Jumaat, 8 Mac 2013

NST Online Business Times : latest

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Posted: 08 Mar 2013 06:30 PM PST

I-Bhd is aiming for a jump in profit from the property and tourism segments of I-City this year to more than RM50 million from RM18 million in 2012.

I-City is a RM5 billion development in Shah Alam and set over 29.14 hectares. It is also a MSC Malaysia Cybercentre township and an international business hub.

It comprises corporate, leisure and residential components, including a shopping mall, office towers, cyber office suites, hotels, serviced apartments and data centres.

I-City has also been declared a tourism destination and international park.

I-Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong said the main profit drivers at I-City will be the increasing revenue stream from ongoing and new property projects as well as upcoming leisure attractions.

He said the leisure division in I-City had been achieving double-digit growth since its opening in December 2009.

"In 2012, the revenue was RM32 million, double that for 2011," he added.

The Group expects the same growth trend for 2013 driven by increased attendance at the existing attractions, as well new ones.

"A new attraction in 2013 will be an Interactive Wax Museum, Red Carpet," Lim told Bernama.

He said the Red Carpet, due to be opened to the public in August, will provide visitors with close to real-life simulating experiences with renowned celebrities, political figures and legendary icons, among others.

"With an investment of between RM20 million to RM25 million, it comes with audio and motion automated figures of over 100 human characters.

"We believe the I-City theme park in Shah Alam is well positioned to tap into the tourism market," he added.

According to Lim, I-City attracts an average of 90,000 visitors weekly and with the completion of new attractions, it has the potential this to increase to 20 per cent more.

He said while the main revenue contributor over the past few years had been the leisure division, this is set to change in 2013, with the property development division, expected to set the pace.

"For this year, the group expects to launch phase one and two of the Residential Incubator Development project in I-City, comprising four tower blocks of MSC Malaysia status small office home offices, with retail components and ranging between 33 and 43 storeys each," he added.

The project has a total gross development value (GDV) of RM1.1 billion on 4.85 hectares (12 acres),to be developed over three phases.

"The first phase with a GDV of RM331 million is to be launched next month, phase two in August and phase three in 2014," Lim said.

As for 2014, Lim said I-Bhd is targeting a profit of RM100 million to be derived from both the property and tourism segments of I-City, as well as the luxury condominium property development project in Jalan Changkat Kia Peng in Kuala Lumpur.-- Bernama

Volatile rubber prices seen next week

Posted: 08 Mar 2013 06:34 PM PST

Malaysian rubber prices are expected to be volatile next week amid weak global economic sentiment, dealers said.

The dealers said the prices would be influenced by the key economic data to be released by China and the US which might give the cue on the demand for the commodity products.

He added that rubber prices would gain some support amid the dry season in major producer countries which would affect rubber production.

The local rubber market would also continue to monitor prices on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) as its benchmark.

Throughout the week, the rubber prices moved mostly higher in line with the movement on TOCOM and due to the weakening of the yen and ringgit against the US dollar.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board's official physical offer price for tyre-grade SMR 20 added 1.4 sen to 892.5 sen per kg while latex-in-bulk rose 5.5 sen to 622.5 sen per kg.

The unofficial closing offer price for tyre-grade SMR 20 advanced 16 sen to 897.5 sen per kg and latex-in-bulk rose 9.5 sen to 625 sen per kg.-- Bernama

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

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Jobs report shows 236000 more jobs, decrease in unemployment - Kansas City Star

Posted: 08 Mar 2013 09:15 AM PST

A surprisingly strong jobs report for February sparked renewed faith in the economic recovery despite looming federal spending cuts and the recent increase in payroll taxes and gasoline prices.

Unemployment fell to 7.7 percent last month, from 7.9 percent in January.

It was the lowest rate of joblessness since December 2008, when the financial crisis and recession first pushed unemployment above 7 percent.

February produced 236,000 more jobs than were lost, the report said, higher than many optimistic forecasts had expected.

Much of the increase came in key areas such as construction work, which posted its best hiring in six years in part thanks to a recovery in housing activity.

Employers also added to payrolls in health care, retail, and professional and business fields. The average reported work week grew longer in February and average wages rose.

Stock prices climbed higher on the news with the Dow Jones industrial average rising 48.66 points to 14,378.15. The Dow already had reach record highs this week.

Economist Scott Anderson at Bank of the West said the February jobs report showed the recovery accelerated despite the 2 percentage point increase in payroll taxes that took effect in January and the handwringing over federal spending cuts that began March 1 and are known as sequestration.

"Any way you slice it, it was a solid report on the improving health of the labor market at a time when concerns have increased regarding sequestration's impact on jobs," Anderson wrote in a in a first-look analysis of the U.S. Labor Department data.

The report was the government's first estimate of jobs growth in February. It revised downward its original report on job growth in January but raised is jobs count from earlier reports on December.

If the last three years offer any guide, revisions to the February report are likely to find more jobs than today's report showed.

For example, the Labor Department's revisions pushed November's job gains to 247,000 jobs, or 101,000 more than first reported.

Despite the upbeat report, some economists caution that the job market still has a long way to go.

Official unemployment totals fell partly because 130,000 more American's dropped out of the labor pool in February. And the long term unemployed did not gain ground in February.

The Federal Reserve likely will see no reason to let up on its efforts to boost the job market with its purchases of bonds and policy of holding key interest rates near zero.

"This is about half the rate (of jobs growth) we would require to absorb those unemployed in the Great Recession by the of the decade," said economist Michael Hicks of Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.

Chávez Funeral Has Begun in Venezuela - New York Times

Posted: 08 Mar 2013 09:10 AM PST

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Published: March 8, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela — Foreign dignitaries and Venezuelans continued their extended goodbye to Hugo Chávez on Friday as the government began a stately funeral that seemed designed to showcase Mr. Chávez's appeal to the powerless and the powerful.

Outside the military academy where Mr. Chávez lay in state, thousands of people stood in long lines with a mixture of weariness and giddiness: many had waited for as long as 24 hours and still were not close to entering the hall where they would have a chance to file past the president's body in its glass-covered coffin.

Inside the three-story white stucco academy, a solemn ceremony was being attended by government leaders from more than 50 countries.

As the dignitaries began to arrive Friday morning through a side entrance, to walk down a red carpet, the lines outside stopped moving. An announcement over a loudspeaker pleaded for patience.

The crowd outside cheered when Mr. Chávez's mother, Elena, arrived and she waved to them.

"I've been here since yesterday and to tell you the truth I don't feel tired," said Genesis Briceño, 22, an economics student, who had been waiting since early Thursday morning. "I want to see him."

Ms. Briceño was elated by a government announcement that Mr. Chávez's body would be embalmed and displayed "eternally" in a glass case in a new Museum of the Revolution.

"We will have him in there forever," she said. "We all will be able to see him."

The V.I.P. guest list included leftist Latin American presidents like Raúl Castro of Cuba, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, who were among Mr. Chávez's closest allies.

Other leaders attending include President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, a fellow member of OPEC, whom Mr. Chávez reached out to as part of his aggressive campaign to counter United States influence in the region and around the world.

The United States, which was often on the receiving end of Mr. Chávez's anti-imperialist diatribes, despite being the principal buyer of Venezuelan oil, said that it would send a delegation of Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Democrat of New York, and former Representative William Delahunt, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Mr. Chávez, 58, died on Tuesday after a battle with cancer. His body was taken from the military hospital where he died to the military academy on Wednesday. The lines formed then to file past the glass-covered coffin where the leader lay, wearing a red beret and a green military uniform.

Vice President Nicolás Maduro, Mr. Chávez's handpicked successor, said on Thursday that Mr. Chávez's body would remain on display for at least seven additional days before it was removed and embalmed for posterity.

Officials said that Mr. Maduro would be sworn in as interim president on Friday evening, although some in the political opposition said that the Constitution designates that the interim post should go to the head of the National Assembly, who is also a close Chávez ally.

Officials have said they will follow the constitutional requirement that new elections be held to replace Mr. Chávez. The Constitution says the nation should proceed to a new election within 30 days, but so far no timetable has been announced.

Mr. Maduro will run as the government candidate. His opponent is expected to be Henrique Capriles Radonski, an opposition leader.

Mr. Chávez used his country's vast oil wealth to carry out what he called a Bolivarian revolution, named after the indepence-era hero Simón Bolívar, based on Socialist principles and held together by his personal charisma. Venezuela has the world's largest estimated petroleum reserves and is the fourth-largest foreign oil supplier to the United States.

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Jumaat, 8 Mac 2013