ASEAN Regional News

[rahul medan]

Indonesia l JAKARTA | 2nd Inner Ring Road Projects | 69,77 Km

[rahul medan]

INDONESIA
Medan, North Sumatera
Kuala Namu International Airport Project & Development
Head To Head location with Changi & KLIA


The location of Kuala Namu in relation to the current Polonia airport:


The master plan for this airport (all in 3 phases):

[rahul medan]

Kuala Namu International Airport Project

[NOVO ECIJANO]

I've been seeing awesome new developments from our neighbor countries

[bright_shield]

Bro Rahul Medan. just want to remind you something.
There only limit 5 pics per-post for this thread. Exceeding the limit is strongly discouraged. So I hope we as visiting guests here can show our compliance to the rule.
Beside, I also think those advancement pics don't suit to the title of the thread. It should have to be relocated into more appropriate thread such as Asean development thread or at our home forum..

[d'.'b]

At least there's a change of sets of photos being posted here.hehe
I love the airport though. I see that it's a 4th tier city, what is the passenger capacity of the airport?

[Arvor]

I hate that airline for being so unfriendly to customers.

Fortunetely i have not experienced that, i think you said something about not being notified about delays or cancellation or something about refunds .

I don't think that such behaviour is unique to any one airline they all tend to try and wiggle out of things like this, anyway getting to use T3 for me is worth such potential risks im not fond of the other terminals .

11 August 2012, Sepang: Malaysia Airlines’ second Airbus A380 arrived in KLIA today at 3:32pm from Toulouse, France paving the way for the national carrier to operate daily A380 flights between KLIA and London Heathrow effective 12 August 2012.

I might be tempted to try this someday i like A380's on long haul .

[xxxriainxxx]

We need a new thread.

[Manila-X]

Link to past thread,

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...534406&page=51

[patchay]

Hi guys... many people here are still on holiday mood. Many others are back to work tomorrow but many more are on leave until the end of the week.

Anyway today had a dinner and was surprise that this restaurant serves 1 Tilapia for each person. I never had a whole fish for myself, normally a whole fish is shared with other family members (like Chinese dinners normally everyone sit together in a round table to eat the dishes).

Steamed Tilapia with Soy Sauce and Ginger Chunks

image hosted on flickr


This fish dish alone cost around 15 ringgit... which is really cheap for Chinese kopitiams in suburban KL today.

The other local Skyscrapercity forumer I had dinner with also has his own tilapia fish dish. (unfortunately theMod didn't make it today )

[patchay]

Deal or No Deal?

Superior Room Accommodation Only + Daily Breakfast: 3D2N Bangkok for 2 persons for only 248 ringgit all inclusive (Stay period: Aug 22, 2012 – May 31, 2013)

Omg travelling is getting cheaper and cheaper. The hotel is located near Rachatewi BRT station. One stop away from Central World and Siam Paragon. http://www.diamondcityhotel.com/location.htm

[boy_turista]

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is predicted to be one of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world in the next 40 years, according to Knight Frank and Citi Private Wealth's 2012 Wealth Report.The Philippines is seen to be the 6th fastest growing economy in the world between 2010-2050, with gross domestic product (GDP) at 7.3%.The Wealth Report's list of fastest growing economies is topped by Nigeria with 8.5% growth rate, followed by India with 8%, Iraq 7.7% and Bangladesh and Vietnam both with 7.5%.On 7th spot is Mongolia with 6.9%, Indonesia with 6.8%, Sri Lanka with 6.6% and Egypt with 6.4%.In contrast, the 10 countries that are predicted to grow the least in the next 40 years are Spain, France, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Japan.Citi research forecasts that developing Asia's share of world real GDP will increase to 49% in 2050 from 27% in 2010. Meanwhile, North American and Western European countries' share of global GDP will fall to 18% in 2050 from 41% in 2010.China's economy is expected to overtake the US as the world's biggest economy by 2020. However, India is seen to overtake China by 2050."Citi research shows that while China and India are likely to grow rapidly over the next 40 years, there are other key countries with promising chances for growth that do not necessarily match the traditional assumptions about where future growth will emanate from," Grainne Gilmore, head of UK Residential Research at Knight Frank, said, in the report."For example, Russia and Brazil, which make up the so-called BRIC nations alongside China and India, do not make it on to Citi’s list of Global Growth Generators – or '3G' countries. Instead, Citi includes countries such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Mongolia, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam on this list," she added.The report also quoted Citi chief ecnomist Willem Buiter: "All of these (3G) countries are poor today and have decades of catch-up growth to look forward to. Some of them, including Nigeria, Mongolia, Iraq and Indonesia, also have large natural resources that we hope will be more beneficial than they so often have been in the past."The Wealth Report noted that Asian economies, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, are projected to be the world's richest economies on a per capita basis by 2050.Singapore topped the list in 2010 and is expected to keep the top spot in 2050, when the city-state's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita would reach $137,710. Taiwan and South Korea were not even in the top 10 in 2010.Gilmore said there are now around 18,000 "centa-millionaires" -- those with $100 million or more in assets -- in the region covering Southeast Asia, China and Japan, more than the 17,000 in North America and 14,000 in Western Europe.By 2016, Southeast Asia, China and Japan are expected to have 26,000 centa-millionaires, compared with 21,000 in North America and 15,000 in Western Europe, Gilmore wrote, citing data from Ledbury Research.*- With Agence France-Presse**

[patchay]

A news that probably will not make into the main pages of our hardcopies. Nobody cares because it is not an Summer Olympic medal.



Malaysian emerges runner-up in Toastmasters International world public speaking championship
The Star | Monday August 20, 2012 MYT 8:21:00 PM
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...114&sec=nation

KUALA LUMPUR: Palaniappa Subramaniam, an engineering manager from Air Itam, Penang, has emerged runner-up in the 2012 World Championship of Public Speaking held by Toastmasters International in Orlando, Florida over the weekend.

The Malaysian had progressed through a six-month process of elimination in the world's largest speech contest, and became one of the top nine finalists from a pool of more than 30,000 contestants.

Speaking on "Finding the Right Shoes," he described his obsession with buying the right shoes and exploring the real need for them.

In emphasising his point, he wore two different types of shoes on his feet in the finals, according to a video posting on the Toastmasters International website (www.toastmasters.org).

A panel of 14 Toastmasters judges evaluated the finalists on a range of criteria, including speech content, organisation, voice quality and gestures.

Toastmasters International, founded in 1924, is a non-profit educational organisation that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of 13,500 clubs with more than 280,000 members in 116 countries.

Palaniappa is a member of the Oracle and Silterra Toastmasters clubs in Penang and Kedah respectively.

They are both part of Toastmasters District 51 in Peninsula Malaysia, one of 88 districts around the world, which is comprised of more than 260 corporate and community clubs in Malaysia.

American Ryan Avery of Portland, Oregon who spoke on "Trust is a must" won this year's competition while third spot went to another American, Stuart Pink of Massachusetts, speaking on "A crash course in creativity". - Bernama

[patchay]

Another Malaysian songstress making big waves in USA... but frankly nobody on the ground knows and cares.

Originally Posted by rizalhakim

CBS This Morning!, The no1 Morning show in USA....

Congrats to Yuna.... even though our Media didn't really make it BIG. Our media sucks big time.

[patchay]

ASEAN Entrepreneurship and Brand

Today we discover a well-known Southeast Asian aerospace company.

In fact, this company has cross-sold many of its products amongst ASEAN neighbors and is aiming to represent ASEAN in this area.



DIRGANTARA - the Indonesian Aerospace Company

Wholly-made or Joint Venture products:

[patchay]

Something interesting to share.

THE DILEMMA ::: Malaysia's manufacturing sector workforce now relies 70% on foreign labor

That is bascially how we retained global competitiveness in this manufacturing sector - by temporarily using cheap labor from somewhere else. (Some people called this "FAKE" economic empowerment)

So if low-skilled foreign labor stops coming in, Malaysia's vast majority low-end manufacturing industrial era is coming to an abrupt END. It also speaks alot for our local SME manufacturing companies that it is wake-up time for them to move up to high-tech manufacturing and reduce reliance on foreign labor by generating more productivity and sources of revenue in order to hire "more expensive" Malaysians.

So if you're an MNC Manufacturer, you might be thinking if coming to Malaysia is to employ Indonesians and Thais, isn't it better to go to Indonesia instead?? Well, in the past, our Govt's selling point was "Better Infrastructure and Maintaining Cheap Labor". So if Indonesia suddenly improves its infrastructure, it is not surprising if these Foreign MNCs will start to relocate like what happened when China took over Penang's mass factories.



Source:
- http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/m...-says-mustapa/
- http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/sport...yment-low.html
- http://www.mysinchew.com/node/62076



From Asian Economy and Business thread:

Originally Posted by wino

Financial Centers are being more and more competitive nowadays just as much as manufacturing..
Even Shanghai is vying to be one, and still getting lots of challenges.
Malaysia has an advantage on Islamic Banking though.. so Good luck.

Just a thought, Malaysia can't simply turn away from low cost manufacturing yet.. Demographic-Skill compatibility will be an issue.. these laborers cannot work as bankers.. there has to be a gradual shift to phase these out.

The problem now is our manufacturing employs 70% (certain subsectors are as high as 90%) foreign labor.

You'll be surprised that alot of small manufacturers employ people from Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan workers in their factories.

As of 2009, foreign labor already made up 2/3 of our workforce in manufacturing - mainly in the lower-end like assembly activities. http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/sport...yment-low.html

So if foreign labor stops coming in (like recent issue with Indonesia and Cambodia), we are just waiting to die.

[wino]

Philippines' dream of being a manufacturing hub already FADED decades ago. (due to very strong competition in the Asian region)
good thing there was BPO to complement our weak Industries.

Manufacturing is now an industry that is "come and go" and keeps on shifting from country to country.. thanks to globalization.

I don't think Malaysia will give up low cost manufacturing that easily (at least, until it is still profitable)..
but definitely a TRANSITION could happen as the country progresses... and at the opposite pole, or become less competitive.

Originally Posted by patchay

The problem now is our manufacturing employs 70% (certain subsectors are as high as 90%) foreign labor.

You'll be surprised that alot of small manufacturers employ people from Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan workers in their factories.

As of 2009, foreign labor already made up 2/3 of our workforce in manufacturing - mainly in the lower-end like assembly activities. http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/sport...yment-low.html

As the article suggests, these foreign laborers are actually a BOON, a blessing in disguise for Malaysia's economy and not inclined to be "a problem."

[rain34]

Remembering the strength of the human spirit.

[Nabartek]

Originally Posted by wino

As the article suggests, these foreign laborers are actually a BOON, a blessing in disguise for Malaysia's economy and not inclined to be "a problem."

Seems that Malaysians do not like working in factories. Well, without foreign labor, where would the MY manufacturing be given that the labor is 70% imported?

The problem is people from certain countries(not limited to Malaysia) complain about foreigners working menial jobs that citizens from these countries do not want to take? I think the problem with Asians is that we tend to look down on manual laborers. "Face" is absurdly taken, that the value and thought are hardly appreciated anymore. In some Asian countries, they hire maids to clean their homes, wash their toilet..probably because they don't want to do "menial jobs". In many Asian countries that have a "maid syndrome", they almost want their maids to work 24/7 for a wage worth peanuts.

Be thankful that there are foreigners doing hard labor job for spare money.

DH are a lot more cheaper than hiring cleaning services.

[Nabartek]

Southeast Asia, China and Japan are expected to have 26,000 centa-millionaires, compared with 21,000 in North America and 15,000 in Western Europe

Uhm, has the author of this one taken into account POPULATION? Canada has just around 30-40m, I think. US, around 300m, Mexico(yes NORTH America) around 100m. Not sure on Western Europe, but I'd put my estimate around 500 for the continent.

What we should be comparing is the PERCENTAGE of the centra-millionares to their respective population

NA:
30+300+100 = 430m

21,000/430m = 0.004%

China, SEA, Japan:

China 1B
SEA 500m
Japan 100

26,000/1.6B =0.00163%

Western Europe

15000/500m = 0.003%