DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia to form first life insurer” plus 4 more

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Economy and Finance and four private companies have announced a joint venture to establish the first life insurance firm in Cambodia.

The ministry and four firms had signed an agreement to establish Cambodia Life Insurance on Thursday, Mey Vann, director of the Ministry's Financial Industry Department, told Xinhua Saturday.

The four private firms are PT Asuransi from Indonesia, Asia Insurance from China's Hong Kong, Bangkok Life Assurance and Bangkok Insurance Public from Thailand.

"Under the deal, the Ministry holds 51 percent stake and the four firms own the remaining 49 percent," he said, adding that according to Cambodia's insurance law, it's required to have the minimum capital of 7 million U.S. dollars to open an insurance firm here.

Currently, Cambodia has six insurance companies and one domestic reinsurance company, all are general insurers, and none of them is life insurer.

"The Cambodia Life Insurance will be the first-ever life insurance company in Cambodia," he said. "It will help to develop the country's financial industry and also support the development of the newly formed securities market."

MANADO, Indonesia, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The ASEAN Trade Facilitation Forum opened on Saturday in Indonesia's North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado to facilitate faster and cheaper goods flow. "Since a few years ago, we, as ASEAN economic ministers, have been trying very hard to have better engagement and more effective engagement with the business sector because we recognize that you are the one that can really implement it on the ground," said Indonesia's Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu in her opening remarks.

She said that what the ministers have been trying to do in the last few years is to have sessions on particular sectors and particular issues which are important for business sector. "So, I hope this time we have trade facilitation as the issue because we recognize that this is the issue behind the border barriers to cross border trade as well as procedures related to customs and paper work that are needed to be addressed," said Pangestu.

She said that costs associated with paper work and cross-border customs maybe greater than 10 percent of product values. "So if we begin to address those issues, then obviously we can work at making goods flow faster and cheaper across ASEAN as well as our dialog partners," she said.

She also said that because paper work and customs are fixed cost, it tends to create bigger burden for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and add more cost in doing business.

"It makes SMEs of having less capacity to deal with uncertainty, " she said.

According to Pangestu, this priority will make sure that the region has more equitable ASEAN which means broader sharing of economic integration's benefit, especially with SMEs that become important tools to address trade facilitation.

Pangestu said that the ASEAN governments need input from business sector to make the goal achieved.

"What we do in the G-to-G level doesn't mean anything if we don 't get inputs from all of you, the business sector, because you are the ones who make it happened," she said.

BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- China should continue to tighten liquidity in the second half of 2011 against the rising possibility that the U.S. may adopt another set of loose monetary policies following its current debt struggles, an expert said in an article published in the China Securities Journal on Saturday.

China may hike the interest rates and required reserve ratios one or two more times by the end of the year to tackle the stubbornly high inflation, said Lu Zhengwei, chief economist of financial markets at the China Industrial Bank.

However, the recent U.S. debt crisis, which has unnerved the global economy, makes it more difficult to predict the timing of these moves, Lu added.

The U.S. is very likely to launch another round of quantitative easing to boost its sluggish economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve may simply be waiting for the proper time to announce it, Lu said.

China should modify its own monetary policy based on its own conditions, regardless of whether or not the U.S. will initiate a new round of quantitative easing, Lu said.

"Figuring out how to rein in excessive speculation without hurting the real economy is the biggest challenge for China," Lu said.

He also said there is still room for interest rate hikes, given the fact that the benchmark rate is still lower than it was before the global financial crisis broke out.

In addition, many enterprises saw their profits rebound in June, signaling that they can endure a further increase in interest rates, according to Lu.

China's inflation accelerated to a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July, putting the government in a tough position as it faces the daunting task of taming prices and ensuring growth amid a faltering global economy.

The rating agency Standard & Poor's, in a historic move, downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ last week due to concerns over the country's debt problems.

National Authority of AIDS/HIV in cooperation bus companies and civil organization working with AIDS/HIV on Friday promoted understanding about danger of AIDS/HIV to bus travelers, drivers through education spot on TV on buses and banner sticking inside the buses.

"We raise awareness of AIDS/HIV to bus travelers because each day there are hundreds of peoples travelling through coach and it is a good opportunities to educate and raise understanding about the deadly disease," said Ros Silvat, deputy secretary general of National AIDS Authority. "It also educated bus drivers about danger of aids/ hiv" he noted.

Meas Monika, secretary of state for transport ministry said: this way will help prevent infect AIDS/HIV in the country," . "We handed over some education sport discs to bus companies and drivers to play on TV inside the buses to tell about the danger of aids/hiv." He added.

Even Cambodia in 2010 earned award from UN in achieving successfully in reduce aids/hiv infection under millennium development goal but the country is trying to fight against it in all corners through bars, night clubs, and entertainment clubs, and sex workers.  According to health ministry, infection rate of hiv/aids among Cambodia decreased to 0.6 per cent in 2010, as in 2008 for 0, 7 per cent. At the same time, government allocates about $50 million for fighting against aids/hiv. 93 per cent of hiv/aid in Cambodia got the medical aid and treatment. In 1998, infected rate was 2.8 per cent.

HONG KONG, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury K C Chan said Friday that markets in Asia and China are relatively healthier compared with those in the United States and Europe.

Chan told media that the Hong Kong government was closely monitoring the market fluctuations in the United States and Europe. He believes market fluctuations in the United States and Europe were due to worries of recession and debt-settlement issues.

On the hacking of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited's news website, Chan said the listed companies' information should be distributed widely and fairly for the market's smooth function.

This incident had highlighted the importance of online security, he said, and he has urged the parties concerned to devote more attention to the matter.

HKExnews website was under sustained attack on Wednesday and Thursday. HKEx adopted a half-day suspension policy Wednesday afternoon for issuers announcing price-sensitive information on the website. The attacks on Thursday were only on its Internet news website. Derivatives and clearing systems were not affected.