Salary hike for Malaysian civil servants

Malaysia's move to give civil servants a hefty pay rise from July 1 will boost economic growth but could cause the budget deficit to rise for the first time since 1999, economists said. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the 8 billion ringgit (US$2.4 billion) additional annual spending, saying the country's 1 million civil service employees deserve the raise, their first in 15 years. Depending on their rank, wages of civil servants will rise by 7.5 to 35 percent, while the police and military will get an increase of as much as 42%.

"While the civil servants are celebrating the confirmation of the long-awaited salary adjustment, we believe the government could be having some headache now on its financial position," said OSK Research economist Sia Kit Ee. CIMB Investment Research said the government will have to do "some rebalancing" of spending in 2008. While the deficit is expected to rise, it said the additional spending could be offset by higher-than-projected government revenue collection. Sia said the government can ask state-owned Petronas to raise its dividend payments - already the second-biggest source of federal revenue after corporate and personal income taxes - or tap the capital market.

(2007-06-06 12:53:48 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

The party's over as LCD television prices hit bottom

wired.com :

Thinking of buying an LCD television set? Wait no longer: The price plunge is over. After years of accelerating decline, prices for consumer LCD TVs - especially those smaller than 32 inches - have hit bottom, industry insiders say. That's because the price of wholesale LCD flat panels has recently reached its lowest point and rebounded, according to market data research firm iSuppli. "Prices are going up like crazy. We expected it to be a tight supply, but it seems like there is something going on," says Sweta Dash, director of LCD research for iSuppli, about the LCD market. "In just one month the price increase has been really high."

At one point, the price of a 32-inch panel dipped below its own manufacturing cost, leading some manufacturers to leave the market altogether, and prompting others to trim production. The competitive state of affairs came after LCD makers rushed to maximize production in the early years of the decade, as ultra-thin monitors and televisions overwhelmed older technology unexpectedly quickly in the public imagination. Now manufacturers are culling production capacity and letting stockpiles fall fallow. In fact, screens sized 37 inches and less are now sold out for the year worldwide, sources say.

However, the tight LCD panel market is unlikely to translate into direct price increases at your local electronics store, according to iSuppli's Dash. "It has never been done in the TV market, to increase consumer prices," says Dash. Instead, suppliers are likely to absorb the price increases for now, deferring any increases until next year's models. In the meantime, don't look for any more big discounts. After years of tumbling prices, that might be just the way manufacturers intend to keep it.

(2007-06-06 12:45:03 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Build dykes to protect against rising sea levels: experts

channelnewsasia.com (backblog) :

Experts say Singapore can build a system to protect itself from rising sea levels due to global warming - they recommend dykes, or a sea defence system. As an island, Singapore can be affected by rising sea levels as a result of melting ice caps because of global warming. So the country is looking into the possibility of building dykes to tackle this problem, as disclosed by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at a recent dialogue. Singapore is tapping the experience of the Dutch, who have been using dykes for many years. Dykes are used to protect cities in the Netherlands, half of which were built below sea level. Dykes have also been used in countries such as the US and Japan.

But there are different conditions for different countries. "It depends, a little bit on the elevation of the land in Singapore. I think it makes sense to do a good study on this, to verify where land is prone to future inundation. Of course in Singapore you have a little handicap of finding fill materials," says Tjitte A Nauta, Project Manager, Marine & Coastal Management, Delft Hydraulics. Delft Hydraulics says that in the Netherlands, dykes are also used to create land from marshland and other water bodies, by constructing the structures to block off the areas and pumping them dry - hence creating what is called a polder. This model, it is believed, can also be applied to Singapore to create more land.

Nauta explains how it works, "Basically, it starts by building a dyke in the water system and then pumping it dry - the land within the dyke is pumped dry so that a land is created on the existing bed of the sea or the lake or whatever ... in the Netherlands we have created a substantial increase of our land ... by just building large polder scheme ... and they are in a sense a cheaper alternative to land reclamation because you don't need all the fill materials." But having to pump the water out also means more energy required, which may result in higher costs.

(2007-06-06 12:35:48 SGT) [Env] Permalink

Nokia Siemens Networks to cut 9000 jobs by 2010

channelnewsasia.com (backblog) :

Nokia Siemens Networks, the Finnish-German telecom networks manufacturer, said it would cut 9,000 jobs by 2010, or 15% of its workforce, including some 3,000 jobs in Germany.

Nokia and Siemens merged their telecoms equipment and network activities in 2006. The company is the world's third-largest telecoms equipment manufacturer behind Sweden's Ericsson and French-US group Alcatel-Lucent.

(2007-06-06 12:23:27 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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