how to channel export revenue to Indonesia.
“We conveyed to them what we, the government, could do to [persuade] the businessmen to bring their export revenue [back] to Indonesia,” she said after the meeting.
Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani said only 85 percent of export revenue returned to Indonesia, while the remaining 15 percent was parked overseas.
(Read more: The Jakarta Post)
Indonesia’s fashion startups into Singapore market
The Indonesian Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) in cooperation with the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore has opened a temporary pop-up store for Indonesian fashion startups to showcase their products in Singapore.
At least 14 selected local brands, ranging from ready-to-wear clothing, watches and socks, will be taking part in the event running at Paragon Mall in the city-state from Aug. 1 to 30.
Bekraf marketing division deputy head Joshua Puji Mulia Simanjuntak said Singapore was a prospective hub to reach the global market, especially the ASEAN market.
“Singapore is an important market for Indonesian creative industries, particularly fashion,” Joshua told reporters on Wednesday.
“Singapore has also always been on our [list of] top-10 destinations for creative industry exports,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bekraf deputy head Ricky Joseph Pesik said Indonesia’s fashion industry had big potential to penetrate the global market thanks to its stellar growth.
In 2016, the country’s exports from creative economy reached US$20 billion, in which the fashion industry contributed 54.54 percent of the exports.
(Source: The Jakarta Post)
The founder of Traveloka became a trillionaire at the age of 30 years
He is currently only 30 years old, but has entered the list of 150 richest people in Indonesia Globe Asia magazine version. He is the founder of Traveloka, Ferry Unardi.
Globe Asia said the wealth of Ferry is currently in the range of USD 145 million and is in position 146. About Rp 2 trillion if converted.
The idea of establishing Traveloka itself came from Ferry’s personal experience. Several years ago, to find a plane ticket can be quite difficult. Ferry who is working overseas wants to go back to Padang.
“To get an airline ticket that fits the budget, I have to open several sites to compare prices,” he recalled. From that experience, he believes many people have similar difficulties in finding airline tickets.
Finally, along with two other colleagues, Ferry decided to return to Indonesia and build Traveloka, the airline’s online flight search platform that compares the airline range in one place. Thus, consumers do not have to bother to open some airline sites to get cheap airline tickets.
In 2012, Traveloka was born from personal savings of working overseas. In order to increase business growth, a few months later Traveloka successfully took East Venture. Over the course of a year, Traveloka received A Series funding from Global Founder Capital that once invested in Facebook and LinkedIn.
Thanks to the funding, Traveloka has enough resources to build the best products. “This is evidenced at the beginning of Traveloka stand already has thousands of airline ticket searches that reach 200 cities,” said Ferry who was born this Padang.
By 2015, Traveloka app has been downloaded up to 6 million times. In 2016, they expanded business in six countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
This makes Traveloka the first internet company from Indonesia to expand its business in Southeast Asia.
Traveloka has established cooperation with hundreds of thousands of hotels in various parts of the world.
Most middle-market Singapore firms see 6% or more growth this year: EY
Middle-market firms in Singapore are brimming with optimism this year, with nine in 10 expecting growth in excess of the global average growth rate of 6 per cent, according to the annual EY Growth Barometer released on Wednesday (July 25).
Middle-market firms are those with sizeable annual revenues that fall centrally within the market in which they operate. Thus, they straddle the middle market between smaller companies and the billion-dollar giants.
Singapore ranked fourth for growth expectations in Ernst & Young’s survey of 2,766 middle-market executives across 21 countries, including 103 from Singapore.
Just under two-fifths of the Singapore respondents are aiming for growth of more than 10 per cent for the year, compared with about a quarter of respondents globally. Another 51 per cent of Singapore respondents are targeting growth of 6 per cent to 10 per cent.
For Singapore respondents, the most-cited growth strategies were overseas expansion (30 per cent) and mergers and acquisitions (19 per cent). However, a quarter of respondents also plan to divest part of their business.
(Read more: The Strait Times)
China’s top state chip manufacturer Tsinghua signed a deal with Linxens for 2.2 billion euros
China’s top state chip manufacturer Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd has signed a deal to acquire French smart chip components maker Linxens for about 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion), five people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The deal, which the sources said was signed over a month ago but has not yet been announced publicly, will be a key test of European regulators’ stance on Chinese investment in the region that has been on the rise amid the country’s worsening trade relations with the United States.
Tsinghua’s acquisition of Linxens from private-equity group CVC is still pending regulatory clearance, three of the sources told Reuters, adding regulators in France, Germany and the company’s union need to approve the deal.
(Read more: Reuters)
5.6m passengers passed trough Changi Airport, increase 6.9%
hangi Airport handled 5.57 million passenger movements in June 2018, a 6.9 per cent year-on-year increase, Changi Airport Group (CAG) said on Tuesday (Jul 24).
In terms of landings and takeoffs, there were 31,870 aircraft movements in June, 3.1 per cent higher than the same period last year.
Traffic between Singapore and Europe grew 19 per cent in June; and among Changi’s top 10 markets, Indonesia and Japan were the fastest growing, boosted by travel to Denpasar and Tokyo.
Other routes to cities like London, Melbourne, Mumbai and Shanghai also registered a double digit growth, said CAG.
Amid these figures, LOT Polish Airlines introduced one more Singapore-Warsaw connection, bringing the total number of weekly services to four. This comes after the new Singapore-Warsaw connection was introduced in May.
Additionally, for the first half of the year, Changi Airport recorded 32.1 million passenger movements, 5.5 per cent higher than the same period last year.
(Read more: Channel News Asia)