The Asian financial crisis in 1997 pushed Indonesia to economic collapse a decade ago. Its overextended banking system imploded, spurring high unemployment, severe rioting and, eventually, the fall of the Suharto government. Weathering an even more calamitous global storm now, Indonesia has managed relatively well.
Now, to help it endure the global recession, Indonesia, Asia’s third-most populous nation after [...]
December 31, 2008 | Posted in
Latin America |
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Fresh woes have hit the government of Argentina’s Peronista President Christine Kirchner this week, as natural gas giant Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN) defaulted on a debt payment of roughly $22 million and would seek a broad restructuring, citing difficulties related to government price controls, higher costs and the depreciation of the peso aginst [...]
December 30, 2008 | Posted in
Latin America |
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China has embarked on an ambitious spending spree in order to help stave off recessionary pressures & attempt to maintain a growth target of 8% in 2009. Following on from its massive $585M stimulus package, announced in early November, news of deals in energy & metals has been flowing over the last week. When the stimulus package [...]
December 29, 2008 | Posted in
Mining & Materials |
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State owned fixed line monopoly Saudi Telecom (STC) unveiled a $10b facility, which will be used to take part in a number of Middle Eastern license acquisitions which are due to be launched in 2009.
“”We can do SR40bn of acquisitions in the next few years. We have no problems with doing that at all”” Khalid al-Ghurair, [...]
December 26, 2008 | Posted in
Latin America |
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India’s largest aluminum maker, state owned National Aluminum Company (NALCO), and United Arab Emirates government-linked RAK Minerals and Metals Investment (RMMI) plan to invest $4 billion to build a smelter and supporting infrastructure, including a power plant, in Tanjung Api-api, South Sumatra, Indonesia. $2.5 billion of the planned investment will be spent on the smelter [...]
December 22, 2008 | Posted in
Latin America |
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After repeated delays, China is set to award 3G licenses by beginning of 2009. China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Li Yizhong announced on December 12 that 3G network licenses will be issued by the beginning of next year and the country’s three restructured telcos are expected to invest CNY 200 billion (US$29 [...]
December 17, 2008 | Posted in
Latin America |
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Copper futures for March delivery fell 2.35 cents to $1.4050 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange today. Copper, which reached a record $4.2605 a pound on May 5, has dropped 54 percent this year. Copper had more than quadrupled in the six years through 2007. The decline over the last six [...]
December 16, 2008 | Posted in
Latin America |
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Thanks to the rising number of mobile phones around the world — and likely a loss of fixed lines — the number of international calls made to cell phones has reached about 45 percent of all international phone calls, according to research firm TeleGeography
Amidst relentless pressure on prices and a growing array of international communications [...]
December 16, 2008 | Posted in
Latin America |
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Zamtel has been hindered by government involvement & a tendency to rob Peter to pay Paul & as such has suffered from a lack of serious investment.
Now that competition for fixed line services is being realised with the emergence of fixed broadband competitors, the Zambian government has decided to try & back away & part [...]
Sydney quoted Macquarie Group (ASX – MQG) is currently involved in two major plays, one domestic & one in China. Macquarie functions as a non-operating holding company with seven different segments : Financial Services, Adisory Services, Private Wealth, Funds Management, Banking & Securitization, Treasury & Commodities & Equity Markets, yielding a market cap of A$ 8.9Bn, [...]
December 15, 2008 | Posted in
Banking & Finance |
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