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BUSINESS
Monday, January 4, 2010
Gas prices continued to climb in 2009
2010 expected to bring stable gas prices WASHINGTON: Gas prices continually climbed in 2009 and 2010 is expected to bring relatively stable gas prices, an AAA spokesperson said. Gene LaDoucer, spokesperson for AAA, said the agency is still seeing a weak demand for gasoline. “Going forward, I would think would keep gasoline prices somewhat steady at least through the early part of 2010,” LaDoucer said. “As we approach the summer driving season, we’re going to have to see what the economy is doing at that time, and what the indicators say for increased travel at that time.” LaDoucer said there is potential that gas prices could move considerably
higher if the economy improves quickly throughout 2010. “As of right now it looks like that isn’t going to happen,” LaDoucer said. “It looks like it’s going to be a slower recovery and for that reason I would expect gasoline prices would remain relatively stable or continue to move higher at a slow rate.” Dickinson resident Dustin Rau said it costs about $75 to fill up his truck’s empty tank. The prices haven’t really bothered him, he said. “I just drive to work,” Rau said. “When we travel, we usually try and take the car.” A gradual climb in gasoline prices during 2009 stand in
stark contrast to the price swings witnessed in 2008, according to a press release from AAA. The year’s lowest average price for a gallon of self serve regular in North Dakota was recorded on Jan. 2, 2009 at $1.69, according to AAA’s daily Fuel Gauge Report. The state’s highest average recorded price in 2009 occurred on June 21 at $2.74. The average at year end stands at $2.67. Barry Hagbom, of Townsend, Montana, said he travels frequently for work, but hasn’t decreased the amount of times he’s filled up. “I still have to get around,” Hagbom said while filling up at a Cenex in Dickinson Saturday.
If 2010 gas prices continue to rise, Hagbom said he probably won’t cut back on work driving, but possibly driving for vacations. LaDoucer said AAA is expecting a 15 percent increase in travel over last year in the west/north central region, which includes North Dakota, but is still well below the record number of travelers that was seen four years ago. “We’re not exactly sure what the weather did,” LaDoucer said. “Because of the two-week holiday, and most people drive, we expect that most of the people who planned to travel actually did, they just adjusted their plans a bit.” —MCT
Beijing beefs up effort to stamp out copy right piracy
Counterfeiting thriving in China despite crackdowns Japan to double credit
SAN FRANCISCO: Gas prices over $4.00 per gallon are displayed at a Chevron station in San Francisco, California.
BEIJING: While China has talked up its recent progress in stamping out copyright piracy, the market for fake iPhones and bootleg DVDs still flourishes, and its trading partners say it could do better. Late last month, the United States-consistently critical of Beijing’s failure to stop the illicit production of US brands-issued an annual report saying piracy in the Asian giant remained at “unacceptably high levels”. Analysts say despite official crackdowns and successful prosecutions, graft and weak policing
means factories continue to churn out fake goods, costing foreign and domestic firms billions of dollars in lost revenue. “Local protectionism and government corruption are the real issue,” Daniel Chow, a professor at the Ohio State University College of Law, told AFP. “The central government is probably sincere but enforcement occurs at the local level, and local governments have a direct and indirect interest in protecting counterfeiting, which is important to the local economy.”
BEIJING: A vendor sets up her display of counterfeit handbags for sale along a street in Beijing on December 31, 2009 near the Silk Market, an emporium of counterfeit goods from an array of vendors who used to sell on a street known as Silk Street, which was closed under the guise of World Trade Organisation rules on piracy, only to resurface nearby with the appearance of a fully legitimate shopping center. —AFP
Czech 2009 budget gap up to 7.4bn euros: PM PRAGUE: The Czech state budget deficit for 2009 outdid the worst expectations when it soared to a preliminary 195 billion koruna (7.4 billion euros, $10.6 billion), Prime Minister Jan Fischer said in a televised debate yesterday. “This is the figure we have as of December 30,” he said on the private TV Prima station. The finance ministry is due to announce the official figure today. The preliminary figure far exceeds the 2.04-billion-euro deficit approved by lawmakers, who raised the estimated gap from an original 1.4 billion euros in November because of the economic crisis that had battered state revenues. But the finance ministry already warned at the time that the final figure could be much higher. The initial 2009 budget was drawn up before the ex-communist economy fell into recession at the end of 2008, and was based on forecast
growth of 4.8 percent compared with 2008. The central bank now expects a 4.4-percent economic contraction for 2009, followed by 1.4-percent growth this year. In December, statisticians announced the Czech economy contracted at a 12-month pace of 4.1 percent but grew by 0.8 percent on a quarterly basis in the third quarter of the year. Last month, lawmakers also approved this year’s state budget with a deficit equal to some 6.1 billion euros, but they are likely to raise the gap later this month as left-wingers in parliament are proposing higher spending on benefits and welfare. The approved deficit is equal to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product, but the changes are likely to raise it to 5.7 percent of GDP, way above the 3.0 percent lid set down in the criteria for euro adoption, expected in the Czech Republic in 2014 at the earliest. —AFP
Egypt extends exemption on sugar import duties CAIRO: Egypt has extended the exemption of raw and white sugar imports from duties until June 30, the trade minister said yesterday, confirming a newspaper report which appeared last week. “Yes, this happened. It was extended for six months,” Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said. Egypt had exempted sugar imports from duties starting Aug. 15 until the end of December to control prices in the domestic market in light of record rises. Egypt ordinarily has a 2 percent duty on raw sugar and a 10 percent duty on refined sugar. The most populous Arab country consumes around 2.8 million tons of sugar a year, including about 1.6 million tons produced domestically. The investment ministry raised the price at which it buys sugar cane from domestic farmers by 17 percent this season in a bid to encourage local production. Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid has said higher world prices would push the sugar subsidy bill in 2009/10 up by more than 70 percent to 4 billion Egyptian pounds ($729 million). —Reuters
China’s counterfeit and piracy market is the biggest in the world and employs millions of factory workers, distributors and shop assistants across the vast country of 1.3 billion. Fake products are readily available in stores and on the Internet in China, as well as in overseas markets from New York to Sydney, at a fraction of the cost for the real thing. “Avatar” is smashing box office records in North America but can be bought for about a dollar in Beijing shops. Cheap copies of Apple’s iPhone were available in China long before the smartphone was officially launched in 2009. “In China, you can get enforcement but no deterrence,” said Chow. “You can easily get a raid but there are no consequences to the counterfeiter, who usually pays a light fine and is back in business in two to three weeks.” In his annual report to Congress before Christmas, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk-a key member of US President Barack Obama’s delegation for his first official visit to China in November — was damning. “Despite repeated anti-piracy campaigns in China and an increasing number of civil IPR cases in Chinese courts, counterfeiting and piracy remain at unacceptably high levels and continue to cause serious harm to US businesses across many sectors of the economy,” Kirk said. Kirk’s comments followed a decision by the US Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus to place China among the top five countries on its “International Piracy Watch List” for 2009. But Beijing says it has made “notable progress” in the war on Internet piracy and copyright infringement, state media reported last month, citing an official from the National Copyright Administration of China. Since August, Beijing has investigated more than 500 Internet copyright infringements, closed hundreds of illegal websites and fined those involved in online piracy 1.28 million yuan (187,500 dollars), the China Daily said. Foreign companies have also been targeted. A Chinese firm successfully sued Microsoft Corp for infringing its intellectual property rights by including certain fonts in its operating systems. And a Chinese author has launched the country’s first civil lawsuit against Internet giant Google for scanning one of her novels into its digital web library without consent. But many more cases of piracy and counterfeiting go undetected, said Victor Ho, a Shanghai-based lawyer with Allen and Overy, with understaffed enforcement agencies overwhelmed by the scale of the illicit industry in China. “It’s not easy to police,” Ho told AFP. A major hurdle facing Beijing in its battle against counterfeits is local government officials, who are determined to protect jobs and maintain fast economic growthseen as crucial for their own career advancement. “If the local government cracks down on counterfeiting, millions of jobs will be lost, not just in counterfeiting but in legitimate industries that support counterfeiting and millions in tax revenue,” Chow said. But as Beijing demonstrated in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in 2008, it has the power to stop the illegal reproduction of merchandise when it is truly motivated, Ho said. —AFP
line for troubled JAL Decision as airline shares plunge to record low TOKYO: Japan agreed yesterday to give a new lifeline to troubled Japan Airlines by doubling a state-funded loan for the carrier to 200 billion yen ($2.2 billion). The government decision comes after shares in Asia’s largest carrier plunged to a record low last week when investors were spooked by reports that bankruptcy was a possible option for the beleaguered airline. In November, the state-run Development Bank had set a credit line of 100 billion yen for Japan Airlines and has already paid out just over half of the total. The extra funding was agreed at a meeting of cabinet ministers including Transport Minister Seiji Maehara and Vice Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the day before the stock market resumes trading after a New Year break. “The ministers confirmed that we will have JAL rehabilitate itself while it keeps flying.” Maehara told reporters. Kan said the amount of the loan “enables JAL to cope with every possible circumstance.”
JAL, battered by the global recession and swine flu pandemic, is scrambling to slash costs and is seeking its fourth government bailout since 2001 in the face of mounting losses. Local media have reported that the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp (ETIC), which is overseeing JAL’s restructuring, is considering the possibility of the carrier filing for protection from creditors. ETIC is expected to decide on a financial package for the carrier in mid-January. But airline president Haruka Nishimatsu said in an interview with the Asahi Shimbun newspaper published yesterday that he was opposed to any bankruptcy filing and also had no plans to halt international flights. “Legal liquidation gives an image that will affect us and reduce the number of our clients,” he said. The airline, which lost about $1.5 billion in the six months to September, has said it plans thousands of job cuts and a drastic reduction in routes as part of
its efforts to return to profitability. On Thursday, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported that the government was discussing a plan which which would see rival All Nippon Airways (ANA) take over JAL’s international flights. But Nishimatsu dismissed such a plan as “impossible.” “Demand for air traffic, particularly in Asia, is rapidly expanding. It provides a tremendous business opportunity,” he told Asahi. JAL has been offered financial assistance by both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, which are competing to take a minority stake in the Japanese carrier, eyeing its coveted Asian landing slots. Nishimatsu said he was in favor of the airline switching to Delta’s global alliance SkyTeam from the OneWorld group of American Airlines. “Asia will have ‘open skies’ in the future... SkyTeam has many Asian members,” he said. —AFP
Protiviti member firm implements Asset Management System at NIG Protiviti’s Member Firm for the Middle East region announced the successful completion of a project for implementation of Expersoft’s PM1e Wealth Management System at National Industries Group Holding Co which NIG will use to manage its investments across different asset classes. Protiviti’s member firm provided end-to-end solution in selecting and deploying the asset management system for NIG. Hetaf Khajah, Executive Manager International Investments, NIG, remarked “Our decision to continue investing in information systems during a time of global financial crisis has paid off well. The PM1e system, with its powerful analytic tools, robust reports and risk measures helped us stave off major erosion in asset values over the past 18 months. Successful implementation of the system is another step in preparing ourselves to seize opportunities when markets emerge out of the current crisis. Our team together with the support of Expersoft Systems and Protiviti’s member firm have done a commendable job.” Khajah, added “We had an internally developed system to manage our investments. However, the system did not keep pace with our growing financial needs as well as the dynamic nature of global investment instruments and the often changing business processes. We quickly realized that we needed one solution that is readily available to meet the majority of our requirements. We appointed Protiviti’s member firm for the Middle East as our consultants to conduct a requirements study and find a suitable system / vendor. After rigorous analysis of all available solutions, (local, regional and international) we selected Expersoft’s PM1e portfolio management system. We were very pleased with our consultant’s work during the selection phase and decided to appoint them to assist us in the system implementation project.” On the project team’s skills, Khajah remarked, “Expersoft complemented their system with an experienced team for the implementation phase. Protiviti’s member firm provided project management assistance offering key insights in investments performance analysis and ensured knowledge transfer to our team. All these factors contributed to the successful implementation and migration to the new platform; what we have today is a system that is powerful, dynamic and robust, providing performance and risk management reports on the fly. What used to take us days, or sometimes even weeks, for generating certain key reports, now takes just about two minutes.”
Mubasher Sheikh, Group Financial Controller, remarked “Considering the successful adoption of the system by our International Investments team in managing the portfolio of diverse asset classes, we extended the system to manage the Group’s direct investments in subsidiaries and associates. In future, we intend to extend the system to cover our local investments and treasury operations, and thereafter integrate it with our financial accounting system.” Vedat Tuzun, Project Manager with Expersoft Systems Middle East, remarked “Middle East is a key focus area for us and we are delighted to have NIG as a successful site using PM1e. We are looking forward to a long term relationship with the Group providing value adds and extensions to the system to cover NIG’s other divisions and subsidiaries’ needs. The project included some region specific developments for PM1e product family, and strengthened our position in Kuwait and the Middle East”. Senthilkumar, Regional Managing Director of Protiviti’s member firm remarked: “NIG Management’s commitment throughout the project was critical to the success of this project. We are happy to add this project to our growing list of success stories in the Banking and Financial Services space. With our recent expansion in the Middle East region we are now better positioned to assist GCC banks, asset management companies and investment bankers in managing their challenges.” Protiviti Member Firm (Middle East) Ltd. is the member firm of Protiviti, Inc. (www.protiviti.com) for the Middle East Region. Protiviti, Inc. is a global consulting and internal audit firm composed of experts specializing in risk and advisory services. Protiviti, Inc is a subsidiary of Robert Half International, an NYSE listed company. National Industries Group Holding Co (www.nig.com.kw) is a holding company and has investments across various industry sectors and asset classes including real estate, oil and gas, financial services, building materials, etc. NIG’s total assets as of 31 December 2008 were 1.7 billion KD ($6 billion). Expersoft Systems AG (www.expersoft.com) provides leading-edge software solutions and services for private and retail banks, family offices, asset managers, brokers and other financial service providers. Expersoft is a Switzerland based company and has offices in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific.